Disney+ Hotstar will drop WandaVision on 15th January, as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) Phase Four. The series will kick off the release of nine other projects in 2021 alone – four new films and five other television series. The 8-part mini-series has already been at the centre of a lot of speculation, for two reasons – what direction will the MCU’s Phase Four take; and how does Vision return to the MCU?
And after all that, we might just have received a huge name drop for the WandaVision series – a hugely popular character’s inclusion in the series. And it appears that the finale of the show is when the character will make their dashing appearance!
Yesterday, a post by @jordanwearamask on Twitter revealed the “Strangest” thing – Benedict Cumberbatch has been listed as a cast member on Marvel’s upcoming superhero miniseries WandaVision on Chrome TV. Now normally, this would be a cause for huge leak-alarms among various distribution and production companies, which will cause them to panic and quickly get rid of the “spoiler”. But that hasn’t been the case and there hasn’t been any massive corrections.
So this could mean one of two things – Chrome TV has admitted that Benedict Cumberbatch will be joining the series to reprise his role as Dr. Strange (which seems unlikely as only Marvel or Disney would declare that for the publicity and the whatnots) or since Chrome TV is tied to Google, the inclusion of Cumberbatch onto the cast list is likely a programming glitch/ error in the digital platform (which seems the most likely). So this alone is not enough to convince many that Dr. Strange will be appearing in WandaVision (Check out the tweet by @jordanwearamask towards the end of this article).
Wanda, AKA Scarlet Witch, is one of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel comics. And it looks like Marvel Studios is planning on expanding her powers and showing off her skills in magic by having her create alternate realities in the web series. In all of the trailers and TV spots for Marvel’s WandaVision, it is shown that Wanda has little-to-no control of herself or her powers currently. So to deal with her or stop her from causing (any)more harm, an expert in magic, mystical energies and alternate realities will be needed to help her – the Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Stephen Strange. Of course, this is yet another speculation.
But we noticed a “significant wordplay” in WandaVision’s latest US TV spot (check the video as part of the tweet at the very end of this article). At around 18-19 seconds in the 30 second spot, Wanda says “Something Strange happened to me”, with a slight emphasis on the word “strange”. Might be nothing, but on hearing the TV spot a couple of times, it looks like Elizabeth Olsen was told (by the Gods of MCU, maybe) to add a little weight to the aforementioned word.
Sure, individually all three of the above-mentioned “reasons” of Strange’s entry make little sense. But when they are checked side by side, the reason why Dr. Strange is going to appear in this Disney+ Hotstar miniseries becomes clear. And with Cumberbatch set to reprise the role of Dr. Strange in the upcoming untitled Spider-man Homecoming 3 sequel and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which will heavily feature inter-dimensional travel and magic, it shouldn’t actually surprise anybody that Dr. Strange will appear in WandaVision. In fact, we think that it was a little dumb that we didn’t think of this theory sooner. And since Dr. Strange coming early can ruin the whole plotline between Wanda and Vision, it makes more sense that Dr. Strange will either swoop in late to save the day or help/ teach Wanda how to get her out of her current situation.
WandaVision will stream on Disney+ Hotstar on 15th of January 2021.