There’s nothing MCU fans crave more than a crumb of spoilers, so when Paul Bettany told Esquire that there’s a WandaVision cameo coming that hadn’t been revealed by an “actor [he’d] longed to work with all of [his] life,” they tried to figure out who it’d be. Of course, there was a huge chance that Bettany was trolling fans, but who doesn’t want to hold on to hope? We know by now that anything’s possible in the MCU. But Bettany finally admitted on Thursday during an interview with Good Morning America that he was just trolling.
“You know when you think something’s gonna be funny and then you say it and then you actually panic about it? Which is what I did, because fans started guessing who it might be and they were guessing people like Benedict Cumberbatch or Patrick Stewart,” said Bettany. “I was thinking ‘God, that’s a good idea!’ And they’re going to be so disappointed when they find out it’s me!”
His trolling was pretty clever, but Uproxx actually figured out that the cameo Bettany was referring to was himself last week. Writer Josh Kurp said it best, pointing out that in the eighth episode, “Previously On,” we learn that the Vision living in domestic, sitcom bliss isn’t actually Vision. But the real Vision comes back to life, so Bettany’s playing two characters at once. As Kurp wrote,
“Let’s revisit that quote: ‘It is an actor I’ve longed to work with all of my life. We have some amazing scenes together and I think the chemistry between us is extraordinary and fireworks on set.’ It’s totally Bettany talking about himself, havin’ a laugh.”
Dammit, Paul!
Okay, so we didn’t get the cameo, but the finale gave us plenty to make up for that. Not only do we get to see Bettany fight himself as the Visions face off against each other, but Wanda embraces her destiny as the Scarlet Witch, with a brand new suit to boot. There’s also a bunch of other stuff we can’t spoil! Even without that cameo, fans still managed to crash Disney Plus again. But the lesson here is don’t listen to Bettany when you want MCU spoilers. We’ll leave that to Tom Holland.
66 Comments
I don’t mind that it was a trollish move by Bettany, it’s kinda funny. Also people over analysis stuff the Nth degree, folks were never gonna be satisfied even if it had turned out to be Fassbender, Pacino or Stewart.
Captain Britain, played by Superman’s Henry Cavill, would have been an excellent “grab ‘em by the eyeballs” move. (And probably blown the WandaVision budget)
I like Henry Cavill, but part of me feels he’s trying to be in too many franchises* – DCEU, he really wants to be Bond, The Witcher. That’s not counting Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Mission Impossible, which he only made one film of for varying reasons.
*not that he’s stated a desire for MCU tbf
He’s giving Martin Freeman a run for his money.
The heads of the seven people who care about Captain Britain would have absolutely exploded at that reveal!
Hey, the MCU got several B and C-list comic characters some major boosts in popularity, mostly with a good storyline. Captain Britain could certainly be worked with like that.
Actually, if they could get good writers for him AND combine that with the natural charisma that Cavill has (and had been utterly smothered via DCU writing), this could really work.
No spoilers.But I’m genuinely bemused on the some of the more hardcore fandom forums that are losing their shit over the finale because it didn’t give them all their head canon. Looking forward to seeing the comments in the AVclub review.
It’s the same shit that happened with The Last Jedi: the fandom got too worked up over the expectations of where they wanted the story to go that, when it went into a different direction than they theorized, they got pissed.This is why I’m not always keen on fan theories. You over-hype yourself into expectations that the show wasn’t hoping for.
It’s amazing how many people were really expecting Reed Richards or other X-characters when the show really, really wasn’t about that.
They really got their hopes up when someone created that “No! More Mutants” meme.
There was pretty much no setup for them too, I figured at best we’d get a post-credits cameo.
This is one of the things I don’t like about how the MCU has developed- or rather the expectations around it sometimes.
Because it’s a big shared universe and they like talking up how connected it is, there are chunks in the fandom that almost feel like this is the only thing that really matters in the MCU stories. So we get all this speculation about how WandaVision will connect to other MCU stories- who will show up/ get referenced etc…and expectations build up with people speculating a throwaway line about a scientist must be setup for Reed Richard etc.
So some people just don’t seem to be able to enjoy the story on its own terms, and just treat it as something standalone, and when it doesn’t live up to the ideas they projected they feel let down that the show wanted to tell its own story.
Yeah, at first I did like that about the MCU. But as time has gone by I really appreciate things that can stand on their own. The endless tease and constant production of new content is bad for storytelling and bad for fandom. Things need to be less connected.
Agreed this is why I actually kinda feel comics (DC/Marvel in particular) should abandon the idea of continuity and just focus on telling good stories.
Having connected universes with their own continuities works fine for a couple of years- but the longer it goes on/ the more convoluted it all gets, the more I feel that in the long it becomes a limitation on storytelling opportunities and creating stories that are accessible for casual fans.I know it won’t happen- but I’d like to see what would happen if comics shifted to be about creators telling great stories with no worries about how they might fit in the 70+ years of ‘canon.’
Oh that’s totally how I read comics too. Either reading stories I know are good or small runs by authors. Trying to follow comics for years and years like it’s all one big story while things are constantly being rebooted and retconned is the worst kind of storytelling. Continuity should have become something that becomes optional to the author or needed for a limited story a long time ago.
As well as some other programs you and I have talked about in depth in the past that we have very differing opinions. WinkBut yes, I get bored. I like fanficing theories as much as a sensible person. But people really need to accept, what they watch or read isn’t their story. It’s someone else’s that they get to experience but they only get to like or not like it. Not say how it should or shouldn’t have gone.
You make a good point. It’s not the theorizing that’s the problem, it’s fan entitlement.
And early on, when you point out that their fan theories aren’t likely to happen, they get very defensive.
I always bristle at hot takes or YouTube essays that say, “Here’s how the story should have gone.” I always think, “Whoa whoa whoa, who gets to decide how the story should have gone? You?”
Story-telling is not math. You can plan and plot all you want, but there are so many moving parts in any medium that it’s kind of a miracle when it works. And while I’m annoyed with certain creative decisions in my favorite media, I’m not gonna act like my personal head canon is law.
My only thing with Last Jedi is that Force Awakens heavily implied there was something about her in particular that everyone but us knew about. But it was much better that she was nobody that what we ended up getting in Rise of Skywalker.
When the filmmaking team is running around saying that fans’ theories “suck”, then the expectation is the film’s theory will be entertaining.RON HOWARD SAYSIt was not.
I think the fans of Star Wars got pissed more because it was a pretty bad movie. I mean, there will be a lot of people that like it just because it went against the nostalgia craze we seem to be trapped in these days, but the actual story was pretty bad. It’s not that the fan theories turned out to not be true so much as what we got was like it was something made by someone who didn’t seem to actually want to make a mainline Star Wars film and probably should’ve been put in charge of a sidestory like the Han Solo movie.
For the MCU, we at least know that there is someone taking the job of managing the entire ‘universe’ seriously and has done a pretty solid job of it. It means that when fan theories don’t come true, its something that has been planned to happen and will coincide with future events rather than something that will be outright ignored the very next film. WandaVision tied a lot of knots and set up a good future for upcoming MCU films even without meeting fan theories. Plus there is still a lot of little things people might’ve missed as the episodes are full of Easter eggs.
More on TLJ:
If you break down everything the main characters actually did in The Last Jedi, it was a really, really, really stupid movie. The arcs of Rey, Finn/Rose, and Poe were basically them being complete idiots who somehow manage to succeed at the cost of many lives out of sheer plot-contrived coincidence over a period of time that makes no sense whatsoever. The film spent more time trying to subvert Star Wars tropes than actually having a plot and character actions that made sense. They went from a movie meant to revitalize the franchise that ended with clear signs that the Force itself was getting it’s groove back (and honestly leaned too heavy into nostalgia), to a movie that put more effort into a random war profiteering message than actually caring about the setup or being the mid-part of a trilogy. I mean it had some good visual design in the ending scenes but its like all the characters are holding idiot balls. The worst part is that it had some good ideas and just wasted them to try and tear down all the elements of the franchise. Rise of Skywalker could’ve recovered from the general lack of progress in TLJ but it probably would’ve needed to be split into two films to make JJA’s plans work (as is the entire film seems like two different movies shoved together and put on fast forward), which could never happen because of the whole trilogy framing.
So in summary: You didn’t like TLJ. Well I did, and many other Star Wars fans disagree with you. It’s ok to not like the movie but trying to No True Scotsman Star Wars Fans is kind of stupid.
Nope nope. I didn’t say I disliked it. Nor am I invoking No True Scotsman towards the fans. My ire is more towards Disney for not making sure the Rey trilogy was coherent as a whole. I said the plot/character actions were stupid. And I’ve fully gone through my reasoning before elsewhere.
If I was to invoke No True Scotsman, it’d be on The Joker.
This all came about because someone on Reddit used two legitimate spoilers to sell this entire narrative (which read like fan fiction) that all this crazy stuff was going to happen. The big one being WandaVision introduces X-Men to the MCU. So people were so invested in expecting some kind of setup for future MCU projects that they couldn’t just sit back and enjoy the show on its own merits. Nothing in the finale was out of left field or anything, the ending was pretty much foreshadowed in Episode 5.
This was Wanda’s story. It was a story about grief and getting over it. It really is amazing how many people wanted Dr. Strange, Smart Hulk, Reed Richards, Magneto and other white men to come in and save the day.
Pretty much the same shit.
Spot on… It could have been a three headed being with Pacino, DeNiro and Fassbender in the middle, while Stewart shows up as an extra and STILL there would have been complaints.
Fans: Ugh, too fan-servicey at the expense of the plot.
Also Fans: WHERE MY MAGNETO AT?
The lesson: Fandom is fun. Fans suck.
Magneto was in Wanda’s headpiece, it really looked verrrrry similar
When he said that I knew it was going to just be him vs him. And that’s just fine, they didn’t need to blow their big reveal wad in one season.
I spent SO MUCH TIME thinking about who the cameo would be, and I found this hilarious. Very few of my fan theories came true, but I still thought this finale was really done. There’s obvious set-up for future installments of the MCU, and I wish those installments were coming closer, but whatever. I’m glad I got this in the form it was.
This is the difference between the MCU and Star Wars. If this was some SW movie, the fans would be throwing chairs. But the MCU fans know this is all just tits and dragons.
This was such a weird move on his part, to deliberately raise false expectations about the finale and ensure that no matter how good it was, a sizable amount of people would be disappointed they didn’t get what he specifically said they would get. And there’s no way I buy that after more than a decade in this franchise, he didn’t know how the fans would react.
Believe it or not, he owes you nothing.
That has literally nothing to do with what I said.
I mean, reading that quote in full, I’m not sure how anyone didn’t realize he wasn’t being serious.
I was completely hoping he meant himself for the simple fact that it’s very clever.
Its not his fault the fandom is comically easy to troll.Honestly they’re why I don’t particularly like the MCU. Not because they’re “toxic” or whatever, but because they embrace the idea that every movie is an ad for another movie. So when every film and TV show has this furvor of “oh boy, this movie is going to be the first time we see this character, which is a set up for these characters showing up in a different movie which is obviously going to be a a setup for this crossover movie!” it makes it really hard to enjoy the stories on their own merits. It also makes it feel like you need to take a four-week correspondence course to actually enjoy something from the MCU – which is honestly an exaggeration if you’re not aware of the fandom but just want some entertaining stories that inevitably end with swirling light beams somehow.
I thought, for about a minute, that the cameo would be Dr. Strange, but then figured it was what it was, Bettany being coy. And honestly it was pretty funny that he was talking about himself.Great episode, by the way. I mean, in case anyone watching the show is thinking about skipping the finale.
WandaVision is still great, but Marvel’s stunt casting of Evan Peters is why people are feeling disappointed.
Because I immediately went to Mephisto from the after credits. We got Hex Vision imparting himself to White Vision. A Skrull alluding to Talos, and I still think there was a lot of F4 teasing.
We didn’t get a big cameo and I’m not even upset. We got confirmation of the Darkhold. We are getting Billy and Tommy back.
They should not have had Evan Peters cast, though.
They should not have had Evan Peters cast, though.I’ve gotta disagree with that. He was great.
I was a little bummed that he wasn’t actually being incorporated and more, that by doing this they made it more likely he won’t be.Was the Skrull talking about Talos or about Nick Fury? Where tf did white Vision dip off to? that made less sense than anything else in the episode (including that last moment at basically Tom Cruise’s cabin from Oblivion)
The Darkhold already showed up in the MCU in Agents of Shield, and then again in Runaways.
Heh, Bohner.
That is such a weird gag in context of the show’s reality.
Heh, vibranium.
Isn’t he that guy from Growing Pains?!
So I guess you could say it’s a case of Double Vision?
It always seems to get the best of me.
get out.
As a pro wrestling fan I can appreciate Bettany working the sheets, brother!
It’s not like they could possibly top Debra Jo Rupp and Fred Melamed anyways.
Should have been Kurtwood Smith. “Scarlet Witch? Scarlet Dumbass!”
Pahahahaha! Love you Paul Bettany.
SPOILER SPACE!!!!
So, let’s review:
No Reed Richards
No Emma Frost
No Nicholas Scratch
No X-Men crossover
No Dr. Strange Cameo
and all the other SFT-Stoopid Fan Theories that have been flailing about ever came to pass.
MCU prognosticators are more unreliable than Bill Kristol, apparently.
MILD SPOILER: was anybody else a little confused that after getting his memories back the white Vision just dipped? Like…smell ya later!
I love it. Anyone taking this shit too seriously needs to be reminded that its a comic book show about a witch and robot fighting another witch and robot.
Right? We aren’t talking about plastic potatoes and Dr. Seuss books here. That’s serious shit.
WandaVision low-key felt like Marvel using the meta aspects of the show to wink at the audience in a way they hadn’t before. Jimmy, Darcy, and Monica over-analyzing everything in the background in Episode 4 is pretty much what fans were doing in real life up until that point. They’ve been in the game so long they could set the fan reactions to music.
Everyone talks about Tom Holland spoiling everything, but if I was part of the MCU, I’d be doing what Paul Bettany’s doing; throw out fake spoilers just to fuck with ‘em.
This pleases me.
Bettany’s still deceiving us! From reliable sources that I’ve just made up, there was supposed to be a cameo, but the cameoed character couldn’t pay the Troll Toll. You’ve gotta pay the Troll Toll to land a WandaVision role.
The entire character of Vision is:- wow, he’s taller than the average person- oh, he speaks a different accent- he’s not as obese as most Americans.- … ….There is nothing under the surface. But now the MCU has made 3 versions of that!
Diaper-filling fanboy douchebags completely deserved this troll job. Well-done.