Written By Mikey Sutton • Editor-in-Chief • Owner
The Disney+ TV series WandaVision may be paying homage to classic sitcoms on the surface, but it’s also opening the doors to horror in the MCU. The following contains minor spoilers but the show is pointing towards a darker, supernatural future for the franchise in general.
In the second episode of WandaVision, a group of suburban housewives prepare for an upcoming local talent show. One of the women reveals that “the devil is in the details.” This may seem like a throwaway line; however, it isn’t. WandaVision is knee-deep in symbolism and references that hint at the true meanings beneath the veneer of weirdness and normalcy.
There really is a devil in the MCU, and he’s been haunting Marvel Comics for decades.
Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, Mephisto debuted in The Silver Surfer No. 3 in 1968. Named after the demon Mephistopheles from German folklore, he is basically Marvel’s version of Satan. He is the ruler of Hell, and he has ties with the Scarlet Witch that is seemingly where WandaVision is headed.
In the 1985 miniseries Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff used parts of Mephisto’s soul to help breathe life into her twin children. She is pregnant on the series.
On WandaVision, the “devil is in the details” with the startling streaks of red that break through the black-and-white images. Mephisto is definitely waiting in the wings. In December, I reported how Mephisto would tie Spider-Man 3 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness together. I said then that it all begins with WandaVision.
But there’s a bigger picture being illustrated in WandaVision.
The presence of Mephisto leads the way to the forbidden caverns of the MCU where night terrors roam. With the Blade reboot officially announced and currently in active development, the seeds of Marvel Studios’ entry into horror are being planted and displayed in plain sight.
While 2016’s Doctor Strange flirted with the macabre, the arrival of Mephisto means that all hell will be breaking loose. MCU head Kevin Feige always has a roadmap to the future, and WandaVision has a compass looking to the occult.