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“Recasting” WandaVision‘s Pietro with what at least looked like the X-Men movies’ version of same was easier typed than done, says the hit Disney+ series’ head writer.
At the very end of WandaVision‘s fifth episode of nine, a tense moment between the titular marrieds was interrupted by a knock at the front door. Their unexpected visitor was Wanda’s long-MIA brother Pietro — except here he was played by Evan Peters (of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix), and not by the MCU’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson (of Avengers: Age of Ultron).
The “recast,” as S.W.O.R.D. consultant Darcy called it, was at the very least a bit of fun, wink-wink casting… if not much more, since the nature of “Fietro” and whether he in fact represented any true merging of the MCU and X-Men movie worlds was never delved into. (In the season finale, titled “The Series Finale,” it was revealed that Pietro was in fact the heretofore-unseen Ralph Bohner, who in the pre-Hex Westview was a “man cave”-loving out-of-work actor.)
Being able to use Peters “was an enormous question mark for a very long time. And it took a while to figure out if it would be possible,” WandaVision head writer (showrunner) Jac Schaeffer told the New York Times. “It was late that it was finally confirmed that we could do it. But we were writing for it. Evan is such a chameleon in that way, that could play an amalgamation of [Full House‘]s Uncle Jesse, [Family Ties‘] Nick, and Joey from Friends. He could play those layers.”
But what if the film franchises’ assorted Powers That Be had decided that crossing the proverbial MCU and X-Men streams, even to such a small degree, was “too soon”?
Schaeffer said that oftentimes when you are told, “No, you can’t have that toy,” “You find a different toy that suits your show better.” But in this case, “there wasn’t a Plan B…. There were just very, very intense hopes and dreams, and they were met.”
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