A Treatise on Bohner

This post contains spoilers for the entire season of WANDAVISION. Turn back now if you don’t want to be spoiled.

There seems to be a lot of Marvel fans out there that are disappointed with Evan Peters’ recent role in WandaVision: Ralph Bohner, an approximation of Pietro Maximoff (aka Quicksilver aka Fietro) who turns out to be little more than an illusion by the villain of the series, Agatha Harkness.

As I chatted with friends about the matter on Discord this morning, my thoughts and feelings became a lot clearer. Sadly, they’re sick of me talking about it, so I’m here on medium typing it out instead. I’m not here to invalidate anyone’s feelings on the matter, but I was also a bit lost on how to feel about the issue as the series ended.

The crux of the disappointment fans are voicing seems to be that they were beguiled by Peters’ particular appearance as Pietro since he played this same character (or rather a version of this character) in the 20th Century Fox series of X-Men films. His appearance in this show — coupled with mentions of the multiverse in Spider-Man: Far From Home, the announcement of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and many casting rumors swirling around that movie — gave fans false hope that WandaVision was about to crack the multiverse wide open in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Everything was up for grabs. Would Sir Ian McKellan waltz his way out of a crack in the multiverse at the end of the series to tell Wanda about the true source of her powers? It certainly felt possible after Wanda’s front door opened and it turned out Evan Peters was on the other side of it.

Sadly for some, that didn’t happen. I also realized the possibilities and part of me is disappointed that some of the more off-the-wall theories did not come to pass. But I think some fans are missing the forest for the trees when it comes to Fietro’s role in the series and the trick that pulled the wool over their eyes.

By the end of the show we know and realize that WandaVision is a story about Wanda’s grief and Agatha’s quest for Wanda’s power. With that over-simplified summation of the show, I think it stands to reason why Quicksilver (or an approximation thereof) would have a place in this story. Agatha exploits Wanda’s past and uses it against her as a way to try and soften her defenses. Before Wanda realizes that the Pietro in front of her is not really the Pietro who was killed in Sokovia, he probes her with questions about the Hex and why she’s doing what she’s doing. It’s Agatha’s way of trying to extract information out of Wanda without showing her hand. Ultimately, it’s unsuccessful and Agatha ends up having to do it herself in eighth episode of the series. But in a show where we revisit Wanda’s past trauma and how she is dealing with grief, it makes sense that the villain would exploit her knowledge of Wanda’s past to get what she actually wants.

So from a narrative perspective, I think the inclusion of Quicksilver makes sense, but why did they have to pick Evan Peters to do it?

The mystery-box format of this show begs viewers to ask what is happening and how will it all end, and as such the inclusion of red herrings is not surprising and, frankly, expected. But there is a particular genius to this red herring, and that is the casting of Evan Peters as Pietro. If, instead of Evan Peters, Aaron Taylor-Johnson returned to the role of Pietro Maximoff after being killed in Avengers: Age of Ultron, I think his role in the story would’ve had a much different effect. The questions would be ‘How is he alive?’ or ‘Is he actually alive?’. But by using Evan Peters instead, the question becomes ‘How has Pietro broken free from the shackles of the multiverse?’. Those are not functionally equivalent as red herrings, one has much greater implications that haven’t really been explored in the MCU as of yet.

In the end, the answer is that he isn’t from another universe in the multiverse. If Taylor-Johnson was there, he likely wouldn’t have been ‘revived’, it would’ve been a different kind of trick up Agatha’s sleeve. They even comment on this in the beginning of the eighth episode where Agatha mentions the difficulties of retrieving a dead body that was on a chunk of land being hurtled toward the Earth. By using Evan Peters instead, fans’ heads swirled about the possibilities which ultimately appears to have set many up for disappointment. But there’s a really unique phenomenon going on here that likely isn’t possible outside of Marvel media (save for DC Comics and their media) where the powers-that-be in the production of WandaVision leveraged fans’ outside knowledge of the universe to pull off an extremely effective red herring. It’s a laser-focused, metatextual jab at those who (1) were aware of Peters’ previous appearance in the Fox X-Men films, (2) know of the Marvel multiverse and what potential implications it could’ve had on this story, and (3) are up to speed on casting rumors for the next Doctor Strange film.

I think it’s quite the feat. Especially considering that these two versions of Quicksilver entered the same tier of popular culture (summer blockbuster action films) about a year apart. That’s an extremely unique situation that I don’t think DC productions have come close to, even if you look at the Arrowverse and recent film offerings.

I hope in reading this it leads some people to realize Quicksilver’s actual utility in the story and why the casting is interesting on another (narratively applicable) level. I get it if you’re mad the show is a mystery box. I also get it if you hate the fact that red herrings exist as a narrative device. But this was one hell of a red herring. One that probably lined up too well for Jac Shaeffer, Matt Shakman, and Kevin Feige to say no to.

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I will say two final things:

I do think it’s a little disappointing that the English [Audio Description] captions/audio track literally refers to Peters as:

the version of Pietro from the X-Men Films.

It’s also quite convenient that Jimmy Woo and the SWORD team don’t have enough time to discover that Ralph Bohner is playing the part of Pietro despite the dossiers assembled on other town residents that have appeared in the show. This has led some to believe that Bohner could be Woo’s protected witness that he’s trying to check up on as we saw in the third episode. Personally I think that’s reading a little too far into it, but that’s what got us here anyway, right?