This Marvel Moment Made Zero Sense, and We Can’t Even Blame the Multiverse

The Big Picture

• WandaVision, part of the Multiverse Saga, received critical acclaim for its examination of sitcoms and serious themes, elevating Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch.
• The Ralph Bohner subplot in WandaVision was disappointing in both quality and logic.
• The reveal that Evan Peters’ Quicksilver was a mind-controlled Westview resident named Ralph Bohner created many plot holes and was disapointing for X-Men fans.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has gotten a lot more complicated with the Multiverse Saga. The franchise now includes television series and special presentations in addition to the films, and many recent projects feature stories of characters traveling throughout both time and the infinite multiverse. While this leads to interesting storytelling possibilities, it has also made the franchise harder to follow. Most viewers can understand things like superpowers and aliens, but the concepts of different realities and alternate versions of characters, with some being played by the same actors and some not, can be harder to wrap one’s head around. Ironically enough, however, one of the Saga’s biggest mistakes so far is problematic partially because it didn’t feature a connection to the multiverse.

‘WandaVision’ Elevated Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch

The Disney+ series WandaVision was the first project released as part of the MCU’s Phase 4 and the larger Multiverse Saga, and it remains one of the most popular, having achieved a level of critical acclaim that only Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has come close to matching. The series was praised for its self-aware examination of American television sitcoms and its exploration of serious themes including grief and mental health challenges. The series elevated its lead character, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, to her current status as one of Marvel’s most beloved characters and a cultural icon. But one of WandaVision’s subplots sticks out like a sore thumb, an example of lazy and juvenile writing that contrasts sharply with the smarter and more mature material found throughout the rest of the show. That subplot is, of course, the infamous “Ralph Bohner” storyline.

Who Is Ralph Bohner in ‘WandaVision?

WandaVision explores a time in the MCU when Wanda, the Avenger who would later become known as the Scarlet Witch, used her magical powers to alter the reality of the town of Westview, New Jersey, and take mental control of its inhabitants, so she could live out her ideal suburban life (which was influenced by the sitcoms she loved as a child) with the Vision (Paul Bettany), her android lover who had been killed during the events of Avengers: Infinity War. In Episode 5, Wanda was arguing about the ethics of her Hex with the version of Vision she revived when they were interrupted by their doorbell ringing. At the door was a man claiming to be Pietro Maximoff, Wanda’s brother and the superhero known as Quicksilver, who was killed by Ultron (James Spader) in Avengers: Age of Ultron. But the actor playing the current Pietro was not Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who portrayed the character in Age of Ultron, but Evan Peters, who had played an alternate version of Quicksilver named Peter Maximoff in three of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men films.

WandaVision premiered in 2021, when it had not yet been announced that the MCU’s Phases 4 through 6 would be referred to as the Multiverse Saga. However, fans knew that the concept of the multiverse would be explored given the title of the Doctor Strange sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which Olsen was confirmed to appear in as Wanda back in 2019. Given this, and the mystery surrounding who or what Peters’ WandaVision character actually was, it was reasonable for many viewers to theorize that he was playing his X-Men character, who had somehow been moved from the world of those films to the MCU’s main universe. Peters’ performances as Quicksilver and the action scenes highlighting the character’s superhuman speed were some of the most popular elements of the X-Men films he appeared in, so many were excited to see the MCU continue his story after the Fox franchise had ended.

However, the series made the unfortunate choice to subvert these expectations. Later on, it is revealed that Peters’ “Pietro” was being mind-controlled by Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), a witch who had come to Westview in the guise of Wanda’s nosy neighbor Agnes to investigate the spell and attempt to take Wanda’s power for her own. Agatha used him as a spy to gather additional information on how Wanda was controlling the town. After Agatha revealed herself to Wanda and took her sons hostage, S.W.O.R.D. agent Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) attempted to sneak into the older witch’s house before “Pietro” took her prisoner. In the series finale, Monica easily escaped and overpowered “Pietro” and removed the enchanted necklace Agatha used to control him. She also found his identification, discovering that the house was his and that he was really a Westview resident named “Ralph Bohner.” His phallic sounding last name even caused him to laugh. Not only was the lack of an actual connection to the X-Men Quicksilver massively disappointing, resolving the storyline with a juvenile joke was out of character for WandaVision, which otherwise had much more sophisticated writing and humor.

Why the Ralph Bohner Twist ‘WandaVision’ Twist Didn’t Work

In addition, making the character just another Westview resident created several MCU plot holes. As he was seemingly just a normal guy, Ralph probably didn’t have superpowers of his own, so the super speed he used while acting as Pietro must have been given to him by Agatha. The fact that she had the ability to do so is both odd (as all her other powers are more supernaturally based) and very convenient (as it made it possible for her to create a successful impostor of Wanda’s speedster brother). Wanda accepting Ralph’s explanation that she was making him look different from the Pietro she remembered was also rather forced.

It’s true that throughout the series Wanda herself does not always remember all the details of how she created the Hex, but by this point she was already aware of enough to alter the scenario at several points to impede S.W.O.R.D.’s investigation and seemed to know that Vision was a creation she could control. Her not remembering that she created an altered version of her brother as well is hard to believe, whereas if Peters had actually been playing his version of Quicksilver it could have easily been explained that she was convinced of his identity because her telepathic powers sensed that his mind was similar to her brother Pietro’s.

In addition to the in-story inconsistencies, the Ralph Bohner reveal is hard to accept for viewers with knowledge of the X-Men franchise and its relationship to the MCU. The idea that there just happened to be a guy who looks exactly like the X-Men universe Quicksilver living in the town where Wanda created the Hex is ridiculously convenient. It’s also become even more glaringly disappointing as other X-Men actors, including Sir Patrick Stewart and Kelsey Grammer have reprised their roles in later projects in the Multiverse Saga, with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman also set to do so in the upcoming Deadpool 3. Aside from Reynolds, all these actors were first featured in Fox’s original X-Men trilogy from the 2000s. Peters, on the other hand, appeared in the series of prequel films released in the 2010s that started with X-Men: First Class. Actually having him reprise the role would have provided fans of those films with the kind of treat that fans of the originals and other non-MCU Marvel films, like the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies, have gotten during the Saga.

Future Marvel Projects Could Make Up for ‘WandaVision’s Big Mistake

It does have to be said that as sloppily as it was handled, there was a good reason for Peters to be included in WandaVision. Although the series is mostly about Wanda dealing with her specific grief about Vision’s death, it does also show the lingering effects the other traumas she has experienced, including the deaths of her parents and Pietro, have had on her. So having her encounter a Pietro impostor makes sense, as it forced her to deal with those traumas more directly, rather than suppressing her feelings for them as she had been earlier in the series. Still, the execution could have been much better.

Fortunately, as with many problems with the MCU, there is a chance future projects could retroactively improve this storyline to some extent. The best way to do this would be to create some kind of retcon by which Ralph could be revealed to actually be Peter Maximoff, giving fans a delayed version of the payoff they first expected WandaVision to provide. The projects where it would make the most sense to do this are Deadpool 3 or the WandaVision spin-off Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, although it could potentially happen in many others. A deleted scene included on the recently released WandaVision Blu-Ray implied that Ralph was the missing witness whose disappearance initially drew FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) to Westview, emphasizing that there are still mysteries and story possibilities open about the character. One just has to hope that if Peters is brought back again his next storyline will be better thought out.

WandaVision is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.

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