The following story gets into HEAVY spoilers for episode 6 of WandaVision, so do NOT read forward if you haven’t yet caught up with the show, and its latest installment.
The Hex is an anomaly in WandaVision. From what we know about it, it was created by Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) to establish a safe zone of artificial reality where she and her soul mate, Vision (Paul Bettany), could live out the happily ever after that Thanos (Josh Brolin) took from them after he plucked the Mind Stone out of Vision’s forehead. The Hex is made up of “a colossal amount of CMBR,” according to Kat Dennings’ plucky Darcy Lewis. That stands for Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, and it traces back to the Big Bang, as we learned in episode four. At the end of this latest episode, Wanda expanded her Hex for the purpose of getting Vision back inside of it.
And in the process? I think she just acted as the “Big Bang” moment for mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In order to understand how I got to this conclusion, you have to reply a conversation that Darcy had with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) earlier in episode six. Monica’s primed to reenter the Hex, and is on her way to meet a mysterious contact who she thinks can get her past Wanda’s CMBR layer. Only, Darcy warns that going back into the Hex is a bad idea, telling Monica:
Hayward has your blood work. You’ve gone through the boundary twice already, Monica. The energy inside has rewritten your cells on a molecular level twice. It’s changing you.
So people who go inside the Hex get changed on a molecular level. And at the end of this episode, Wanda used her immense powers to expand out the circumference of the Hex to include hundreds, if not thousands, of more innocent residents of Westview and its surrounding New Jersey suburb. Will all of those people who are now inside of Wanda’s Hex change on a molecular level, as well?
Will they become mutants?
Mutation, in the Marvel Comics, is a genetic change in an individual that grants them powers. Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, can shoot ray beams out of his eyeballs at all times, forcing him to wear a visor that protects innocents. Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, manipulates ice and cold by freezing water vapor that’s around him at all time. Mutants are often superpowered. They are also often outcasts, feared by a society who doesn’t like the fact that they are different.
Marvel fans have been wondering how the MCU was going to introduce mutants once Disney took over 20th Century Fox, the studio that owned the cinematic rights to The X-Men and the bulk of the mutant population. I believe we just witnessed how they plan on introducing the concept of mutants. I think some of the people who end up in Wanda’s Hex are going to have their cells rewritten on a molecular level. It will give them powers akin to the mutant gene.
And they may resent it.
One of the things about mutants in Marvel is that they are born with their mutation. They didn’t choose it, and they often grapple with the curiosity of how different -- or better -- their lives might have been if they didn’t have to be a mutant. Rogue, as an example, can’t touch people skin to skin without absorbing their powers and thoughts, so she hides her skin under clothing and gloves. She often longs for the touch of a loved one, but her mutation keeps her at arm’s length. And she hates it.
Imagine how innocent people would feel if they were pulled into Wanda’s Hex, even though she was doing it to “save” Vision, and the CMBR permanently changed them into the MCU’s version of mutants? Some might love it. Most would resent it.
Even before Wanda expanded the Hex to sweep up countless more innocents, Darcy was noticing on Hayward’s radar that there were numerous people on the fringe of Wanda’s simulation that weren’t part of the main event, and were occupying some mental limbo. One woman shed a tear, as you could imagine she was aware of the fact that she was trapped in Wanda’ sitcom recreation, but was powerless to stop it. Any of these individuals could have their cells “rewritten” and come out on the other side as members of a new society indirectly created by Wanda Maximoff that now identify as the MCU’s version of mutants.
This makes sense because Wanda and Pietro (Evan Peters) ARE supposed to be mutants. Their origin was tweaked in Avengers: Age of Ultron to say that their extraordinary powers were the product of the Mind Stone, and that can still be the case. But this is a path forward that connects the MCU’s mutants to Scarlet Witch, which feels appropriate. It also solves the issue of having to introduce an existing team of mutants who can form the X-Men. Having mutants all be the victim of Wanda’s rash decision to expand her Hex adds a tragic layer to the mutation. It’s a little bit of a throwback to the mistake she made in Lagos, when she exploded a building trying to contain Crossbones (Frank Grillo).
And you remember the paper towel commercial from episode five?
Lagos! For when you make a mess you didn’t mean to.
Like, you know, inadvertently creating a race of mutations just because you were trying to protect your dead lover!
I’ll take this one step further, and kind of pray that this happens, but it’s a bit of a reach, so don’t get too discouraged if I’m way off and grasping at straws. But there currently are three individuals in WandaVision who have been mentioned in passing, but who have not yet shown up, and they could become very important characters if the Hex is turning people into mutants (as I suggest). One is an aerospace engineer who Monica wanted to contact when she cooked up a plan to contain Wanda’s perimeter. The other is this mysterious contact that Monica and Jimmy were on their way to go meet, who could get Rambeau back inside the Hex.
The third, and final, mysterious individual is the person in Witness Protection who Jimmy Woo (Randall Parks) came to Westview to find in the first place. This takes us all the way back to episode four, when Jimmy met Monica outside of the anomaly because a witness he’d planted in Westview had flown the coop. Jimmy contacted known associates, but no one remembered this person even existed. We’ve heard nothing about that person ever since.
What if that person’s name is Charles Xavier?
Imagine if WandaVision served as the origin story for not just mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also an introduction of the most powerful mutant, and the inherent leader of this community? Elizabeth Olsen earlier had teased that WandaVision was sitting on a massive cameo, comparable to Luke Skywalker showing up on The Mandalorian. Charles Xavier showing up in the MCU would be an equivalent.
I’m probably getting too far ahead of myself, and of this show. If my mutant theory is wrong, then Charles Xavier isn’t happening. But episode six sure feels like it was sending us down this path, and with three episodes left to go in this season, that would make WandaVision a true MCU game changer. Share your thoughts on the possibility that Wanda just created mutants in the MCU, and keep it here for all of the best WandaVision content.
