How WandaVision's Ending Sets Up Spider-Man: No Way Home
With the ending of WandaVision, continuing and unresolved plot threads provide a setup for the next few MCU projects, including the forthcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home. As the storyline of WandaVision actually takes place several months before Spider-Man: Far From Home, most of the set-up involves the introduction of concepts and themes, as opposed to actual events - such events would be more than half a year in the past by No Way Home. Nevertheless, with a runtime of just under six hours, WandaVision has had more opportunity to develop the setting of the MCU than any individual film (or as much as most film series) within the shared universe.
WandaVision only just touched on the multiverse as a concept, but what it did discuss was telling. Taken in combination with the information given in Avengers: Endgame, it appears that the multiverse branches at key decision points. With Mysterio claiming a multiverse origin in Spiderman: Far From Home, it appears likely that whatever knowledge may have been disseminated by the Avengers or by relevant government agencies included the concept of such a branching universe. WandaVision took this one step further, discussing the concept of a "nexus," and introducing the Darkhold, the Book of the Damned, which appears very different from its previous MCU appearance in Agents of SHIELD.
With references to witches and the multiverse, Far From Home showed hints that at least some of the information from Westview has become common knowledge, if only in a background conspiracy theory capacity. This would provide some of the foundational information for the Mysterio scam, and as No Way Home hints at building on this as Peter Parker attempts to clear his name, it is entirely reasonable to guess that this will again be a going concern. Certainly "No Way Home" suggests Spider-Man may be worlds away from everything he knows and understands, but whether this ends up being literally true is yet to be confirmed.
Although some of the theories floating around about WandaVision proposed that the constant genre-shifting of the setting was a sign that Westview had slipped into a place between worlds, the nature of the Westview incident was later revealed to be an enormous display of power by Wanda. Nevertheless, some hints in the show still suggest the existence and nature of the multiverse, such as the Nexus commercial in episode 7. In the comics, a 'nexus' is a point at which all possible worlds overlap. Frequently, individuals of enormous power can also be nexus points, in the comics known as Nexus Beings, suggesting that Wanda's personal strength may make her such a person. A number of characters in other MCU projects could be "Nexus Beings", but as this is a passing reference, this is still fairly speculative.
Another significant hint in WandaVision as to the nature of the multiverse happened with the introduction of the Darkhold, a significant mystical artifact in the Marvel comics. A singular, unique work, it has already appeared in the Agents of SHIELD series and a few other unrelated Marvel TV shows, although it appeared very different in those iterations. While it is possible that the book may have shifted appearances based on the owner's expectations, it is also possible that this is an indication that this is a related but distinct universe. If that is the case, then Agatha may have had the Darkhold for many years, rather than having it as a recent acquisition (which the Agents of SHIELD timeline would imply).
While Spider-Man: Far From Home's Mysterio teased the multiverse as a hoax, the fact that it was persuasive even to former SHIELD personnel suggests that the concept is not a new one to those in the know. Just as people with either a great deal of knowledge and sorcerers can identify an Infinity Stone by name, it is possible that the reason that the Mysterio hoax was so successful was that scientists and agents in the mainline MCU have encountered the concept before or at least theorized about its existence. With rumors suggesting Andrew Garfield and Toby Maguire are posed to cameo in the upcoming No Way Home, and Jamie Foxx and Alfred Molina confirmed to be returning as Electro and Doctor Octopus, respectively, this implies that Spider-Man's upcoming travels may confirm what was originally a facade.
With Doctor Strange also following WandaVision, and cast to appear in No Way Home before his own film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it's distinctly possible that Spider-Man may be searching the multiverse with Strange, either to clear his name or to help to stop a multiversal crisis. Given that the end of WandaVision had a stinger that included Wanda looking through the dark magics of the Darkhold, and the prophecy that the Scarlet Witch is destined to end the world, it could be that she will precipitate such a crisis, or be the solution to it. Prophecy as a writing convention can sometimes be a matter of technicalities.
Whatever Wanda is up to, the order of sorcerers to which Stephen Strange belongs makes it their business to prevent extra-dimensional threats from coming to Earth. If Wanda is causing dimensional turbulence with her expenditures of magic or her attempts to plumb the Darkhold for its dark magic, Strange may already be on the case when Spider-villains from alternate worlds begin to appear in the MCU. Since Stephen Strange is based out of New York, he would be one of the nearest magic users to respond when such energy started to show up anywhere near where Spider-Man lives.
Alternately, with WandaVision happening in nearby New Jersey, Spider-Man and his allies may be seeking out a way to get to the multiverse in an effort to clear Peter Parker's name. The dimensional folding from the end of Endgame might have inspired the notion, and the Westview incident may mean that there is additional magical power floating around. If this is the case, Strange may be one of the steps along the way to Spider-Man accessing the multiverse, particularly since the synopsis for Multiverse of Madness mentions that he has been doing some independent study on the matter.
Westview may explain the witches and multiverse lines in Far From Home, but what capacity magic or the multiverse will play in the upcoming Spider-Man film is yet to be determined. What is known is that the hints that have been revealed in WandaVision suggest that the MCU is leaning heavily into magic and that Spider-Man is likely to be swept up in it in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see the fallout from the explosive events of WandaVision, as Peter Parker attempts to find his way home.
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