Why Aaron Taylor-Johnson Isn’t Playing Quicksilver In WandaVision
Aaron Taylor-Johnson was conspicuously absent from WandaVision when Pietro Maximoff finally made his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Instead, it was Evan Peters reprising the role, playing Wanda’s lost brother when they started wrapping X-Men characters into things. The questions are, and were, will Taylor-Johnson ever actually reprise the role, is Peters the now and future Quicksilver, and what exactly is going on in this universe? Kevin Feige gave a little window into what is happening here with Aaron-Taylor Johnson.
During a question and answer panel for the Television Critics Association, Kevin Feige was asked specifically about the casting of Evan Peters over Aaron Taylor-Johnson, as it were, and why one made an appearance in WandaVision and not the other. He didn’t offer specific details about contracts or timelines or even past entities, but he did intimate that the actor was very much considered during the process. He had this to say:
“Well, there are discussions on everything at one point or another. That’s one of the fun things about developing these things; blue-skying it in a room. My favorite part of the process is always the very, very beginning, when we’re figuring out what something could be and at the very, very end when we’re finally refining it and then putting it out into the world. So there were all sorts of discussions, but I believe we ended up going with what you saw relatively early on in the development process. Just another way that certain people were messing around with Wanda.”
It’s this last part of the quote that is the most interesting. Considering how WandaVision has played out, with a constant bending and rebending of reality (which is used very, very loosely here) there’s no guarantee that we can’t see both versions of Quicksilver at some point. Sure, in this recent sequence it was Peters, but that played out to show that as Feige put it, people were “messing around with Wanda.” With the addition of the Multiverse to the Marvel Cinematic Universe basically, anything is on the table. And it’s clear from Feige’s comments that they at some point discussed bringing Aaron Taylor-Johnson into the mix.
Feige is noticeably coy when talking about the direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, careful to never really give away too much while also making it seem like literally everything is on the table. That’s the case with this latest quote especially when it comes to Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The Marvel boss says they figured things out early, but he doesn’t say what they decided. Could it be that they brought this version of Pietro back only to show he was, in fact, dead only to bring along Taylor-Johnson later? That’s intense speculation but we are about to see multiple versions of Spider-Man in an upcoming film, so really anything is possible.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson didn’t make an appearance on WandaVision in these most recent episodes, but the show still has plenty of intrigue around it. With the “truth” of what’s happening starting to take a little more shape and things ramping up, we are also set to get another huge Marvel character wrapped into the mix as well. For what started like an oddball, one-off series that was turning the franchise on its head, this show is instead acting very much like the jumping-off point to something huge.
As with all things Marvel and its Universe, one should always expect the unexpected. It shows how they’ve always operated and what makes it such a singular and amazing entity. The willingness to bend reality and leave open all manners of possibilities in both plot points and character appearances makes it worth keeping up with every week. I doubt Aaron Taylor-Johnson does return at this point as Pietro, but one can always read into Feige’s comments to believe something different. Could the early discussion have been about his eventual return, just not right away? Heck, this is Marvel. It’s all on the table.
