The Video Game Console That Has Fans Pausing The WandaVision Trailer
WandaVision, the Disney+ series featuring the ongoing relationship between Marvel Cinematic Universe characters Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), remains shrouded in mystery. Even a week away from its January 15 premiere, we simply don't know much about what the show actually has in store for us.
There have been two trailers for WandaVision, and that means fans have been poring over and theorizing about every second of what they've seen thus far with a fine-tooth comb. For all the little references to past incarnations of the characters (including their classic comic book costumes) and nods to different moments in pop culture history, there's a surprising lack of the modern world that Wanda and Vision are hypothetically living in.
In the first trailer, we see what appears to be Wanda using her chaos magic to alter everything in her world around her, even her television set. And in the midst of all the black and white sitcom stuff and the very vibrant, contrasting 1980s imagery, there is something far more recent: a 21st-century video game console. Sharp-eyed fans who caught a glimpse of a Nintendo Wii hooked up to a TV in series' trailer took to Reddit to geek out about the discovery. What makes the appearance of the Wii so unusual is that, while it's certainly from an era closer to our own, it's still not exactly new.
So what's up with the Wii — and what, if anything, can it tell us about WandaVision?
Does the Nintendo Wii tell us anything about WandaVision?
The Wii is very important in the pantheon of Nintendo consoles. It brought a resurgence in the company's profits and marked a shift in how its console war strategies. After spending most of the '80s and '90s dominating the market, Nintendo began flagging in the mid-'90s when Sony entered the field with the first PlayStation. By late 2001, Nintendo would release its least successful console to date, as the GameCube fell behind both the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's first XBox.
Then the Nintendo Wii arrived. The Wii's focus on unique motion controls, gameplay with broad appeal, and a lower price tag than its competitors made Nintendo a hit again to the tune of 101.63 million consoles sold between 2006 and 2019.
What does all this have to do with WandaVision? Maybe nothing — or maybe quite a lot. Wanda and Vision have certainly had a tough go of things in the past. They were on the run during the events of Avengers: Infinity War and they were both killed by Thanos. Heck, Vision should still be dead! Maybe, as the Wii was for Nintendo, WandaVision is a second chance for the pair to come out on top.
It's also potentially relevant that the Wii came out in 2006. While superheroes certainly existed (Captain America and Captain Marvel were both doing their thing before the 21st century), the big moment when the whole world knew of a superhero didn't come until Tony Stark revealed he was Iron Man in 2008. For all we know, Wanda and Vision are hiding throughout different points in time where they won't be recognized as superheroes. From that angle, 2006 would be safer for them than most anytime afterward.
Whether or not an errant Nintendo Wii is important will remain a mystery until January 15, when WandaVision premieres its first two episodes on Disney+.