Paul Bettany Reveals The Major WandaVision Cameo Wasn't Who You Thought It Would Be
The final episode of WandaVision is nigh, and in advance of this highly anticipated television event, Paul Bettany has gotten himself in a bit of trouble with fans. That's because since January, he's been touting the reveal of an exciting cameo, on the level of Luke Skywalker's appearance at the end of that last episode of The Mandalorian – and it isn't who viewers are speculating it would be.
"I work with this actor that I've always wanted to work with and we have fireworks together, the scenes are great and I think people are going to be really excited," Bettany revealed during the Lights Camera Barstool podcast on Jan. 26, as reported by IndieWire. "I've always wanted to work with this guy and the scenes are pretty intense."
He teased the cameo again in an Esquire interview from February 18, too. Following that, speculation about who this unnamed actor would be has been off the charts. It has encompassed everyone from Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange and other Marvel characters to DC characters and Dick Van Dyke himself. (He was consulted about aspects of the series.) However, the truth has turned out to be a bit less exciting than people have thought.
On a Good Morning America segment, Bettany confirmed that the cameo in question was made by ... himself. That is, himself as white Vision, when he appeared at the end of the eighth and penultimate episode of the series, "Previously On."
Was Paul Bettany trolling WandaVision fans?
Bettany explained, "You know when you think something is going to be funny and then you say it and then you actually panic about it, which is what I did because fans started guessing who it might be, and they were guessing people like Benedict Cumberbatch or Patrick Stewart and I was thinking, 'God, that's a good idea. And they'll be so disappointed when they find out it's me.'"
Following white Vision's reveal in last week's post-credits scene, fans started posting on social media how upset they would be if Bettany turned out to be the subject of the cameo appearance he'd been telling the media about. When asked about whether the cameo in question indeed involved Bettany plugging himself, WandaVision's director, Matt Shakman, told HuffPost, "I'm gonna let Paul Bettany answer that question. He dug himself this hole. He can get out of it."
This certainly implies that Bettany was just trolling everyone, as the media has been saying. But hope springs eternal. And, when asked on GMA if there actually is a cameo, Bettany pretended there were technical difficulties on his end. So, there's still presumably a chance that someone big will show up when Disney+ drops the ninth and final episode of the season on Friday to prove or disprove all the WandaVision theories that have been going around. But don't hold your breath.