Evan Peters Had A Hilarious Reaction To His WandaVision Character's Twist
Disney+'s "WandaVision" offered Marvel fans quite a ride, starting with a historical overview of sit-coms starring Wanda Maximoff, Vision, and their two children. The "WandaVision" finale concluded the series by offering revelations about the town of Westview and Vision's existence as a whole, plus a magical showdown with the powerful witch Agatha Harkness. Among the Easter eggs in the series, one of the most surprising was the presence of Evan Peters as Wanda's brother, Pietro — not the guy who played Pietro in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the one who played him (and his superhero alter ego, Quicksilver) in the "X-Men" films from 21st Century Fox.
In the end, Pietro's real identity, revealed early in the finale, was a bit of a letdown for fans, who were hoping, as some Twitter fans did, that his presence indicated evidence of the multiverse in the MCU — and a connection between Marvel's universe and the one created by Fox. It turns out that Peters was playing a guy named Ralph Bohner, a random resident of Westfield that Agatha Harkness put in thrall because she wanted to be Wanda's neighbor, referring to him as her husband and taking over his house. She "cast" him as Pietro, too, but, in the MCU, apparently the fact that he looks just like a movie character from another reality means nothing.
Now, weeks after that finale answered many questions — of course, "WandaVision" left many questions unanswered — Peters himself has opened up about finding out his character's real name and identity.
Evan Peters 'started hysterically laughing' when told his character's name
Evan Peters opened up about the character he played in "WandaVision" during a Pace University conference recorded and posted on TikTok by user valeria.ped. "I didn't know his last name was Bohner," the actor revealed. "So, there's that scene where I'm upstairs in my man cave, and I'm explaining to her [Monica Rambeau] ... she looks at the headshot, and she says 'Ralph Bohner?' And I was like, 'Bohner?!' I started hysterically laughing because I had no idea that my last name was Bohner. I knew that from the beginning that he was Ralph, and that he was being controlled by the witch."
In the actual scene as it appears in the series, Peters' laugh is more of an amused chuckle. And yes, the name "Bohner" is a whole other level of joke — the perfect identity for a hapless bro who may or may not be named after Mike Seaver's (Kirk Cameron) not-super-intelligent friend Boner Stabone in "Growing Pains," one of the sitcoms parodied in "WandaVision."
Of course, Peters' presence in the role had other purposes as well.
Evan Peters' WandaVision character served another purpose
Evan Peters' appearance on "WandaVision" was also meant to help distract audiences from what's really happening. Show creator Jac Shaeffer noted in The Empire Film Podcast (via The Independent) that the casting was motivated by fan reaction and the desire to "mess with Wanda's head." She said that the production did some research to find out more about grief. "There's a lot about how people remember faces and the anxiety about not remembering the faces of your loved ones, that their images fade away ... or actively misremembering things as a self-preservation tactic," she said. "All of that became really fascinating to us. We thought that by casting Evan in the role, it would not only have that effect on Wanda, but it would have this meta layer for the audience, as well. That the audience would understand the emotional mind-scramble of this being 'close, but no cigar' for her brother."
While Peters' character's true identity may have disappointed some, it certainly worked well for this purpose! If only another season of "WandaVision" might arrive to give us additional insight, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.