Let’s talk about Peter or Pietro or Quicksilver or Whatever
Back when multiple movie companies owned different parts of the Marvel Universe, there were three leading players. Fox-owned the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, including Wolverine and Deadpool) among other projects. Sony-owned Spider-Man and Venom. There are other players, but they do not hold much stake and would confuse this discussion.
The world of Marvel Movies looked something like this:
With Marvel Studios owning the lion’s share of the marvel superhero properties, this was the working agreement until Disney, who already owned Marvel Studios, purchased 20th Century Fox and changed everything.
Disney buying Fox was welcome news, but it didn’t come without consequences, especially for Quicksilver.
This is approximately how it looks now:
You see, Quicksilver and his sister Wanda Maximoff, aka The Scarlett Witch, are mutants. When Fox purchased the rights to the X-Men, all of the characters typically associated with them also came, and of course, anyone considered Mutants.
“All mutants have a genetic mutation called an X-Gene that causes their bodies to develop abilities that regular humans, homo sapiens, are unable to. The majority of mutants develop these abilities, which vary from person to person, usually upon puberty, though there are some mutants who display powers and/or physical mutations from birth, or in their twenties.” ―https://x-men.fandom.com/wiki/Mutants
In the comics, Wanda Maximoff and Quicksilver are both mutants. But they are also both Avengers, which is where things get complicated.
Marvel Studios owned the rights to all of the Avengers and their associated heroes, villains, and other characters. If Wanda and Pietro/Peter are mutants, they belong to the X-Men/Fox world. How can they also exist in the Avengers movies? Well, Marvel did something very interesting The Fox company used Quicksilver for their movie, “The Days of Future Past,” as a mutant, calling him Peter Maximoff. He, of course, is a Mutant (Fox chose not to introduce Wanda).
At the same time, Marvel Studios introduced Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff, briefly at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and more fully in Avenger’s: Age of Ultron.
Watching this clip, you will learn that Hydra, who acquired Loki’s staff after the first Avengers movie’s events, has been experimenting on humans. All of those they experimented on perished except two, Wanda and her brother Pietro. If you remember, Loki’s staff contained the Mind Stone.
Instead of introducing the twins as “Mutants,” which would have broken their contract with Fox, Marvel introduced the twins as two individuals who gained their powers from the Mind Stone.
FYI, without explaining anything about mutants, Marvel left the door open. It would have been effortless to say that Wanda and her brother survived because they had the genetic structure. But I digress.
So, it was clean we had Wanda and Pietro fighting alongside the Avengers in one universe and Peter Maximoff fighting alongside the X-Men in another. No problems, right? Well, not until Disney purchased Fox.
Marvel fans everywhere rejoiced to see the two worlds come under the full Marvel Studios umbrella, and immediate speculation began as to how and when the X-Men, along with the other Fox-owned properties like Fantastic Four, would join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And with that speculation came some intriguing questions about individual characters from Wolverine to Deadpool, and of course Quicksilver.
Well, that answer finally came, kinda.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pietro Maximoff or Quicksilver, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, died near the end of Avenger’s: Age of Ultron. But in the Marvel Fox Universe, Peter Maximoff or Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, continued to live.
Two weeks ago, at the end of the fifth episode of WandaVision, Pietro Maximoff returned to visit his sister, who she hadn’t seen since Ultron killed him. Only it was Pietro Maximoff, not played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson but Even Peters.
“She recast Pietro?” ―Darcy Lewis, Played by Kat Dennings, WandaVision Episode 5
And it gets stranger from there because this version of Quicksilver seems to have the memories of the Pietro from the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and not the memories from the Marvel Fox Universe. But his personality is much more like the Quicksilver from Fox.
Which one is it? Is it really Quicksilver or is there something else going on? I guess we will find out soon.
Crazy huh!
By Andrew J. Mair
Sources:
https://x-men.fandom.com/wiki/Mutants https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/23/18274308/avengers-x-men-deadpool-disney-fox-timeline-marvel-movies-mcu-sony-spider-man https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a35552948/wandavision-commercials-easter-eggs-meanings-explained/ https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Agatha_Harkness https://www.cbr.com/wandavision-revealwandavision-residents-westview-outskirts-barely-alive/
