What To Expect When You’re Expecting Superheroes: A Guide To Billy and Tommy Maximoff
At the end of Wanda Maximoff’s so-fast-it-makes-my-heart-palpitate pregnancy in WandaVision, she gives birth to twin boys named Billy and Tommy. By the looks of it, they’re about 2-3 months old when they’re born. That could be because Hollywood almost never makes newborns actually look like newborns. Alternatively, it could be a sign of Wanda’s sitcom-verse reality moving so quickly it begins to crumble around her. We just don’t know!
Here’s what we do know: The Marvel Cinematic Universe is bringing Billy and Tommy into the fray for a reason. They’re well-known, well-liked characters in the Marvel comics, and their existence in the MCU opens up enormous questions about the future of the franchise. Before we start speculating, here’s what’s important to understand about the Maximoff kiddos.
Billy and Tommy have superpowers.
Marvel Studios/Disney+
Like their mother and father, Billy and Tommy have superhuman skills, which could make raising them in the “normal” suburb of Westview a challenge. (It’s safe to guess that will factor into the Brady Bunch-esque humor of the next few episodes.) In the comics, Billy Maximoff has reality-warping abilities à la his mother, Scarlet Witch, while Tommy can run as fast as his deceased uncle Pietro. Notably, neither of them seem to share any abilities with their father, Vision.
Which makes us wonder if…
They might’ve been crafted from shards of a demon’s soul.
Concerning, I know!
So far, the MCU hasn’t dipped its toe too deep into the mythological components of the Marvel comics universe, apart from its Thor- and Loki-centric storyline. But Marvel has long loved creating larger-than-life villains that take the form of demons, gods, and goddesses (and cosmic entities that like to eat planets whole). So it’s not a stretch to think WandaVision might shepherd in some new, more otherworldly villains. Which brings us to the demonic Mephisto.
Many fans believe Mephisto will be WandaVision’s ultimate big bad. In the comics, Wanda is so desperate to have children with her android husband Vision that she creates a false pregnancy, then uses her magic to conjure her two twins into existence. What she doesn’t learn until later is that she pulled Billy and Tommy’s souls from shards of Mephisto’s soul, imbuing them with something evil. When Mephisto comes to reclaim those soul shards, the twins disappear, effectively “dying” and sending Wanda spiraling into grief.
I’d be surprised if WandaVision follows this exact arc: A) because it’s predictable and B) because it’s extremely dark—but it would be the perfect opportunity to reveal Mephisto’s clutching the show’s strings.
We might see a different version of them in the upcoming MCU films.
What makes Billy and Tommy’s appearance in WandaVision so earth-shattering is not necessarily how they’ll affect the show itself (though those implications could be huge). It’s how they could impact all the upcoming MCU films.
You see, in the comics, Billy and Tommy are reincarnated as Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd, two super-teens who eventually go by Wiccan and Speed. At the time, they don’t know they’re brothers, and they don’t understand their connection to Scarlet Witch and Vision. Eventually, Billy fits the pieces together: When he starts telling people he’s Scarlet Witch’s reincarnated son, they sort of imply he’s a crazy super-fan and urge him to, er, stop being a weirdo. But Billy—ever a darling—persists, and eventually it’s revealed he’s telling the truth: Billy and Tommy have, indeed, returned from beyond the grave!
At this point, Billy and Tommy are leading members of the Young Avengers. Billy is one of the first gay characters in the Marvel universe, deeply in love with his team member Teddy Altman, aka the shape-shifting Hulkling. We know from previous casting announcements that other Young Avengers are headed to the MCU screen: Hailee Steinfeld will play Kate Bishop in the upcoming Disney+ show Hawkeye; Kathryn Newton will play an older Cassie Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; and Xochitl Gomez will play America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. These news nuggets are almost a dead giveaway that a Young Avengers franchise is on the horizon, and Billy and Tommy could be its next heroes.
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