Marvel’s WandaVision Kick-Ass Easter Egg Was Not Intentional

WandaVision had plenty of nods and moments which Marvel fans caught onto to point at their screens like Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood…. In the second half of the show, WandaVision had a moment which specifically saw fans getting excited to hear a reference to another Marvel movie which starred two actors with ties to WandaVision: Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Even Peters. Both actors played Pietro Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (though only one was actually Pietro) and both of them appeared in a movie called Kick-Ass. According to WandaVision director Matt Shakman, the reference was completely an accident.

“There was [a reference] that was funny,” Shakman said on Kevin Smith’s Fatman Beyond podcast. “Wanda says ‘Kick-ass’ in the Halloween episode. Everyone was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ Some people loved that joked. One of the reviewers like, ‘Uh, lame, too far,’ because Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Evan Peters were in Kick-Ass together. Not an intended Kick-Ass the movie joke, at all. The little kid says ‘Kick-ass,’ there was no scripted response. We were improvising, we wanted to set up the brother was being a bad influence, and Lizzie was just like, ‘Kick-ass’? And we kept it. There’s a few of those and there are a lot that are intentionally, too.”

While WandaVision was airing, plenty of Easter eggs were picked up on by fans and many of them fueled theories about wo could be the show’s villain or how the show might end. A lot of the theories, some of which ended up trending on Twitter, turned out to be nothing more than that. Shakman also revealed that the Marvel family does not debunk theories as a means to preserve te full experience for the audience, though he admits the aerospace engineer conversation pulled eyes away from Monica Rambeau’s super powers.

“I did not do press before [the episode which followed the ‘aerospace engineer’ line] so I was not in that position, so I’m not sure,” Shakman said of how the team handled an expectation of Reed Richards showing up. “In general, it’s, ‘Let things go. Don’t address the rumors.’ It’s probably better because folks will see the episodes and they’ll get their answers anyway.’”

What was your favorite Easter egg in WandaVision? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram!

Matt Shakman will be joining ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast live on Friday. Episodes are available on all major podcast platforms.