Mephisto Confirmed? The Full History of the WandaVision Theory That Never Went Away

Mephisto Became What I Am Arguably Best Known For in Certain Circles

It is strange that a Marvel Comics entity has become what I am arguably best known for in certain circles online. Mephisto is basically Marvel's devil character. He has appeared in many areas of the comics in many forms, but he is essentially the Christian concept of the Devil, with red skin and often horns, and he screws with the lives of Marvel heroes in many really fun ways. I wasn't into Mephisto from a young age. Maybe he cursed me in a way I didn't realize.

I think I am best known for being the guy who stayed on the Mephisto train all the way through WandaVision. I speculated strongly that Mephisto would show up, and he did not, at least not explicitly. I think his effect might have been there, but the character never appeared, even though a lot of us thought he would. Every Friday we went into the depths of theory crafting and got to look like fools together. We are a little older and a little wiser now, and I'm proud of that time.

Two years later, we were still talking about him in almost every Marvel title. I think even Marvel Studios is aware of this and playing with us. I don't think it is just targeted at me, but they keep sneaking devil imagery into their marketing, and I honestly think that is hilarious. I also think Mephisto is still misunderstood. I didn't properly understand the phenomenon while I was in it, and a lot of people have distorted its meaning into something we should be ashamed of. Yet when I meet people in person, at conventions, around San Francisco or in LA, Mephisto always comes up in a positive way. People tell me not to listen to the haters, that I was right. I don't know if I was explicitly right, but I think it brought a lot of us together, and looking back, it was a good thing.

Before WandaVision, I Had Mentioned Mephisto Only Twice

I started making breakdowns for New Rockstars in 2016, and by early 2021 I thought my legacy was already set. I thought I had peaked, and I was happy just to have the job, known as the guy who covers Marvel, Star Wars, Game of Thrones and Rick and Morty. Then WandaVision happened and everything changed. We got a sudden surge of audience on WandaVision alone, and it changed the game for New Rockstars in every possible way.

Going back through my scripts, I found only two mentions of Mephisto. One was in our Infinity War coverage, where I talked about how Ebony Maw was changed from Mephisto, who was Thanos's minion in the comics. That line "my humble personage" is a direct quote from Mephisto in The Infinity Gauntlet. The other came during our Infinity Saga rewatch in 2020, when the world shut down because of COVID. The 2012 Avengers movie has what I think is, to date, the only real mention of Mephisto in the MCU: he is listed alongside the infinity gems on the file Nick Fury gives Captain America about the Tesseract. I think that was the prop makers working in a nod to the comics before Marvel had settled on calling them Infinity Stones. So I wasn't Mephisto crazed from the beginning.

The Evan Peters Leak Started the Mephisto Train

In June 2020, news that Evan Peters was in WandaVision leaked, I believe through The Hollywood Reporter. Marvel didn't announce it. Until then, all we knew came from Comic-Con in July 2019: Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany were teaming up, it was probably based on some version of the West Coast Avengers, and Kathryn Hahn was playing "a nosy neighbor", who I think the common assumption was would be Agatha Harkness.

I made two pieces about Peters. The first assumed what we all assumed: he was playing Pietro Maximoff, Quicksilver, in a Fox X-Men crossover. Then that night I read some West Coast Avengers issues, with Agatha babysitting the two sons and the reveal that Master Pandemonium was puppeting them. Later I learned Master Pandemonium was a servant of Mephisto. If they were doing that run, I thought there was a good possibility Peters, a great horror actor from American Horror Story, and later Dahmer, would make a pretty good Mephisto. So my second piece offered an alternate theory: maybe Mephisto. Then it went quiet. The Mephisto train was still at the station.

Lost and the WandaVision Trailers Made Me Sense Something Sinister

The trailers arrived in September 2020. Some of us were just trying to make sense of the show, but some of us got a little creeped out and sensed something insidious. I grew up with Lost, and it primed me to look at movies and TV differently. I am constantly looking for the smoke monster, for Jacob, for the Dharma Initiative sound effects. Without Lost, I don't think I would be breaking down Marvel and Star Wars at all. It is not a perfect show, and some seasons didn't connect with everybody, but it remains one of my favorite shows of all time. I read every blog I could find, especially Jeff Jensen's recaps in Entertainment Weekly, and he is a hero of mine. I think anybody who watched Lost the way I did watched WandaVision differently.

With the first trailer, I just sensed something creepy. The December trailer was creepy in a specific way. There was a shot of a shadowy figure coming through the barrier, and the music was, unless I'm mistaken, The Monkees' Daydream Believer. It felt very Truman Show to me, and everything being reported was really disturbing.

A Devil Line in Episode Two Sent Me Over the Edge

Over the holidays in 2020, we did not know if New Rockstars would make it to 2021 as a company. We had been a skeleton crew all year with no movie news, and WandaVision was our last hope. Around the time Luke Skywalker showed up in The Mandalorian season two finale, Elizabeth Olsen said in an interview that WandaVision had a cameo like that too. We assumed it was Evan Peters, but someone, I think it might have been Paul Bettany, said it was someone nobody had talked about. I was hook, line and sinker, hanging on every word of the teasing game.

The first two episodes arrived in mid January 2021. In episode two, Dottie says "the devil's in the details Bev", and Agatha leans in with "that's not the only place he is". I paused, texted Jess Clemens, and we just screamed at each other. Every line and production detail felt intentional, with a double and triple meaning. People who hated the first three episodes for being too weird just watch shows differently than I do. I love being in that state of confusion, where the possibilities are endless.

Kathryn Hahn was certainly playing it villainous, and it felt like they were adapting the comics almost beat for beat. I believe episode two referenced neighbours whose names echoed the stage names from the magic act, and the Grim Reaper helmet showed up in the floorboards. New Rockstars went all in, shifting to daily coverage and multiple breakdowns a day, and our audience leapt. I got to talk about sitcoms, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Get Out, simulation theory, witchcraft, demonology and Lost. It felt like our moment had arrived.

A Podcast Host, Not a Superhero: My Dream MCU Cameo

I get asked a lot what my dream MCU cameo would be. I think a plausible pitch to Marvel is to have me play a YouTuber, a super fan, or someone hosting a podcast that a character listens to. I don't need to be a superhero, and I don't want that on my shoulders. Marvel sometimes casts huge stars in big roles and then recuts the films. Christian Bale is one of the best actors, and they cast him as Gorr the God Butcher and then cut everything that made Gorr cool. I don't want to be cast as a weakened version of one of my favourite characters.

Readers had their own pitches. One was a She-Hulk season two scene where she breaks the fourth wall, says she hopes I'm okay, and cuts to me in the blue dungeon fainting. That's a great pitch, and I would love to do it. Another was casting me as one of the Watchers. That would be fun, maybe as a variant of Jeffrey Wright's character, but I think Jeffrey Wright should be The Watcher going forward. I would listen to that guy speak for years.

Mephisto Could Be Another Option in the Tug of War Over the MCU's Fates

On whether Cap is actually on the moon, I don't think he's going to kill the Watcher. He would never do that. But I do think Cap is either on the moon or on a space station somewhere. On Sacha Baron Cohen as Mephisto, I think that's been reported, and I think it's confirmed. He was reported to appear in Ironheart for at least one episode, maybe a small cameo. At the time, it sounded like there might be a Mephisto Disney+ special presentation, and I think that's the way to go: one hour of Mephisto talking about the ways he has influenced the MCU.

I originally thought they might do that with Kang. Mephisto is another option for someone on the other end of that tug of war, trying to control the fates and destinies of every character. If I could cast anyone other than Sacha Baron Cohen, I'd pick Jack Nicholson. Rewatching Batman, I think he'd be incredible. On whether Earth 616 and the Number of the Beast are related: the original comics writer, I believe in an 80s Thor or Captain America comic, chose 616 because it was 666 put 50 off. So Mephisto is embedded in the history of 616.

Matthew Macfadyen as the Anti Mobius at the TVA

From a fun perspective, Loki season two was by far what I was most looking forward to. Beyond that, the more we heard about Deadpool 3, the more I liked that they got Matthew Macfadyen from Succession. My pitch is that he's similar to Tom Wambsgans. He's an up and comer at the TVA, a suit trying to make a name for himself, but an aggressive prosecutor. Where Mobius is laid back and doesn't always want to press forward, Macfadyen's character does. He's the anti Mobius, like Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, pursuing variants to the ends of the earth. I think they should let him use his natural British accent.

I was also excited for the Scott Pilgrim anime, and I hoped for more Brie Larson songs. I'm a huge fan of what Edgar Wright did in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It's such a well edited film, and with the actors coming back, I think it will feel even closer to reading the source material.

No Beef With Ryan George, and How I Got Here

I don't have a beef with Ryan George. I made a joke about him in an episode of Big Question back in the day, and I really regret it. He's so good at Pitch Meetings, really funny and well edited. There's a lot of snark about movies online, and I think I was overreacting to the snark. That was petty. He seems like a really nice guy, and his jokes seem to come from a place of love.

New Rockstars was founded by Danny Zappin, one of the Maker Studios guys, still our founder and CEO. My college buddy Philip brought me on as a freelance writer in 2015. When he moved on and could no longer appear for us, I took over as the main host in 2016. My background is in journalism: I got a degree at the University of Florida and wrote for Splitsider, now Vulture, reviewing Saturday Night Live. In 2018 it was just me, Devin Cleary and another editor named Aaron in a room, covering the stretch between Infinity War and the Endgame trailer, and I think that was our fastest period of growth. Then Covid hit, we thought we'd lose our jobs, and WandaVision was our light at the end of the tunnel. We went from four or five breakdowns a week to around 20, and now we want quality over quantity.

The Team Behind New Rockstars, and Why the Job Is Hard

We're run by a flat leadership committee. I'm a host, writer and executive producer. Brandon Barrick, our programming director, oversees all content decisions. John Costa is our producer, including on The Break Room. Zach Huddleston is director of sales. Patty Miller, our vice president of operations, saved New Rockstars in so many ways; 2022 was very hard, and without her I don't know if we'd still be around. Riley, our post production coordinator, oversees our editors.

When people say they'd love to work for us, I don't know if they would. It's the best group of people I've ever worked with, but the work is demanding. It's staying up until three in the morning on The Mandalorian, translating every letter of Aurebesh on a deadline, knowing everything about Zeb, writing thousands of words a day, and liking Marvel and Star Wars a little less because it's your job. It might be more fun to be an insurance adjuster and live somewhere houses are affordable.

Headcanon Has Replaced Canon, and Studios Need to Manage Expectations

I don't think I have a direct effect on studio decisions. I think people are getting better about being open minded with fandoms, but I'm a little worried about how headcanon has replaced actual canon. People see concept art leaks or scoops, think that's Marvel's actual plan, and judge the movie against it. I don't blame the fans. I think Marvel and other studios need to do a more proactive job of expectation management. If you're secretive about plot, be careful with trailers. I think James Gunn is really good at it, and Christopher Nolan might be the best, because his trailers are like weird little short films. If we didn't know MODOK was coming in Quantumania, I think we would have been less judgmental about how Corey Stoll looked.

On fandom more broadly, I think people act like the Arrowverse doesn't exist because not many people watch it, and you can't hold that against them. Likewise, you should be able to call yourself a Star Wars fan having only seen the films. I think a fandom works better as a big tent.

Should studios share more of their plans, or does that only feed the scoop culture? Let me know what you think.