Marvel fans have theorised that a notorious Avengers villain could be set to return in the ongoing Disney Plus series WandaVision.
The show, which aired its sixth episode last Friday (12 February), focuses on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) as they navigate a reality which has been altered to resemble the look and feel of classic US sitcoms.
For much of the season, viewers have been left in the dark as to the exact nature of the characters’ altered reality, with the primary suggestion being that it was created by Wanda as a reaction to the grief over Vision’s death in Avengers: Infinity War.
However, the presence of SWORD director Hayward (played by Josh Stamberg), a sinister government operative outside of the town, has led many to believe that the series could be setting up a more malevolently motivated villain for its final episodes.
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While Hayward’s intentions remain unclear, it’s hinted in episode six that he has his own nefarious plans for Wanda and Vision.
Some viewers have theorised that Hayward is simply an alter-ego, and is, in fact, a villain that Wanda is intimately familiar with: Ultron.
Ultron, played by James Spader in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron, is a villainous AI system, who fought the Avengers using an army of robot avatars. However, as some social media users have pointed out, Ultron was known to adopt a human persona in the Avengers Assemble animated series.
With WandaVision set to feature a prominent MCU guest star at some point in its final three episodes, Ultron seems a likely candidate given his past feud with Wanda and existential ties to Vision. Ultron’s role in the series was even the subject of speculation among fans a year before the series began.
However, whether Ultron’s reappearance could be linked to the enigmatic Director Hayward remains anybody’s guess.
New episodes of WandaVision debut on Fridays on Disney Plus.
