WandaVision and Black Widow writer Jac Schaeffer continues to do post-show interviews about WandaVision, where she exposes just how clueless she is about Marvel.
Previously, Schaeffer detailed that she found it difficult to read comics.
Related: WandaVision And Black Widow Writer Admits She’s “Not A Very Good Comic Reader”
She stated, “I’m not a very good comic reader. I have a hard time digesting the storylines and I never know which cell to look at, and I don’t know, I’m a disappointment, perhaps, to the fandom in that way, but the imagery is always, of course, very startling and moving and inspiring, and it was Kevin Feige’s idea to marry Wanda and Vision to the sitcom world.”
Not only did she reveal she didn’t know how to read comics, but in the same interview she contradicted herself saying, “You know, having seen it in the comics, I thought that it would probably be fairly predictable if we told a linear story of, you know, Wanda is upset and she freaks out and she creates this false world and then it’s a sitcom. That didn’t seem interesting to me.”
Now, speaking with Mashable she’s revealed she had no clue who Mephisto was and that she did not intentionally create red herrings to refer to him.
Schaeffer stated, “There was never any conscious intention on my part to create any Mephisto red herrings, because I didn’t know who Mephisto was until I started doing press.”
She went on to state, “Why did we talk about the devil so much? That’s a real coincidence.”
“He wasn’t ever part of our storytelling conversations. We were very clear that the big bad is grief. And then the external bad is Agatha. So as a viewer and as a lover of the show and the characters, I didn’t want anything more than that,” she elaborated.
It’s hard to believe that’s actually true. A seemingly direct reference to Mephisto was made in the show’s second episode.
During the tea party scene, Emma Caulfield Ford’s Dottie Jones says, “The devil’s in the details, Bev.”
Kathryn Hahn’s Agnes would then whispers to Wanda saying, “That’s not the only place he is.”
In the same episode they also refer to a rabbit on the show as Senor Scratchy.
Scratch is a name that Mephisto has gone by multiple times in the comics. In 2005’s Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Horror, the entry for Mephisto details that one of his aliases includes “Nick Scratch.”
Not only has he used Nick Scratch as an alias, but he’s also used Jack Scratch as an entry in Sensational Spider-Man #41 reveals more of his aliases.
As for many of the red herrings in the show, Mashable’s Proma Khosla reports, “Schaeffer says many red herrings are unintentional, and that some of the real clues were added by set design or VFX (she politely declined to elaborate on which).”
It’s hard for me to believe she had no idea about Mephisto, but obviously included Wanda’s children in the show. Comic book readers know her children were revealed to be created from portions of Mephisto’s soul.
What do you make of Schaeffer’s comments?