WandaVision's commercials explained – all the creepy HYDRA hints and Easter eggs

“It’s where other truths of the show begin to leak out,” Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told RadioTimes.com and other press.

“If this is the very first MCU thing you're watching, it's just a strange version of a '50s commercial or a '60s commercial, that you'll have to keep watching the series to understand.

“But if you have been watching all the movies, you might be able to start connecting what those things mean to the past.”

“I love what Kevin had to say,” series director Matt Shakman later told RadioTimes.com.

“Certainly, you know, larger truths about the show are finding their way into these earlier episodes. So I would encourage fans to definitely pay attention.

“There are Easter Eggs that are small and that some people will get and some people won't.”

So what are these Easter Eggs, and what could they mean for WandaVision? Well, based on WandaVision's penultimate episode we have some ideas, so let's break down all the commercials seen so far below.

Episode one – the Toastmate

“Is your husband tired of you burning his toast?” the host begins in the first WandaVision advert. “Try our new and improved Toastmate 2000. It’s the go-to for clever housewives.”

“Say, this machine has some shine,” replies his female co-star.

“You said it,” the host continues. “Set the dial and get the taste back into your toast. Top and bottom heating elements can handle anything, from meatloaf, to cherry pie, to open-face cheese sandwiches.”

At this point, a red light begins to flash on the Toastmate – the first colour seen in the series – with an insistent, alarm-like buzz, before the shot snaps back to normal.

“The all-new Toastmate 2000, by Stark Industries,” a voiceover concludes. “Forget the past, this is your future.”

Obviously, the nod to Stark industries – the company led by Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, AKA Tony Stark – is the easiest Easter Egg to take away from this commercial, and it has some significance to Wanda's past.

In WandaVision's eighth episode, it's made clear that this flashing light reflects the warning sound on the Stark Industries bomb that nearly killed Wanda and her brother, which they had to wait and watch for two days after their parents died. Presumably, the other adverts are intended to similarly reflect her trauma.

Episode two – the Strücker wristwatch

“They say a man is never fully dressed without two important accessories: his special lady, and his Strücker,” a voiceover says, over footage of the same two actors all dressed up for a grand night out.

“Strücker – he’ll make time for you,” the advert concludes, before a loud ticking clock noise counts out the footage. Look closely, and you’ll also spot the HYDRA logo on the watch alongside the words “Strücker Swiss made. Hydra 1000m.”

And the name Strücker, of course, has some close connections to Wanda. As seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron Baron Strücker was a high-ranking HYDRA scientist whose cruel experiments on Wanda and her brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) granted them their superpowers via the captured Mind Stone.

Though he was murdered by Ultron later in the same film, Strücker’s influence has continued in the MCU, at least partially through his son (who played a role in Agents of SHIELD) and the exploration of Wanda’s powers and how they relate to Vision’s Mind Stone in Avengers: Infinity war.

In WandaVision's eighth episode, we go back to the HYDRA facility where Wanda got her powers, which could be what this advert intended to refer to.

Episode three – Hydra Soak

Our first colour (or should that be color?) commercial follows a struggling mother who just wants some time to herself – which leads her to try out "Hydra Soak," a new bubble bath that promises to take all her troubles away for a while.

“Come with me. Escape to a world all your own, where your problems just float away," a voiceover says.

"When you wanna get away, but you don’t wanna go anywhere…Hydra Soak. Find the Goddess within."

Obviously, terrorist organisation HYDRA have played a big part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the years, most notably in Captain America movies The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier, so it's no surprise to see them pop up in an Easter Egg like this.

HYDRA also have a notable connection to Wanda herself - she was essentially created by the organisation - so it seems likely that this advert is another nod to her backstory.

Meanwhile, some fans think the advert could be a reference to Marvel TV series Agents of SHIELD, which made a similar connection between HYDRA and, er, soap at one point during its run.

Episode five – Lagos paper towels

After taking a week off in episode four, WandaVision's commercials continue their potted journey through Wanda's backstory by tying pretty explicitly into the events of Captain America: Civil War.

And this time, its via the medium of paper towels...

"You’ve got a mess…and you’re still using the next leading brand?" a voiceover asks as the commercial actress tries and fails to mop up some spilled liquid.

"You need Lagos brand paper towels. The most absorbant paper towel available! Husbands can use it you y’know…" the voiceover continues, with shots of the towels mopping up the omonois, bloodlike stains.

"Lagos: for when you make a mess you didn’t mean to," the advert concludes, in a clear callback to the moment in Civil War that sees Wanda redirect a bomb and accidentally kill some civilians.

It's a bleak way of looking at Wanda's past - but clearly a moment that has stayed with her.

Episode six – Yo-Magic

In one of the more unsettling adverts so far, episode six creates a little claymation drama apparently aimed at selling a kind of strawberry Yoghurt called "Yo-Magic," which is clearly riffing on Wanda's abilities.

“I’m so hungry I’d eat anything," a little claymation boy says while trapped on a desert island, shortly before the arrival of a Radical-looking shark in sunglasses.

“Hungry? I remember hungry. I used to be like that all the time," the shark says.

"What did you do?" the stranded boy asks.

"Snacked on Yo-Magic bro…now I have time to hang fin," replies the talking shark.

Following this, the shark hands over some of the yoghurt then leaves - but then something odd happens. For some reason unable to open the Yoghurt over the course of many days, the little boy gradually starves, grows even more gaunt then wastes away to a skeleton. It's creepy! Whether it's some sort of callback to frequent Vision foe The Grim Reaper or just death in general in unclear, though it does (as with the other ads) seem to hint at the trauma Wanda has suffered over the years.

“Yo-Magic, the snack for survivors!” the voiceover concludes.

Episode seven – Nexus

In one of the most downbeat adverts yet, episode seven appears to be flogging an antidepressant called "Nexus," starring the same duo of actors who've appeared in most of the commercials thus far.

"Feeling depressed? Like the world goes on without you? Do you just want to be left alone?" a voiceover asks over grey footage of a downcast woman, in wording that clearly evokes Wanda's experience (and desire to be undisturbed) in Westview.

"Ask your Doctor about Nexus. A unique anti-depressant that works to anchor you back to your reality. Or the reality of your choice.

"Side effects include feeling your feelings, confronting your truth, seizing your destiny and possibly, more depression.

"You should not take Nexus unless your doctor has cleared you to move on with your life.

"Nexus, because the world doesn’t revolve around you. Or does it?" the advert concludes.

Fans have been quick to note that the brand name "Nexus" could refer to the Marvel comics' Nexus of All Realities, a kind of gateway between different parallel universes that appears a few times. Meanwhile, Wanda herself has been referred to in the comics as a "Nexus Being," there to protect her reality from outside threats.

In other words, Nexus = parallel worlds in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and this advert seems to suggest that these alternate realities are an important tie-in to WandaVision. In a way, we knew this already – Elizabeth Olsen is set to reprise her role as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – but the references to "a reality of your choice" hammer home that this could be key to WandaVision's final episodes.

And who knows? Maybe the "doctor" needed to clear the patients is a certain Mr Cumberbatch...

Want more WandaVision content? Check out our latest WandaVision review, our guide to the WandaVision cast, the WandaVision release schedule, Agatha Harkness and the creepy WandaVision commercials. Plus, we ask:When is WandaVision set and how did Vision survive?

WandaVision releases new episodes on Disney Plus on Fridays. You can sign up to Disney Plus for £5.99 a month or £59.99 a year.

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