Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga doesn’t mean the end of this universe, and the studio is all set to move forward with its highly-anticipated Phase 4, which will not only cover the movie side but also TV/streaming as there’s a long list of TV shows coming up and set to stream exclusively on Disney+.
Kicking off this new era in the MCU is WandaVision, a TV show centered on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Set after the events of Agatha Harkness – and the following episode took the audience back in time to witness some of the events that shaped Wanda and those that drove her to build this fake reality.
The first scenario Agatha and Wanda visited was the night Wanda’s parents died. The scene showed the young versions of Wanda and her twin brother Pietro and the first look at their parents, Iryna and Olek Maximoff, along with a bit of the dynamic between the four of them. One night, the Maximoffs were enjoying some family time watching their favorite sitcoms when a mortar shell hit their apartment building. Wanda and Pietro’s parents died instantly, and the twins took cover as they waited for a second shell to explode. The actors who played Iryna and Olek Maximoff are Ilana Kohanchi and Daniyar, respectively, and those who played the young versions of Wanda and Pietro are Michaela Russell and Gabriel Gurevich.
Ilana Kohanchi is a Russian-American actress who has appeared in various projects in minor roles, though viewers might be able to recognize her from her roles as Lexi in The Laundromat.
The actress who plays young Wanda, Michaela Russell, is no stranger to the MCU but her first “role” in this universe is not what you think. Russell was a photo double for Abby Ryder Fortson (young Cassie Lang) and a stand-in for “young Evangeline Lilly” in WandaVision or not remains to be seen, but their brief appearance in episode 8 will be enough to give their careers a push.