Wandavision was surprisingly cerebral watching for the first Disney+ television outing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, spending much of the series showcasing characters grappling with their emotions and attempting to solve the mystery of the Hex, rather than superhumans battling in the streets.
As a result, while the cast lacks recognized MCU geniuses such as Shuri, Peter Parker, or Bruce Banner, many of the main characters are nonetheless very intelligent people doing their best to get to the bottom of the situation they find themselves in. Many characters get the chance to show off their intelligence over the show, but others fall short.
9 Ralph Bohner Only Gets A Couple Of Smart Moments
Spending much of the series impersonating long-dead Pietro Maximoff, Ralph Bohner seems like the least intelligent member of the Wandavision cast. His version of Pietro acts like a caricature of Evan Peters's previous version of the character in the X-Men film franchise, often acting immature and childish. When returned to normal, Bohner is a little different, only laughing at his own name.
Nonetheless, he isn't completely stupid. He makes an astute comment when Wanda denies remembering something from their childhood by suggesting that she might be repressing her trauma and recognizing Wanda's attempts to test him by quizzing him on their childhood memories, not to mention identifying that Wanda controlled the town. Nonetheless, these moments are few and far between.
8 Tommy Maximoff Takes After His 'Uncle'
Bohner's Pietro calls Tommy a 'chip off the old block' at one point, once his superspeed is discovered, and it is accurate in more ways than one. Having less focus in the narrative than his brother, Billy, Tommy is given fewer chances to show off what intelligence he has.
Tommy shows mental agility several times, quickly mastering aging himself to manipulate his parents and his super-speed, suggesting that there is an intelligence underneath his childishness. Nonetheless, his moments - shared with his brother - of immaturity and prankster nature shine through more clearly.
7 Wanda Maximoff Spends The Series Not Thinking Clearly
Throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wanda Maximoff has shown herself to be of above-average intelligence. She quickly masters her powers, thinks quickly on her feet in a fight, and even shows she can read people well enough to manipulate them.
Nonetheless, in Wandavision, she is consumed by grief and acting out of sheer emotion. While she has wits enough to keep Westview functioning under her control for a few days and to recognize SWORD's attempts to interfere, she makes numerous errors in judgment, including thinking that the situation in Westview is doing anything other than making her grief worse, and trusting Agatha.
6 Billy Maximoff Appears To Be The Intelligent Brother
Billy Maximoff gets slightly more focus than his brother, Tommy, giving narration to the audience at several points during the episode 'Trick or Treat'. Throughout, it is suggested that Billy is the 'nerdy twin' out of him and his brother, with Tommy insisting that he is 'cool' and Billy is a 'dorkasaurus rex.'
Although he is as childish as his brother, Billy nonetheless shows himself to be more thoughtful at times, questioning certain inconsistencies in the story around them. He is the one to realize that Wanda needs him and Tommy to help her in the final battle, and he's more aware of Wanda's problems to be concerned about them than his brother.
5 Monica Rambeau Makes Several Clear Insights
The trio at the center of the 'outside the Hex' storyline are all intelligent enough to independently contribute to the investigation of Westview, and what Wanda is doing there. Each of them is integral to making the conclusions that allow the mystery to unfold. Monica Rambeau is no exception, with one of her key moments being when she realizes objects in the Hex are transformed, not created wholesale.
Nonetheless, despite Monica's clear intelligence, it is outshone by the other qualities that make her essential to the team and the story, such as her compassion, her bravery, and her resilience.
4 Jimmy Woo Shows His FBI Experience
Jimmy Woo starts off his time on the show with a smart move, calling in SWORD once it's clear that the situation in Westview goes beyond anything he's qualified in. Throughout, he provides a voice of reason to not only his own trio, but to SWORD as a whole, questioning several of Director Hayward's worse decisions.
Woo also helps with the organizational aspects of the team's investigation, using his FBI skills to keep track of everything they have and haven't managed to understand about the situation. He is shown to be slow on the uptake at times, often drawing the wrong inference from a question, but this doesn't hamper his investigational skills.
3 Agatha Plotted And Maintained An Adaptable Plan
While the initial situation in Westview, with its idyllic sitcom nature and mind-controlled citizens, is the unintentional doing of Wanda Maximoff, many of the problems in the series are caused by the plans of Agatha Harkness. She is insightful enough to realize from the start that Wanda is merely suppressing her trauma in an unsustainable fashion and that there is an opportunity there.
Throughout, she keeps the pressure on Wanda just enough, causing friction with Vision and reminding her of her grief with an imposter of Pietro. Her plan, while not perfect, adapts to the changing situation well, and would have gone to plan had Wanda not proven more intelligent than even Agatha realized.
2 Vision Tempers His Intellect With More Emotional Intelligence
There is no doubt that Vision is one of the more intelligent characters in the MCU, being made from Tony's AI JARVIS. Throughout the franchise, he demonstrates his intelligence and knowledge across a wide range of fields, and is hampered primarily by his lack of experience with other people and emotions, often inadvertently making situations worse, or awkward.
However, in Wandavision, his time with the Avengers and in Westview has seen him developing, able to better get a handle on situations and bring his intellect to bear. He takes little time to realize that Westview isn't all that it seems and that Wanda is behind it. Later, he realizes quickly how badly Wanda needs him and how much trouble she is in as soon as Darcy fills him in on everything that has happened to Wanda in the real world, and in a flashback makes one of the series' most poignant and insightful quotes, recognizing that grief is just a continuation of love.
1 Darcy Lewis Proves Herself Among The Smartest In The MCU
Initially introduced in Thor as merely the intern to Dr. Jane Foster and Dr. Eric Selvig, in Wandavision Darcy, now a doctor of astrophysics, is given the chance to flex her intellectual muscles. She begins by being the only one who recognizes that there is a pattern in the radiation coming from the Hex, and working to reveal the Wandavision show that SWORD uses for most of their answers.
Darcy Lewis is also the one making the keenest insights into the situation, recognizing that SWORD doesn't know what they're dealing with and are clutching at straws, and that there are things they aren't being told. She hacks into Hayward's laptop and understands the data showing that Monica Rambeau is mutating as a result of exposure to the Hex, among numerous other things that show her intelligence.