WandaVision Episode 5 Has A Secret Full House Easter Egg

WandaVision‘s storytelling reaches the ’80s, and while it doesn’t mine any narrative inspiration from Full House, it includes a subtle reference to the classic ABC show. The sitcom – which ran from 1987 to 1994 – gave Elizabeth Olsen’s sister, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s start in showbusiness, alternately playing the Tanners’ youngest sister Michelle. When the first trailer for the Disney+ project hinted at Scarlet Witch and Vision’s twins, Billy and Tommy Maximoff, many read it as a nod to the Olsen twins, although this particular plot point was lifted from the comics.

Given this, there was anticipation that Marvel Studios would use Full House as one of its main storytelling resources for WandaVision‘s ’80s or even ’90s-set outing; unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Instead, episode 5 – titled “On A Very Special Day” – primarily had nods to Growing Pains and Family Ties. This doesn’t mean that Marvel Studios missed the chance to address the Olsens’ connection to the show as they were able to sneak in a subtle Full House Easter egg in its latest offering.

Each episode of WandaVision features an in-universe opening theme that harkens to the sitcom that the show is mimicking for the week. Previously, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, and The Brady Bunch have been featured; episode 5’s opening, however, had a mix of inspirations. But Growing Pains and Family Ties weren’t the only inspirations for it; WandaVision‘s ’80s opener also had visual parallels to Full House. The cheesy running shot at the park of Wanda, Vision, and their twins was directly lifted from Full House which had a scene of the Tanner extended family pulling the same move. WandaVision‘s intro clip ended with a wide shot of the clan having a picnic while the town they live in served as its backdrop — another image copied from Full House.

Elizabeth Olsen previously revealed that working on WandaVision brought back memories of her visiting her sisters on the set of Full House despite the Marvel Studios series not mining narrative inspiration from the ABC sitcom. That being said, she confirmed that there would be a reference to it in her project, and as subtle as this was, it’s the perfect way to pay tribute to her sisters’ origins as sitcom darlings without being too obvious about it. The Olsen twins are now retired from acting and are focused on their fashion brand, The Row. This was the reason why Michelle was missing from Netflix’s Fuller House which was a spin-off sequel to the ’80s/’90s sitcom; all of its main cast returned to reprise their roles except for the sister making their absence more explicit.

Depending on how the rest of the season of WandaVision plays out, it’s possible that more Full House Easter eggs are coming since the family show ran until the mid ’90s. Perhaps they can feature a more obvious nod to the Olsen twins’ show with Evan Peters’ Quicksilver playing the cool uncle to Billy and Tommy like Uncle Jesse was to the Tanner kids. Whatever the case may be, there’s one key takeaway from the show: Olsen brilliantly portraying her MCU character through various sitcom settings only reinforces the idea that Netflix should’ve courted her to play Michelle even just for a cameo in Fuller House.