Marvel fans left 'baffled' over MCU surprise recast

Marvel fans have been left with more questions than answers following a surprise MCU recast that is baffling some viewers.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll probably be aware by now that the mysterious teen played by Joe Locke in Agatha All Along has turned out to be exactly who we thought he was: Wanda Maximoff's son Billy.

You may recall that Billy showed up in WandaVision, played by Julian Hilliard. So why is Billy so much older now? And why does he look completely different?

Recasting roles in long-running cinematic franchises is hardly a new practice, but there's actually a pretty solid in-universe reason for this one: the long and short of it is that in the comics Billy was reincarnated, essentially sent back in time and born into a different body.

I'm not convinced the MCU is going to follow this exactly, especially since the latest trailer for Agatha All Along shows Billy in a car driving away at speed from the hex Wanda put on Westview.

The prevailing theory is that an entirely different Billy is involved in a crash attempting to outrun the hex, and Wanda's son somehow ends up in possession of his body.

The answers will no doubt come, but for now fans are baffled by the mystery of it all - as well as how it ties together with other MCU outings.

"If Billy's soul entered his body after the WandaVision finale, then Multiverse of Madness completely falls apart... It's like the plot doesn't add up, and now I’m left baffled," wrote one Twitter user.

They're not wrong. The Doctor Strange sequel is all about Wanda tearing the multiverse apart to find new versions of her children, and it's hard to believe she wouldn't have been able to detect a reincarnated Billy right in her own universe.

One assumes there's probably some magical explanation for this, but we'll have to wait and see.