When Jimmy Woo performed that card trick on his WandaVision debut, it was blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quick. But Marvel fans miss nothing – especially not a trick – and social media was buzzing with kudos for the deep cut callback to the MCU. It was in Ant-Man and the Wasp when we saw the FBI agent fascinated with Scott Lang’s mastery of the same sleight of hand maneuver – and now, five years later, we’re seeing that Woo has finally nailed it.
“My guess is it took Jimmy around five years [to learn] and it took me… gosh, you know what? I think I learned to do it maybe that day,” actor Randall Park tells Fandom. We’re chatting following the airing of the show’s fourth episode in which Woo first enters the story, and can’t discuss anything else until we’ve addressed the reference and Park’s remarkable close-up magic skills.
A Big MCU Cameo?
“They actually had a magician come out and he taught me that,” he says. He knows it well enough to pass it on, though he hasn’t learnt to do any other card tricks. Yet. Of course, the MCU has way more marvellous things in it than card tricks – among them, superheroes with superpowers and abilities far more magical than anything you can achieve with a series of cunningly quick hand movements and diversion techniques. While Jimmy Woo was fiendishly impressed with Scott Lang’s card-trick skills, he’s also awestruck by those same powered individuals.
To date, Woo has met Ant-Man and Monica Rambeau – who, admittedly, we have yet to see transform into her comic-book superhero alter ego; if, indeed, that’s where the MCU intends to take her. Woo is currently also crossing paths with Scarlet Witch and Vision in the Disney+ series. But which high-profile Marvel Cinematic Universe character would Jimmy most like to meet next?
“Gosh, I’d love to meet all of them; I’d like to meet all of the Avengers,” says Park, revealing that Woo is something of a fanboy. “These are heroes, and yeah, I’d love to meet all of them.”
With speculation that we could yet see another big-name cameo in this series, Park isn’t giving anything away. Although it would be awesome if maybe, just maybe, we see them all show up.
Agents of Atlas Spin-off
Park brings an incredible amount of charm and humour to the role of Jimmy Woo. We saw it in his movie debut, sure, but in WandaVision the actor has been given the chance to explore Woo in more depth. And teaming him with Jane Foster’s brainy science-geek sidekick Darcy Lewis, played by Kat Dennings, who hasn’t been seen in the MCU since Thor: The Dark World, was a masterstroke on the part of showrunner Jac Schaeffer.
The two make an excellent comedy duo, playing off one another entertainingly. So much so, the pair have become an instant hit. Fans are even calling for an X-Files-inspired spin-off for Park’s character in which he investigates strange cases in the MCU – and there are reports that this is an idea that’s already been pitched. But it’s an Agents of Atlas spin-off that Park would love to see for his character, speculation about which is also rife.
“I am familiar with Agents of Atlas in part because a lot of fans have been talking about it and friends would send me links to the discussion amongst fans about that. That would be incredible,” he says. “Just to be in the Marvel universe in any way is just such a thrill for me. But if a show like that would come to fruition that would be a dream come true. I mean it’s already a dream come true just being in the Marvel universe.”
Agents of Atlas is a group of heroes from the comic books made up of characters revived from the 1940s and 1950s, and who made their (non-canon) debut as a team in 1978 before returning to make their mark in the naughties. Jimmy Woo was an original member.
“As a kid, I collected these comic books, and I was just such a fan as a kid, and to see all of it come to life on the big screen and then to be a part of it, it’s just crazy to me,” adds Park. “So the talk of a Jimmy Woo spin-off or Agents of Atlas, that’s almost too crazy for me. I don’t know if I could even handle that. But I would love it and I would do anything for Marvel because I just love it so much.”
How Did the Blip Affect Jimmy Woo?
One thing Jimmy Woo could handle would be the responsibility of taking possession of the Infinity Gauntlet, a powerful artifact that continues to have repercussions on events in the MCU. Unlike Thanos, who chose to obliterate half of all life in the universe with the snap of his fingers, Park says that Jimmy would wish for something altogether less destructive if he had that kind of power at his fingertips.
“Jimmy Woo would wish for a mastery of close up magic,” Park says. “I think he would want to just be really good at those card tricks; I think that would make him very happy.”
With WandaVision addressing the Blip, as the Snap is now officially known, and what it meant for Monica Rambeau in particular, how it also affected Jimmy Woo is something that’s on fans’ minds.
“I’m not entirely sure what happened to Jimmy,” says Park. “I have some theories but I don’t know. I think he didn’t disappear in the Snap; I think he stuck around. I mean, how else was he to learn that card trick, right?”
Right. And if he starts right about now on practicing another, he should have a second trick added to his illusionist’s arsenal by the time Phase 6 of the MCU rolls around.
Watch our interview with Randall Park in the video above, and catch WandaVision on Disney+.