The Big Picture

• Jimmy Woo's character first appeared in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and was mentioned as one of Melinda May's phone contacts.
• Jimmy Woo enforces Scott Lang's house arrest in Ant-Man and the Wasp and is shown to be self-conscious and jealous of Scott's close-up magic skills.
• In WandaVision, Jimmy Woo joins S.W.O.R.D. to investigate Wanda Maximoff's actions and shows empathy and understanding towards her and Scott, setting him apart from other law enforcement figures.

The character of Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) delighted MCU fans when he appeared in Phase 4's WandaVision, becoming part of a supporting character super-group with Thor's Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) and Captain Marvel's Monica Rambeau (now grown-up in WandaVision and played by Teyonah Parris). This was in no small part due to the lasting impression he left on audiences when he embodied the presence of law enforcement in Scott Lang's life during Ant-Man and the Wasp three years earlier (five years in-story). But did you know that the Ant-Man sequel was not Jimmy's first inclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Jimmy Woo Was First Referenced in 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D'

James E. Woo (also known as Woo Yen Jet) first appeared in the Atlas Comics (the Marvel Comics predecessor) in 1956, in the first issue of Yellow Claw. Created by Al Feldstein and Joe Maneely, Woo is introduced as a Chinese-American secret agent. Since then, he has gone on to appear in several other Marvel characters' stories. In the MCU, his first inclusion was in the TV series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Although he never appeared, his character was mentioned in the show's second season, revealed to be one of Melinda May's phone contacts (among others like Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff).

Jimmy Woo mentions in WandaVision that he grew up in Bakersfield and idolized real-life special agent Eliot Ness. He then went on to work for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) alongside Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen). We can assume his impressive work left made a good impression on May if she regards him as worthy of her emergency contacts list. From there he was recruited by the Californian FBI division as a leader of his own unit, based in San Francisco. Due to a short list of successful missions with the FBI, however, his confidence in his abilities faded (as mentioned in Ant-Man and the Wasp). He did however enjoy being a key member of a softball team, as mentioned in WandaVision!

Jimmy Woo Enforces Ant-Man's House Arrest

During the events of Captain America: Civil War, San Francisco's own Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) travels to Germany with Captain America (Chris Evans) and violates the Sokovia Accords, a U.N. legal document that prevents superheroes from taking action unless sanctioned by the government. Enter Jimmy Woo, who enforces Scott's house arrest, allowing him to spend time with his daughter as he sees through his sentence. During the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Jimmy is firm but fair, and with endearing humility, he is shown to be self-conscious and jealous as a result of Scott's impressive house-arrest pass time of close-up magic. Later, alone in his office, Woo is practicing close-up magic to no avail.

Jimmy Woo Returns in 'WandaVision'

When we next see the FBI agent, he joins the cast of WandaVision. In the meantime, Thanos (Josh Brolin) achieved his universe-wide culling of half of all life at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. In the five years that passed before the Avengers restored the lives of those lost to the "blip" in Avengers: Endgame, we can assume Woo has taken the time to learn close-up magic himself. He introduces himself to Monica Rambeau who we last saw as an 11-year-old in Captain Marvel played by Akira Akbar, and Woo makes his business card appear seemingly out of nowhere; a subtle nod to his previous appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp.

While investigating the disappearance of Westview at the hands of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Monica also goes missing, so Jimmy finds himself working withThe Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division (S.W.O.R.D.), the sister organization to S.H.I.E.L.D. Among the investigative team is Darcy Lewis, the former assistant of Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and intern of Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård).

With Darcy's help, Jimmy and the team are able to receive a '50s-style sitcom broadcast of the fake reality Wanda uses to imprison the town of Westfield. When Monica mentions Ultron (James Spader) from the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the broadcast glitches, since Monica's mention of a real-world event causes Wanda's projection to falter. In retaliation, Wanda ejects Monica from her hex, returning her to the reality of Jimmy, Darcy and the S.W.O.R.D. agents.

During this time, Wanda is seemingly pregnant, having manifested a happy future for herself as an unhealthy reaction to the loss of her significant other, Vision (Paul Bettany). Jimmy Woo reflects on Wanda's pregnancy by stating that he too would like to be a father one day. His empathy and understanding for Wanda and Scott during his work as an enforcer of the law is what separates Jimmy from people like high-ranking S.W.O.R.D. operative Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg).

Refusing to follow Hayward's tyrannical orders to kill Wanda, Jimmy along with Darcy and Monica is removed from the base. Monica then chooses to enter the hex alone, despite Jimmy's pleas for her to stop. This results in Monica's superpowers that fans of the comic recognize as those of Photon, Pulsar, and Spectrum, three names by which Monica is known once her superpowers are acquired. She has also been known as Captain Marvel herself. Jimmy Woo is rumored to appear in the upcoming The Marvels, which will feature Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau, and Ms. Marvel's Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) teaming up.

Upon saving Westview from both Wanda and Hayward, Jimmy leads the FBI and the police in managing the aftermath. Monica tells Jimmy that he is well suited for roles of authority, leading us to wonder where that might inspire him to take his career by the time we see him next. That being said, many believe that his team-up with Darcy and Monica in WandaVision was the last time we saw Jimmy Woo, but his photograph also appeared in the season finale of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, when Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) breaks the fourth wall and enters the Disney+ home screen to confront Marvel itself about the fate of her storyline.

In the comics, Jimmy Woo was originally an agent of the FBI who joined S.H.I.E.L.D. in his later years. He then goes on to establish the Agents of Atlas with his roster of former colleagues and superheroes. "Atlas" of course is a nod to the Marvel predecessor in which Jimmy Woo first appeared. With the canonical nature of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. always in question, might Jimmy's story be retconned within the MCU to establish his story as a rise through the ranks of regular law enforcement to eventually become the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent we already know him as capable of being?

It's characters like Jimmy Woo that make the ever-expanding world of the MCU feel connected and authentic, in light of multiversal developments and the aforementioned fourth wall breaks. Human characters like Jimmy who continue to be surprised by the events of the stories help us see these extraordinary occurrences from the ordinary human perspective we rarely see in these movies anymore. The inclusion of Jimmy Woo and humble-yet-competent characters like him are of paramount importance to each new addition to this story world. They also help connect each separate story by reminding us of the individual lives affected by the different heroes and villains.