So far, Marvel Studios’ Multiverse Saga has not quite lived up to the expectations as a follow-up to the Infinity Saga. While the studio’s first three phases had bumps in the road, the combination of a pandemic, the tragic loss of one of the studio’s biggest stars, work stoppages in Hollywood and some really bad decisions have led to the perception that Marvel Studios has lost its way. Keenly aware of that perception, Disney dialed up an intervention and began to make key changes behind the scenes. So far, it would be hard to argue with the results as a string of good projects has begun to erase the (short) memory of the public and reestablish the MCU as a pop culture giant; however, with another two-plus years of projects planned to finish up the Multiverse Saga, there’s still plenty of work to do.
Part of that work is continuing to separate the future from the bad decisions of the past…which has led them to reach further into the past. Following the studio’s decision to part ways with Jonathan Majors, who was contracted to play multiple versions of Kang and serve as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga, Kevin Feige turned to Infinity Saga legends Anthony and Joe Russo and Robert Downey Jr. to save the day by rebuilding Avengers: The Kang Dynasty as Avengers: Doomsday. Pivoting to a new villain at the core of the Multiverse Saga opened up the playbook a bit for the studio, allowing for characters who perhaps weren’t slated for major roles to find one (and it also pushed some characters right out of the stories planned for the next few years. And for one character in particular, that reportedly may mean a redemption arc that will thrill a large segment of MCU fandom.
According to insider My Time to Shine Hello, the Russos and writer Stephen McFeely have carved out a large role for Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff in Avengers: Doomsday.
Following the events of WandaVision, which saw the character hold the entire town of Westview hostage within her grief-induced hex, Wanda’s study of the Darkhold corrupted her. By the time she appeared again in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Wanda had become the Scarlet Witch and acted as the film’s main antagonist. Though based on comic book lore, the decision by writer Michael Waldron to utilize the character as a villain was controversial. Already a popular character, Wanda’s fanbase grew significantly during WandaVision‘s weekly run on Disney Plus. Following the film’s release, Waldron addressed the fanbase’s issues with Wanda’s heel turn, saying “I guess I would say to the WandaVision fans, like, I get it. Watching a character you love do bad things sucks. That elicits a strong feeling, which is what we’re trying to do in the movies. We never would have done it if it didn’t feel like the next step in her character journey.“
To me, my interpretation of the story of WandaVision was, that Wanda is confronting her grief in that show, but I don’t think she’s necessarily conquering it. It’s a show about her living in denial to some extent and she’s conquering her denial, but I don’t think that she’s properly reckoning with her anger over what she’s endured, and that anger is what she carries with her as she walks away with the knowledge that she is the Scarlet Witch and with the Darkhold, this evil book. And I think it’s that anger that the Darkhold preys upon and pushes her on what is a, to me and I think to Wanda, a very justifiable, noble journey. She just wants her kids.
-Michael Waldron on Wanda Maximoff’s villainous role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
The rumor of Wanda’s potential role in Avengers: Doomsday is the latest in a wave of recent rumblings about the character’s future. Following a report that a Scarlet Witch solo project may be moving ahead at the studio, WandaVision and Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer, who is rumored to be co-writing the script for the film, fueled the fanbase’s fire a bit by stating she couldn’t talk about the project “right now.”
Though there’s no mention of what Wanda’s role in Avengers: Doomsday might entail, the character does have an interesting comic book history with that film’s title character, Victor Von Doom, that current and future events in the MCU’s ongoing shared narrative could easily be setting up. With things at Marvel Studios more unsettled than ever and with the powers that be apparently deciding to accelerate the ending of the Multiverse Saga, it’s best not to become too attached to any one particular idea at this time; however, a redemption arc for the Scarlet Witch is one idea that continues to look fairly promising.
Leave a Reply