Warning: This article contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Wanda Maximoff went through hell in WandaVision as she built herself up an imaginary family only to lose them again by the end of the series. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness picks up with Wanda after that and, as we’ve seen hinted in the trailers, it explores her all-consuming grief and desire to get back what she’s lost. Except her goals have slightly changed since we saw her last.
Spoilers incoming!
In Doctor Strange 2, Wanda is driven by the single-minded determination to get her twin sons, Billy and Tommy, back. Surprisingly, she makes no mention of her deceased synthezoid husband Vision, despite his double-death arguably being the crux of her grief in WandaVision. So why is Vis no longer all that important to Wanda at this point? That’s the big question star Elizabeth Olsen has now attempted to explain.
Speaking to Collider, Wanda pointed out that Wanda’s brother Pietro and her parents aren’t mentioned either as it’s really all about her sons for her now. That’s even the case for the Wanda of Earth-838, who only has her boys in her life. As she said:
There’s a whole list of things, like my brother, my parents. I think the main reason when we would talk about if there is this multiverse, and in the version of the universe this woman wasn’t with Vision. We liked having that be a mystery. For some reason he’s not in her world. I always thought of her as more of a domestic Wanda. They got divorced. They’re separated.
For Olsen, Wanda becoming a mother only to lose her children was the greatest tragedy in her life yet, calling it “more painful” than any of her other losses, traumatic as they may be. She continued:
She’s not wearing a wedding band for a reason. Like those kinds of things. We liked the idea of her being on her own. The idea really is that the most important thing once you become a mother in the world are your children, and that’s why. The kids are part of her myth as well. I think that’s also part of it. I do think that once you’re a mother the loss of your child is more painful than any other loss you could ever experience. That’s really why.
Olsen makes a decent stab at explaining Wanda’s revised motivations, although there’s probably a major logistical reason for it, as well: Paul Bettany wasn’t involved in the movie. Without the Vision actor around, either because of scheduling conflicts or because there was no room for him in the story, it wouldn’t make sense to focus on Vis’ demise, hence the spotlight on Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy (Jett Klyne) instead.
See Scarlet Witch as you’ve never seen her before in Doctor Strange 2, in cinemas now.