After not being given a huge amount of anything important to do during her five appearances to date in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all evidence points towards Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch becoming one of the franchise’s most important characters in Phase Four and beyond.
Not only will she be co-headlining the mind-bending Disney Plus series WandaVision, but the show is set to have huge implications for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where Olsen will take second billing behind Benedict Cumberbatch’s returning Sorcerer Supreme. Kevin Feige also recently changed his mind and named Wanda Maximoff as the MCU’s most powerful superhero at the expense of Captain Marvel, and the architect of the entire shared universe isn’t going to make such bold claims without having a reason.
We already know that the character’s reality-manipulating abilities will act as the driving force behind WandaVision’s plot, building on powers that we haven’t really seen in the MCU since her first appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron, while there have also been rumors that she could end up losing her grip on reality and ultimately turn out to be the villain of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
And while it remains to be seen just how far down the path of villainy she’ll go, sources close to WGTC – the same ones who told us that the Guardians will cameo in Thor: Love and Thunder and that Taskmaster would be the villain in Black Widow – say that both WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness will be used to help establish Wanda’s turn to the dark side, and will reportedly set the stage for a bit of a reversed take on the House of M arc from the comic books. Apparently, the plan is to adapt the arc but for this version of it, they’ll have Wanda wipe out everyone who isn’t a mutant.
Of course, the MCU has been known to play fast and loose when it comes to bringing famous comic book narratives to the big screen, and it sounds like they’ll be taking some liberties with the original storyline when they do end up adapting it. But either way, Wanda is definitely headed down a villainous path and it’ll be fascinating to see how her arc continues to unfold.
