It’s been common knowledge for a long time that Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch was taking second billing behind the title hero in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the two projects shared a direct connection, so it was only natural for fans to speculate that Benedict Cumberbatch could show up in WandaVision, especially when a huge cameo was repeatedly teased.
As we know now, however, the big reveal was nothing more than Paul Bettany trolling fans, with the actor referring to himself all along. The connective tissue between the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first episodic series and the Sorcerer Supreme’s sequel didn’t arrive until the third act of the finale, but it looks as though the Darkhold and Wanda’s mastery of it is going to be Multiverse of Madness‘ central plot device.
Cumberbatch and Olsen have since reunited on the set of Doctor Strange’s second solo outing, after the former finished shooting Spider-Man: No Way Home and immediately jetted off to the other side of the Atlantic, where Olsen has been since November having jumped straight from WandaVision‘s reshoots into another major MCU production, and in a new interview, the Sherlock star apologized to fans left disappointed that he didn’t show up in WestView.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you. That would have been fun I guess; it would have led into Lizzie’s involvement with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but ah hell, that’s all to come. We’re in the middle of it now; we’ve been filming since before Christmas and it’s very exciting.”
We’ve heard rumors that Cumberbatch filmed footage for WandaVision that was left on the cutting room floor, but the more likely scenario is that COVID-19 was to blame. Showrunner Jac Schaeffer recently admitted that the pandemic forced the creative team into some changes, and with Cumberbatch in New Zealand shooting a movie when the show was in front of cameras, it would have been a logistical and scheduling nightmare for him to quarantine for two weeks at a time in between Netflix’s The Power of the Dog, WandaVision, No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness for the sake of a cameo.
