Doctor Strange 2 Writer Talks Wanda/Scarlet Witch’s Fate

Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is one of the most bombastic entries into the MCU yet, with twists and turns akin to M. Night Shyamalan in his heyday. However, one of the most acclaimed elements thus far has been the inclusion of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, fresh from the events of the Disney+ series WandaVision.

SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

The freshly minted Scarlet Witch shows up early in the film, and not as the slightly antagonistic ally that most were expecting. Rather, she’s gone full dark side via being corrupted by the Darkhold (the book she took from Agatha Harkness in WandaVision). She’s still lost in grief and obsessed with finding and being reunited with her children, whom she’s dreams about every night. From there, Wanda goes on a multiverse witch hunt, trying to capture America Chavez and absorb her powers, so that she can travel the multiverse herself, and only Doctor Strange (and occasionally Wong) stands in her way from Multiversal domination.

By the end, Wanda sees the error of her ways and sacrifices herself to destroy every version of the Darkhold across the multiverse, ending in puff of her signature red magical smoke. However, it might not be that cut and dry. During a recent interview with Variety, Multiverse of Madness screenwriter Michael Waldron stated that:

I think that’s up for interpretation. She made some kind of sacrificial act that destroyed the Darkhold in every universe, which is protecting Wanda in every universe from being seduced by the Darkhold. Whether she’s dead or not remains to be seen. I know what it’s like to love characters and to not want them to be gone and to hate when they do bad things. But that’s that’s part of the fun of watching stuff and getting swept up in it. [And] No, I don’t wish WandaVision had done anything differently. I wouldn’t change a thing about what they did. My interpretation of WandaVision is that she confronts her grief and she lets go of the people she has under her control, but I don’t think she necessarily resolves her grief in that show, and I don’t think she resolves her anger. Maybe she’s able to say goodbye to Vision, but I think she’s really just fallen in love with those kids. I think that all of those hanging threads are the things that the Darkhold preys on when she gets the Darkhold from Agatha. You see in the final scene of WandaVision, that tag — the mistake that our Wanda makes is she opens the Darkhold. She starts reading, and I think it preys on her desire to have those children and have them for real this time. So yeah, that was how I arrived there. It made sense to me and it made sense to our teams because we built the story.

These comments certainly leave things up in the air, but the thing that’s most clear is that Wanda is not DEFINITIVELY gone. After all, comic book characters survive things they shouldn’t all the time. Matt Murdock/Daredevil survived an entire building falling onto him while he was stuck in a hole about a mile underground during the events of The Defenders. And everyone remembers Black Widow‘s many miraculous falls that somehow didn’t murder her immediately during the events of her eponymous film, right? The point is, both of these characters didn’t have any superpowers that made them more durable or impervious. Wanda, on the other hand, is literally on God-mode, weilding powers that not even the full might of the sorcerers of the Earth could hold back. Suffice to say, if there was a character that could survive falling down a mountain side amidst the crumbling remains of a dark temple built in her honor, it’s Wanda.

Whatever the case, it will likely be awhile before audiences find out for sure whether or not Wanda/Scarlet Witch survived the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or not. The takeaway here is that it’s entirely possible and fans shouldn’t count out their favorite classic TV’s loving kinda hero/kinda villain just yet. But what do you think? Is did the Scarlet Witch survive? Sound off in the comments!