Kevin Feige once named Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel as the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but soon changed his mind and bestowed the honor upon Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch instead. The architect of the entire franchise wasn’t just going to switch his stance for no reason, so there were clearly major plans in store for a character who had largely operated on the fringes of the mythology.
In fact, based on the upcoming Phase Four slate, Wanda Maximoff could be the single most important figure in Phase Four. Not only does she co-headline the next stage of the studio’s interconnected narrative in WandaVision, but she’s also taking second billing in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, making it pretty clear that her reality manipulating powers are going to have some pretty major consequences.
Spider-Man 3 is also embracing the multiverse, leading to speculation that Wanda could be revealed as the villain of either WandaVision, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or even the entirety of Phase Four itself. In a recent interview, the actress addressed that line of inquiry, but unsurprisingly skirted around the issue, saying:
“I mean, she had posed a threat that’s how she started with her anger towards Stark and she had you know, she started as that rebel and then she realized that the power she was fighting for wasn’t the actual good and so that’s why she became who she is. And whatever fighting for good means evolves over time I guess but I think she found the Avengers to be the side of good.”
Having been introduced as a villain in Avengers: Age of Ultron, we’ve already seen Wanda embrace her dark side, but with the very fabric of reality at stake in the upcoming Disney Plus exclusive, WandaVision is set to have huge ramifications that could span years of movies and TV shows. We’ve never seen the MCU’s roster of heroes truly battle a genuine threat from one of their own, either, and it would certainly be a fresh and novel approach after years of shady businessmen, former friends and intergalactic menaces acting as antagonists.