Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘s screenwriter, Michael Waldron, has welcomed fan speculation over the fate of its tortured villain Scarlet Witch.
After succumbing heavily to the magics of the Darkhold, Scarlet Witch is presumed dead as she disappears into a mist. Wanda stans have been curious about her fate since the film released last week, and writer Waldron has said the film is definitely leaving it up to interpretation intentionally.
Talking to Variety over a myriad of spoiler-y topics for Doctor Strange 2, he commented on the fate of Wanda Maximoff and if it is indeed a definitive end.
“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.”
Waldron also defended Wanda’s dark turn with glimmerings of hope from WandaVision to full-blown villain in Multiverse of Madness, saying he “wouldn’t change a thing”.
“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.”
Considering how the Marvel Cinematic Universe is building up to the multiverse, and potentially Secret Wars, it’s hard to think there won’t be a Scarlet Witch in a future film or TV series. Elizabeth Olsen has said she is ready to return for a solo film, and so has co-star Benedict Wong.
Fans have already been up to theories for other aspects of Multiverse of Madness, with one becoming prevalent online about the film’s spot in the Marvel timeline.
Doctor Strange 2 is currently in cinemas, already grossing an impressive $450 million on its opening weekend.