#217 – The Return of Scarlet Witch | How Wanda Could Change the Multiverse

Welcome back to Marvel Maniac and MCU After Show. I'm your host, Eric Cicada, and today's episode is a question that Marvel fans have been asking ever since the rubble settled at the end of Doctor Strange. In the multiverse of madness, the return of Scarlet Witch. Is Wanda Maximoff gone forever? Or is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date simply waiting for the right moment to come back and change everything? Because when you look at Wanda's story in the mcu, one thing becomes clear. She may have the most tragic journey of any hero we've seen. And today we're going to look at all that and break it down a little bit and ask ourselves, is she worthy of a return? Wanda Maximoff enters the MCU in Avengers Age of Ultron with her brother Pietro Quicksilver, known in the comics. Right away, she isn't introduced as a hero. She's angry and she's traumatized, and she has a very good reason to be. Her parents were killed when a Stark Industries missile destroyed their home. She and her brother Pietro spent two days staring at an unexploded missile, waiting for it to go off. It was beeping, and they waited and they watched. And probably one of the most terrifying moments in her life. It sounds pretty traumatic to me, thinking that you're about to get blown up at any second for two days straight. Just imagine living through that. That kind of trauma doesn't disappear. It shapes you. By the end of Age of Ultron, Wanda chooses to fight with the Avengers. But the cost is immediate. Pietro dies. Her brother, the one person who truly understood her. And that loss sets the tone for everything that comes next for Scarlet Witch, AKA Wanda. I don't think she truly really even becomes a Scarlet Witch until later. But comic book fans at the time were like, scarlet Witch is in the game now. And Pietro was, like, just as big of an introduction as Wanda in Age of Ultron. So it was very honestly shocking to see him redeem himself and die. And that's all in the service of Wanda's character arc. But it is tragic because it's some what, like other hero meetings we've had, we learn to like them across the movie that at the end, they finally join up with the heroes and save the world. But this time, we got all that, except for the hero dies, leaving Wanda to grieve alone. Or so it seems. Then comes Vision, the story of love and loss. One of the most interesting relationships in the MCU didn't even really get that much time to breathe. But it felt so right in the moments that they were together on screen. And Vision wasn't just someone that Wanda loved. He was someone who understood her power without fearing it. But Wanda's life is a pattern. Every time she finds something worth holding on to, it gets taken away. In Infinity War, we're just getting to kind of understand this romance between the two. They're kind of like on the run together, opposite sides. In the movie Civil War, Wanda has to do the unthinkable. In Infinity War, to protect humanity, she must destroy the Mind Stone directly in Vision's head. It's worst case scenario must be done. Thanos is approaching. The heroes are holding him off the best that they could. The heroes don't even suggest her to do it. It's Vision that makes the decision, which might make it the tiniest bit easier for her. So she does what she has to. She sacrifices her feelings to be a hero and kill the love of her life and destroy the Mind Stone in the process. She does it. But one of the most painful sacrifices any hero makes in the MCU gets a reverse card. And Thanos rewinds time and kills Vision again right in front of her. Then Wanda gets snapped out of existence. And when she comes back in End Game, the world has moved on without her. Vision is gone, her brother's gone, her entire life has collapsed. And she has that great moment of release against Thanos. So satisfying for the audience to see him get kind of ragdolled around by Wanda. The strongest of the bunch, but the least utilized. She's finally putting pain into Thanos that Thanos had caused her. And that just happened moments ago for her because she was snapped. So it felt like, you know, in one moment, Vision was lost. And then she sees Thanos again. Not knowing the events of End Game and all the five years that have happened, she is able to kind of use that raw power of just literally seconds ago, watching Vision die twice. And then you took everything from me, and I don't even know who you are, says Thanos. You will. That scene gives me the chills every time I watch Endgame. Especially in retrospect, looking at Wanda's story al together through multiverse of madness. And in W Division, the trauma finally breaks her, brings us right into the head of the Scarlet Witch. And I'll admit I'm biased here, because this is the very first show I ever covered on this podcast. That show wasn't just a Marvel story. It was a story about grief. Very rewatchable. Wanda doesn't wake up one day and decide to become a villain. She creates Westview because she's broken. She almost does it in her subconscious, like a version of crying. But with her powers, she creates a whole little world that fixes just about everything. So it seems simply comes down to she wants that life that was stolen from her. A home, a husband, a family. And for a brief moment, she gets it. Vision. Billy, Tommy. A perfect sitcom life. And it isn't real. But when Wanda realizes the harm she's causing, she lets it go. She releases the town and she says goodbye to her children. Before that, defeating Agatha, who plays a decent part in what I am thinking is Wanda's comeback. Agatha all along. Well, we'll jump back into that again. We did cover the whole show, but it is a companion piece to WandaVision that I think is super important. And I think it's leading into the return of the Scarlet Witch. It's the biggest, biggest clues are in there. Leaving a door open for her to come, she says, goodbye, Division again. So, I mean, let's just think about this for a second. You lose your brother, you're trying to become a hero. Everything falls apart because of a civil war that you have nothing to do with or even really care about. Even after Civil, where they get together, they run away, they share probably some of the most intimate moments that completely inspire and turn into the biggest form of love that she could ever imagine. And the vision is somehow receiving. Even though he's not fully human, he feels the love. He feels her. And again, the ending of WandaVision kind of locks it all in. It's incredibly important because it leaves us with two versions of Wanda. The grieving woman sitting peacefully outside the cabin and the Scarlet Witch studying the Darkhold, hearing her children call for help. This is one of those internally confusing post credit scenes where you don't know exactly where this is going to go from here. And Multiverse of Madness is the one to pick that up. And that's where the story takes a darker turn. Wanda is no longer just grieving by Multiverse of madness. She's corrupted. I'd like to compare her dark journey that we see a result of in Multiverse of madness to Dr. Strange's transformation in his own movie. Plus the time between then and Infinity War, all the time with Dora Mamu. I think there's an equal amount of time that Wanda spent with that Darkhold to become ultra powerful. The full version of the Scarlet Witch and the Darkhold, it amplifies her pain. It twists her intentions, similar to being under a Bit of a spell, but by your own choice. It gives and it takes and it twists her intentions. Yes, she wants to save her children, but the path she takes to get there becomes monstrous. She attacks Kamar Taj, the stronghold of Earth sorcerers. She dream walks across the Multiverse to get this America Chavez, who we've still yet to learn a bit about. I wonder if she'll come back into play. Honestly, she wants to take America Chavez because she can kind of traverse the Multiverse in a way that Wanda doesn't have to dream walk and take pieces out of her own soul pretty much to dream walk in her own body in another universe. And when she arrives on Earth 838, she faces the Illuminati, and they seem pretty awesome, I'll be honest with you. But they completely underestimate her. And they don't listen to Dr. Strange's warnings that Wanda is here. She's more powerful than you've ever could have imagined. Reed Richards, Captain Carter. One of my favorites. So sad to see how she dies in that black bolt, Professor X. One by one, the Scarlet Witch destroys them gruesomely, memorably. It's one of the most shocking power displays we've ever seen in the mcu, to be honest, and honestly, one of the most hurtful character betrayals. Because something like this is not definitively something that's going to make her unredeemable, but it puts her in a different category. After she attacked, Kartaj, took all those lives and. And now she's taking these lives in other universes and destroying people's lives. It's turning her full villain. So that comeback arc that we want so badly, it needs to be huge because we need to raise the question, was Wanda truly evil or was she just a hero lost in grief and corrupted by dark magic? The Darkhold kind of can be the thing you point at and blame instead of fully. Wanda, she was supercharged by this book of the dead and damned, and she became almost everything the book could offer her. Because when Wanda finally sees what she comes at the end of Multiverse of madness, when she sees the terror in her children's eyes, when she sees herself, she stops a definitive decision. And she destroys the Darkhold across every universe. And then the mountain collapses and she, in quotes, dies. We didn't see that death. We saw a spark of red. She could have been went going to another multiverse. She could have been taken by someone like Dr. Doom. Who knows? Who knows what really happened to her? I don't think she Died. I think a piece of her still lives, if anything. And there's a couple of things that I like to speculate, that she thinks she destroyed the Darkhold in every universe. But there's evil forces at play in all universes. And what? Like, let's just say the evil Dr. Strange, for example, the three eyed one we meet, even though he dies, there's probably other ones like him out there. And whoever has that Darkhold and starts to see it get destroyed by another universe, they could use Infinity Stones or other things. So there might be a few copies left, in my opinion. And I think that might be a big twist because some character might hold it like someone in the multiverse of, let's just say 838. Like maybe it's crazy Tom Cruise, Iron man, and he has the Time Stone. So he reverses everything and sees everything that happened, saves all the heroes and they want vengeance because of the disturbance she caused and the incursion that is happening to them. At that point, she. So the Darkhold is. Is still, I think, a contender to be in play, but it's going to be a twist because it'll be Wanda fighting the person who maybe even that universe version of her gets it and starts to become that version of Wanda who she saw. Like she can't escape her fate type deal. I don't know. I'm very curious and I hope something like that comes into play. But as for now, all we really know is the Darkhold is fully destroyed in every universe. So Wanda dies. But this is Marvel. And if there's one rule we know, it's this. If you don't see the body, the character probably isn't gone. Wanda Maximoff is one of the most powerful beings in the mcu. She destroyed every Darkhold across the multiverse. That alone suggests power on a level that rivals even the greatest cosmic forces. So the idea that she simply dies under a pile of rubble feels unlikely. More importantly, her story is not finished. If the Scarlet Witch Returns, the real question isn't if, it's how. Because Wanda has crossed the line. Like I was saying, the destruction of Earth838, the attack on Karma, Taj. Those actions carry consequences. Which means her return likely won't be a simple hero comeback. It will be a redemption arc. A moment where Wanda chooses to use her power to save lives instead of chasing something she lost. Imagine a moment in Avengers, Secret wars or even Doomsday. Doomsday is so filled though. I just have to imagine it might not happen in that movie. Might be set up though, and reality itself could be completely collapsing incursions, destroying entire universes. And in that moment, the Scarlet Witch returns not as a villain, not as a grieving mother, but as someone who finally understands her power and uses it to save millions, maybe even billions, maybe even entire universes. Because if anyone has the ability to reshape reality, it's Wanda Maximoff. And I wouldn't put it below Doom. Go to that moment where she destroys herself a Nexus being and take her and try and get her on his side. Convince her she needs redemption and they work together to try and stop the Incursions. Yes, I do think Dr. Doom will be somewhat of an anti hero. And I think no better sidekick will be Wanda Maximoff. That would be a really cool return. And maybe when she realizes again Doom is doing too far many things to be in control, she might just use her powers against him as well. There's also another possibility. Marvel is slowly moving toward the Mutant Saga. It's not guaranteed that's what it's called, but it's speculated highly. And if not that, it'd be the X Men saga, which I won't like because I kind of want to see the Avengers and other heroes have their day, not just mutants, but it's going to be mutant, mutant, centric. The Scarlet Witch has always been tied to that world in the comics. So it's possible that Wanda's story continues there. Maybe her possible return in Secret wars is only the beginning. Maybe she becomes a bridge between the Avengers and the X Men. So many possibilities, and I'm not going to speculate too much. We'll probably have time to make more Wanda speculations in future episodes, but it is lingering in my mind today. And one thing is certain. Scarlet Witch is too powerful, too important, and too tragic of a character to disappear forever. And like I said in Agatha all along, we are introduced to her actual kids that are created by her in WandaVision, and I'd recommend you watch that. I won't spoil it for now, but there is an arc building towards her return in one way or another through that show. And it seems inevitable, honestly, after you watch that show. Great show. Wanda story began with loss and it spiraled into darkness. But the best Marvel stories are the ones about redemption. Look at Loki. He did some pretty horrible stuff in New York. If Wanda Maximoff returns, it might be the moment that she finally becomes the hero that she was always meant to be. I want to thank you for listening and this is a fun episode to talk about. Do you have any ideas or speculation on anything, I want to know your thoughts. Comment if you're on YouTube or email marvelmaniacpod Gmail.com I'd love to hear your take. Rate us on whatever platform you're listening to. Leave a typed review, we'll read it on the show and it'll honestly always go a long way and it means the world to me. Join our community Discord. Our server link is in the notes of this episode. And until next time, keep loving the stories that bring us together. Avengers disassemble.