Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is another MCU movie that underwent constant changes during production. Neither director Sam Raimi nor writer Michael Waldron had watched WandaVision when work on the sequel began, leading to a take on the Scarlet Witch that disappointed many fans.
The last time we saw Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff, she'd taken a villainous turn but made a somewhat heroic sacrifice when she was crushed beneath Mount Wundagore. The expectation is that she'll return in Avengers: Doomsday, and rumours continue to swirl about what exactly she'll get up to.
In the meantime, the Doctor Strange sequel continues to divide opinions. While Olsen isn't against where the Scarlet Witch's story went in 2022, she recently revealed that the character's turn to the dark side came as a surprise to her...mere weeks before shooting started!
"I thought that I was in an ensemble cast, and I thought that I was one of the good guys," the Avengers: Endgame said during a recent LA Comic Con appearance. "And then three weeks before I was sent to London, they said, 'You're our lead villain!' And I had no clue."
"And I finished filming WandaVision, I was like, 'Huh, it would've been helpful to know that,' just so I could have pulled the thread through a bit," Olsen explained. "But I think that the story told itself, and I was able to kind of massage things in Doctor Strange to hopefully tell a different story for her."
The right hand not knowing what the left is doing has been a major issue in the Multiverse Saga, with several projects failing to link up in a way that makes sense. That's changed in the past couple of years, in no small part because Marvel Studios is shifting focus back to quality over quantity.
Back in March, Olsen shared her thoughts on where Wanda's story could go next and confirmed that it was an idea she'd taken straight to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.
"You know, when I think about my dream version [of Wanda], it’s like 50 years later, and I have white hair - such a big, massive white wig - and gnarly face of wrinkles doing like a Tracy Ullman thing," the actor said. "And I am just like a creature that they find. And that’s how I imagine Wanda’s next journey."
"It’s something I have quite literally pitched," Olsen added. "Because it would be so fun to get to do that to me. I mean, I guess in one of the comics, she ages quite quickly, and I think those are the images that are implanted in my brain next because I haven’t done it."
The Scarlet Witch will likely return in Avengers: Doomsday, though the expectation is that she'll have a much larger role in Avengers: Secret Wars. Whether that's as Doctor Doom's bride, a Variant from the X-Men Universe, or even a Multiversal MacGuffin remains to be seen.
What are your hopes for Wanda in the MCU moving forward?