After tracking America Chavez to Earth-838 in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Scarlet Witch brutally kills the Illuminati because they're what stands between her and the children she lost when the Hex around Westview came down.
Professor X enters Wanda Maximoff's mind but is killed when a demonic version of the Avenger snaps his neck. Clearly corrupted by the Darkhold, she's not the hero we once knew, but how was this chilling jumpscare dreamed up?
Talking in the movie's recently released "Art of" book, concept artist lan Joyner and Cinematic Illustrator Alex Mandradier explained that a lot of work went the Doctor Strange sequel's chillingly memorable sequence.
"When Sam was describing this," Joyner says, "it was like Wanda's inner vision of herself, just starting to reveal that she sees herself as a monster. So it was a fun place to explore the idea that she is corrupted, she is the creature in the dark."
"Exploring the dark and scarier creature-design elements is always going to be one of my favourite aspects of any of these projects. And taking something so beautiful as Wanda's iconic look and then trying to turn it into something frightening was really a fun challenge. I am highly influenced by Sam Raimi horror, so getting a chance to play in that world was...it's absolutely cliche to say a dream come true, so maybe a nightmare come true but in a good way."
Mandradjiev adds, "It was supposed to be a place where it's a state of mind, and the mind is sort of collapsing. Xavier appears in her mind to give the trapped Wanda some words of wisdom, and she musters up the courage to try to lift this heavy debris."
"I was really actually inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky movies on this one. It feels like it's something out of a dream, and the color palette is influenced by that, as well as the overall tone and atmosphere. I was trusting that feeling that this would take us closer to selling the idea of us being inside somebody's mind."
These insights are always interesting to hear as a huge amount of work goes into even the smallest of moments in a movie this size. Outside of that dreamscape, the Scarlet Witch looked similarly twisted, hence why many fans mistakenly believed the zombie version from What If...? would appear after watching the movie's trailers!
The hope now is that she can find redemption, though we'd be lying to say it wouldn't be fun seeing more of the twisted Scarlet Witch briefly glimpsed when Charles Xavier died.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now streaming on Disney+.