In WandaVision, we learned that Wanda Maximoff had used her Chaos Magic to turn the town of Westview into the sitcoms she grew up watching as a child. It was all a means of getting a happy ending with The Vision and the children she so desperately wanted, but her new family wasn't real.
After becoming the Scarlet Witch, Wanda flew into the unknown but was later shown to be studying the Darkhold. From there, she went on a rampage through the Multiverse in an effort to force America Chavez to take her to a world where she could be with Billy and Tommy again.
After slaughtering Earth-838's Illuminati, it was clear the Scarlet Witch had headed down a villainous route and that's been understandably problematic for some fans.
Talking in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' "Art of" book, one of the sequel's producers, Richie Palmer, shared a compelling justification for Wanda's apparent descent into villainy.
"WandaVision was a crazy journey for that character," he begins. "So to see where she would go after that, it might naturally be a darker place. She might not be the happiest person in the world after that show, and we see how the most powerful being in the universe deals with the question of happiness."
"It's kind of a theme of our movie. Doctor Strange is also dealing with the same thing: You've saved the world. You've sacrificed for the greater good. But are you happy? This is something that all of our characters really have to confront, and that question takes them to crazy places. Wanda sees America as a chance to go find happiness out in The Multiverse. And she's The Scarlet Witch, so it's going to be hard to stop her from getting what she wants."
While it's easy enough to understand why some fans didn't like this creative decision, Palmer pointed to the comics when it comes to where Marvel Studios took its inspiration for this story arc.
"At the end of the day, we're all fans of the comics," he explains. "And in the comics, The Scarlet Witch-for various reasons doesn't always do things that are good for everyone around her."
"She kills people in the comics. She rewrites reality to her whims. And we always said, this character is in our universe - we should really be honoring what she does in the comics because we think it'll be fun. We think people will want to see it."
That's all 100% correct and when all was said and done, Wanda did make the ultimate sacrifice to rid the entire Multiverse of the Darkhold. While it looked like she died beneath Wundagore Mountain, we expect the Scarlet Witch to return somewhere down the line as there was a flash of red before the mountain collapsed in on itself.
How did you feel about the Scarlet Witch's Phase 4 story arc?