Yesterday, we learned more about plans for Doctor Strange to make a cameo appearance in WandaVision's final episode. That would have been a lot of fun, but it turns out that the Sorcerer Supreme very nearly popped up in one of those weird commercials that hinted at Wanda Maximoff's pre-Westview life.
Talking to Rolling Stone, director Matt Shakman started by opening up on the importance of the mysterious adverts .
"Well, we were creating TV shows, so we always knew we wanted to have commercials," he said. "So then the question was, well, what are the commercials? We wanted it to be an opportunity to have some of the larger thematics of the show trickling in, and also some of the history of Wanda - that they were a way for her unconscious to be manifesting. "
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige weighed in by noting that they "had a deal with Benedict [Cumberbatch] to pop up at the end of WandaVision, or somewhere in WandaVision." According to Head Writer Jac Schaeffer, that was set to consist of a brief cameo in the Nexus commercial for antidepressants.
"One of my favorite ideas was that in the Nexus commercial [in Episode Seven], it would kind of be a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo, a quick image of Dr. Strange as the pharmacist in the background," she reveals. "I was very inspired by Fight Club, when Brad Pitt’s character is on the TV in the hotel - like, if you’re looking closely you’d see it for just a second. We were like, 'The Nexus commercial is her subconscious. What if Strange is in the background and trying to reach her?'"
"There was a version of the commercials where it was Dr. Strange trying to reach out to her, that he was actually behind the commercials, and we moved off of that idea."
It would have been cool to see the Strange factor into WandaVision's commercials that way, lending them a little more meaning and delivering a satisfying payoff. However, it would have also required the Sorcerer Supreme to have a key role in the series finale, an idea Marvel Studios moved away from in order to avoid having the Scarlet Witch rely on the hero to show up and save the day.
Are you disappointed we didn't get a Doctor Strange cameo?