Fans of Marvel’s What If…? know her as the world’s new super-solider, but fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large might not all know who Wanda is fighting in the most recent TV spot for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. With a shot of her shied as she does her superhero landing, we see none other than Captain Carter taking on a version of Wanda Maximoff.
Created by A.C. Bradley for the series What If…?, we see what would happen if Peggy Carter was the one who took the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers/Captain America, and she plays an important part in the multiverse-spanning animated series. Now, knowing what we do from the footage of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that we’ve seen, it isn’t that shocking that she’s making her live-action debut.
It’s unclear if it is star Hayley Atwell back in action as Peggy, but she was the voice in the animated series and she has come back in the past for appearances as Peggy throughout the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, we can hope that it is her with some degree of evidence. What’s fascinating to me about this snippet is that we see her maybe fighting Wanda Maximoff in it.
Was that Wanda Vs. Peggy?
It’s clear that Peggy is in a fight with someone and it looks like she’s facing off against Wanda. Could it be just how the shot is laid out and that they’re on the same team, and we’re just being misled? Or is this a look into the future of some of the Avengers against a version of the Scarlet Witch? Personally, I think that if we’re getting plenty of What If…? content in this movie, that could easily be a different universe’s Wanda and could even be the zombie Wanda we saw in the series.
And the promotional material has done a pretty good job of showing multiple versions of Wanda in the trailer, so we could have a “good” version of the Scarlet Witch in our main MCU Wanda, with a more sinister version of her coming in the form of Wandas from different realities. I’m incredibly nervous about the treatment of Wanda in this movie because I love her so much and I don’t want her to be labeled as a villain when it is clear that she’s trying to do right by the Avengers and her world, but it does help, a little, that this seems to be a different version of her from the one we know.
Despite what’s happening in the clip, it’s exciting to see Captain Carter in action. Even if it is just for this movie, it’s nice to know that Peggy Carter is out there as a super-soldier and rightfully so. She was one of the strongest people in the army when she was working with Steve Rogers, so it’s only right that she gets her time to shine as Captain Carter now that the main timeline’s Steve Rogers is seemingly gone.
(image: Marvel Entertainment)
