Well, my worse case scenario is here. According to Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, it seems as if Wanda Maximoff does in fact die when fighting herself in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Destroying Mount Wungadore, she also destroys herself in a burst of her red chaos magic. According to the book, “[Wanda] destroys Wundagore – and collapses it upon herself – ending two great threats to all of the Multiverse.”
Frankly? That’s bullsh*t. I’ve never been very happy with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and as much as I do love Sam Raimi and his films, I think that the treatment of Wanda Maximoff is something that will forever just make me mad. Confirming that she died as a way to escape the enchantment of the Darkhold after everything we went through in WandaVision really just makes me throw my hands up and say, “what was the point?”
Wanda is, however, a comic book character. She can come back, since we’re in the multiverse now and her twins are out there with powers. I don’t necessarily think that Wanda is gone forever but this version of the Scarlet Witch may be done, and that’s frustrating. Even if she’s not, the idea that she began to atone for Westview and then instantly became enchanted by the Darkhold, tried to kill America Chavez and then crushed herself to death is … not how I wanted to see my favorite girl go out. It feels like a throwaway end for a character that meant a lot to fans, for no reason other than to have an antagonist to Strange and America in the movie.
Hopefully, this is just for the current Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline.
There is still a chance for Wanda, though.
Like I said before, no one is really dead in the world of comics, and I don’t think she’s gone forever. I don’t want her to come back though as a “villain.” I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again, she’s an anti-hero and not a villain, and I want the MCU to prove that to fans by giving her the time she deserves. We started to see it with WandaVision and then Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness almost negated that.
While I had hoped the red burst we saw meant that Wanda wasn’t dead, the timeline book does seem to confirm that it was her death scene. I do think that we could have her come back in some other way and redeem our Scarlet Witch. She deserves better than going out as a woman driven mad by losing her made up children just because that’s what a man deemed her story.
Wanda Maximoff had such a beautiful, heartbreaking story in WandaVision, and seeing her cope with grief really worked for so many of us. To see that torn to shreds in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hurt, and I hope that Marvel fixes it in the future because I don’t want her being crushed by Mount Wungadore.
(featured image: Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios)
