It’s been nearly a week since Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness first catapulted into theaters, and the impact of the film is still being felt not only on the box office, and on the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. The film not only provided the biggest outing yet for the live-action Marvel multiverse, but it advanced the storylines of Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) in some significant ways. While there’s no confirmation at this point as to what’s next for either character in the MCU, the events of the film might have laid the groundwork for a significant Scarlet Witch — and Young Avengers — storyline. Spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness below! Only look if you want to know!
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The events of the film see Wanda becoming corrupted by the Darkhold, the dangerous book that gives her full access to the goings-on of Chaos Magic. After realizing that other versions of her children, Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy Maximoff (Jett Klyne), are alive and well in other corners of the multiverse, Wanda decides to use Chaos Magic to capture America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), in hopes of using her multiverse-hopping powers to access those universes. This fight grows complicated when Stephen tries to stop her, and ultimately culminates in a fight at Mount Wundagore, where the text of the original Darkhold is written in a temple. After America showed her that her actions were terrifying the variants of Billy and Tommy in Earth-838, Wanda realized that the Darkhold needed to be destroyed, and proceeded to destroy the temple — and seemingly kill herself along with it.
While it’s unclear at this point if Wanda is alive or dead in the MCU, it’s safe to assume that the latter will be the case, especially given how popular and uniquely-complex she has become in the pop culture space. And with rumors of some sort of Scarlet Witch solo project being possible, there’s one Marvel Comics storyline that the events of Multiverse of Madness could point to — Avengers: The Children’s Crusade. The nine-issue event from Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung ran from 2010 to 2012, and chronicled the Young Avengers’ efforts to search for Wanda, who had gone missing following the chaotic events of Avengers Disassembled, House of M, and Decimation. Eventually, Wanda is discovered to be suffering from amnesia in Latveria, and engaged to none other than Doctor Doom, who soon steals her reality-warping power. The team help Wanda regain her memory, and she decides to go into solitude to atone for her actions.
While some of the specifics of Children’s Crusade wouldn’t necessarily translate to Wanda’s arc post-Multiverse of Madness, there’s an awful lot that still could. For one thing, it stands to reason that Doom could and would be interested in using Wanda and his powers for his own personal gain, which would be a pretty interesting storyline for one of his first appearances in the MCU. We also don’t know where Mount Wundagore exactly is in the Marvel multiverse (especially since Wanda destroying the text of the Darkhold proceeded to destroy the book in all universes, seemingly indicating that it exists outside of the traditional plane of reality), which means it could easily explained away that Doom is able to access Wundagore, save Wanda from the rubble, and brainwash her into becoming his wife. Along the way, the events of Children’s Crusade could easily be remixed to further strengthen Wanda’s personal storyline and agency, leaning further into how powerful and significant she is in the MCU.
There’s also the fact that Children’s Crusade could hypothetically double as a Young Avengers story, something that fans have been eager to see time and time again throughout the past few years of the MCU. In particular, Billy and Tommy (or, well, reincarnations of them) factor heavily into the Children’s Crusade comic storyline, so a live-action equivalent could allow for them to return in main MCU canon and further come into their powers along the way. Add in some cameos from other comic-accurate Young Avengers members, and potentially the first meeting between Billy and Theodore Altman / Hulkling, and you could potentially get another genre-bending and compelling blockbuster within the MCU.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing exclusively in theaters.
