Scarlet Witch’s Doomsday Return Rumor Has a Major X-Men Twist & Completes Marvel’s Mutant Retcon

A new rumor about Avengers: Doomsday provides some fresh details on how Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) could return to the MCU, with some major ties to the X-Men. If there’s a character who has been in a Marvel movie, then chances are they’ve been linked to an appearance in Doomsday. The movie already has dozens of actors returning, with at least a couple dozen more expected to be added to the cast (with or without chairs), ranging from Chris Evans’ Captain America to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. And then there’s Wanda Maximoff, who hasn’t been seen in live-action since her apparent demise in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

It’s long been expected that at least some version of Scarlet Witch will return to the MCU, and Doomsday provides the perfect opportunity to do that, with a multiverse story that could allow for one or more variants to appear, if not the MCU’s main Wanda. According to a new Q&A from The Cosmic Circus‘ Alex Perez, that could be happening. While he notes it’s not official and it absolutely needs to be taken with a few pinches of salt, it’s possible that Wanda’s return will be from the X-Men universe:

“In an unofficial capacity, I heard we’d be getting a Wanda variant from the X-Men universe that we’ll see in Avengers: Doomsday, which is a universe where Magneto is finally ruling Genosha as he had always pictured it; and we’d have like a “royal family” type of situation with Erik, Pietro, Wanda, and Polaris. This is an idea that has been pushed since Multiverse of Madness, and then Deadpool and Wolverine, but it never feels like the right fit because it feels like it takes away from the overall plot. However, the main point they would like to explore with Wanda is the father-daughter relationship with Erik.”

What This Means For Scarlet Witch & The X-Men

This twist, if it happens (and that’s a very big if, but it’s fun to think about), would bring Scarlet Witch somewhat in line with the comics. The character’s origins have changed a lot over the years, but the most notable retcon came with the reveal that Magneto was the father of her and her brother, Pietro, aka Quicksilver. When Wanda and Pietro were first introduced to the MCU back in 2014, that wasn’t something Marvel could do because, quite simply, it didn’t have the rights. Magneto, the X-Men, and mutants were off-limits, but that’s no longer the case.

Still, Marvel has tentatively left the door open for a potential retcon. In its Visual Dictionary published in 2018, it described her abilities with the following intriguing line: “Whether it altered her or merely unlocked something latent inside Wanda, the Infinity Stone on Loki’s scepter bestowed incredible powers of the mind.” Later, The Wakanda Files (published as an in-universe book) revealed that one of the reasons Hydra had based itself on Sokovia was because it believed the citizens had “the appropriate genetic markers” for their miracle experiments to work.

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With mutants now firmly in the MCU, and not just the multiverse but Earth-616 (thanks to Ms. Marvel), those teases of a possible latent X-gene within Wanda feel all the more pertinent. Although the version of the character rumored for Doomsday is from another universe, where there’s no need for such a retcon, it could mean that it also ends up applying to the main Scarlet Witch as well. The setup is there, so it’s now just a matter of whether “our” Wanda also returns, and if it goes through with it. It’d be very difficult to make her Magneto’s daughter, of course, but pretty simple to make her a mutant.

Besides the potential impact on Scarlet Witch, this multiverse twist would itself be exciting for Avengers: Doomsday. Magneto has used Genosha twice previously in the movies (he was based there in X-Men, and granted it in Dark Phoenix), and it could continue being a refuge of sorts of mutants, who are then forced into action because of what’s happening with Doctor Doom and, presumably, a threat to their world. Having Magneto be the father of Wanda and Pietro in that world, and them working together, is a means of using that aspect of the comics, without having to bring it into the main MCU for good, given it’ll eventually be rebooting the X-Men – perhaps with Scarlet Witch involved in some way if Phase 7 ends up being “The Mutant Saga.”

Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18th, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on December 17th, 2027. Before then, we’ll get Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31st, 2026.

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