WandaVision: What We Know About Scarlet Witch's Role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

The Scarlet Witch will return in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Episode 9 of WandaVision, "The Series Finale," ended with the anguished Avenger Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) embracing her destiny as the Scarlet Witch — a legendary figure who has an entire chapter in the damned book that is the Darkhold — and the ages-old witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) ominously warning Wanda: "You have no idea what you've unleashed." After once again losing the Vision (Paul Bettany), and their magic-made twin sons Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy (Jett Klyne), Wanda broke her spell over Westview when freeing the New Jersey town from the Hex — effectively ending her one-season sitcom WandaVision.

A post-credits scene ending the Marvel Studios original series shows Wanda's astral form — dressed in the bewitching new costume created during her final encounter with Agatha — studying the Darkhold cover-to-cover as a familiar musical cue tees up Wanda's return in the Doctor Strange sequel from Marvel Cinematic Universe first-timer Sam Raimi.

As the Scarlet Witch plots to bring back her children, who can be heard pleading for their mother's help in the final seconds of WandaVision, the post-credits scene directly ties into what's to come in the mind-bending Multiverse of Madness.

"There's never much we can talk about in Marvel, but I do think WandaVision is a natural progression into what happens in Doctor Strange 2," Olsen previously told Good Morning America about Wanda's next film appearance after Avengers: Endgame. "I think [Marvel Studios president and producer] Kevin Feige is doing a really amazing job intertwining the television format with the films so that we can tell more interesting stories moving forward."

Now knowing that she's a witch who wields probability-altering Chaos Magic, Wanda has also been made aware that her power surpasses that of the Sorcerer Supreme — formerly the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), the centuries-old mystical protector of Earth who died in 2016's Doctor Strange — making her more powerful than even Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a Master of the Mystic Arts.

Wanda's immense and unpredictable power makes her a target for Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the disillusioned former disciple of the Ancient One who abandoned Kamar-Taj and the Masters of the Mystic Arts when he learned his master spent centuries drawing power from the Dark Dimension — a dimension ruled by the cosmic conqueror Dormammu.

We last saw Mordo warning his ex-ally Strange that "the bill comes due" in Doctor Strange, which ended with Mordo hunting down Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt) and stripping him of his magic powers because there are "too many sorcerers" in the world. Ejiofor previously confirmed his return to the MCU in an interview with ComicBook.com.

When Feige announced Olsen would join Cumberbatch in the Doctor Strange sequel at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, Olsen said of WandaVision: "We're gonna get weird, get deep, and finally understand Wanda Maximoff as Scarlet Witch."

Whether the Scarlet Witch will be friend or foe — or both — in Doctor Strange 2 remains to be seen. At Comic-Con, Cumberbatch revealed Strange will be "facing unexpected things" after helping save the universe from Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.

"I think he'll be in a position rather like the audience of not knowing what's coming at him," Cumberbatch said at the panel of his character, who first returns opposite Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in December's Spider-Man: No Way Home. "There was a lot of authority, I thought, in the Avengers iterations, so we're going back to kind of destroy him, I think."

Feige has teased WandaVision is the first in a loose trilogy connecting the Marvel Studios series to feature films Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. There is no indication that Olsen will appear in the Spider-Man threequel swinging into theaters on December 17.

"Wanda will continue into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and there's a lot more to her story to be told," WandaVision director Matt Shankman said in a recent interview ahead of the nine-episode show's series finale. "So this is only one part of a very complicated and very rich life."

All episodes of WandaVision are now streaming on Disney+. Olsen's Wanda Maximoff returns in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, releasing in theaters on March 25, 2022.

Watch WandaVision on Disney+.

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