Marvel Officially Confirms Scarlet Witch Died In Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

Summary

• Scarlet Witch’s fate in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is revealed through
  Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline
  , officially confirming her tragic death.
• Wanda’s character development in the movie is criticized, as her transformation from a complicated hero to an outright villain is seen as a missed opportunity for a satisfying ending.
• Despite the sacrifice she makes and the redemption she achieves, it’s argued that Scarlet Witch deserved a better ending considering the amount of trauma and loss she has experienced throughout the MCU.

Scarlet Witch’s fate has received a terrible update as Marvel has confirmed that the character died in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Audiences were curious about Wanda Maximoff’s fate toward the end of the movie since it was unclear. While Scarlet Witch was seemingly crushed by falling rocks, characters in the MCU timeline don’t always stay dead, and her mystical powers seemed like they could have saved her in some way.

However, in the MCU book titled Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, Scarlet Witch’s tragic demise appears to be confirmed. The moment occurs during the ending of Multiverse of Madness after Wanda destroys Mount Wungadore and there is a red burst once the rocks crush her. The book says. “[Wanda] destroys Wundagore – and collapses it upon herself – ending two great threats to all of the Multiverse.” Additionally, the entry in the book has a symbol corresponding to a major character death, officially confirming Scarlet Witch’s fate.

Why Scarlet Witch Deserved A Better Ending In The MCU

In Multiverse of Madness, Scarlet Witch goes on a path of destruction to find a universe where she can be with her kids. She needs to find America Chavez and is willing to do anything to get her, including sacking Kamar-Taj and killing the Illuminati. When she finally sees her kids, they are terrified by the monster she’s become, and she finally sees the error of her ways. To right her wrongs and save Doctor Strange, Wong, and Chavez, she destroys the mountain and all copies of the Darkhold with it.

While Scarlet Witch’s sacrifice is a moment of redemption that sends out Wanda as a hero, it’s a disappointing ending for a character who deserves better. Wanda arguably went through the most trauma out of any MCU character. Her family died when she was young, and then she was experimented on before her brother died while fighting Ultron. She later sacrificed Vision only for it to be meaningless, she then got blipped, came back from the blip, and set up her dream life in Westview before having to take it down.

Her villainous turn is one that did make some sense considering how much she lost and what she wanted to get back. However, Multiverse of Madness turned her from a complicated hero into an outright villain who used her trauma as an excuse for the destruction she caused. Wanda deserved a moment where she learned to use everything she lost for the greater good and move on with her life, but she never got that. If Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was the end for Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda, then the MCU may have missed an opportunity to give her a satisfying ending.

How The Multiverse Saga Could Still Bring Scarlet Witch Back To The MCU

While Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is now confirmed to have died in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, this still doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the character’s story entirely, especially in the wake of the Multiverse Saga bringing variants to the table. Given MCU’s Scarlet Witch was shown warping the nature of reality before in WandaVision, it’d be entirely possible for her to do so in some form again.

Failing that, it may make more sense for a variant of the character to take the main stage instead – particularly if Avengers: Secret Wars adapts the element of the comics that saw universes combine together, as this could be used to justify some variants having a permanent place in the main MCU timeline and universe. This is doubly true given the MCU X-Men introduction could be used to bring in another version of Scarlet Witch who is this time able to have her full mutant backstory from the offset.

While the franchise definitely has enough heroes to focus on without being too concerned with Scarlet Witch for the time being, there’s also certainly still plenty of stories that the MCU could use if they were willing to bring the character back in some form from her Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness death. With audiences having had time to become attached to Wanda as both a hero and a villain over the course of her time on-screen, it could make most sense to capitalize on this further with some reprisal of the role.

Agatha All Along Is Now The MCU’s Best Place To Bring Scarlet Witch Back

Scarlet Witch’s death is seemingly further confirmed by the Agatha All Along show trailer, which has Aubrey Plaza’s character tell Agatha that Wanda Maximoff is “gone“, and has this seemingly factor into how the witch is able to be freed from the character’s spell. Naturally, Agatha’s mind having been trapped by the Scarlet Witch at the end of WandaVision means the show has to address her fate to some degree, which may explain why Harkness appears to be investigating Wanda’s death in her detective-esque fantasy world.

With all this said, the show also presents the best opportunity for Scarlet Witch’s return in the MCU. Agatha’s goal – that of traveling The Witch’s Road – would make it easy for Wanda to return at least in a spectral form, or potentially as a symbol of Agatha’s lingering trauma from her time brainwashed, and perhaps even of some guilt in playing a role in Wanda’s own corruption and death by inadvertently giving her the Darkhold.

Attempting to regain her powers via The Witch’s Road could also lead to Agatha and her coven resurrecting Wanda either intentionally or unintentionally, as the pair did exchange their magical essences in the final fight of WandaVision, suggesting an attempt to bring Agatha’s magic back could have the unforeseen consequence of bringing the Scarlet Witch back too. Whatever the case, Scarlet Witch’s death in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness being confirmed doesn’t mean the character may never return to the MCU, even if her revival would have to have a suitable justification.

Source: Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline