It's Well Past Time For The MCU To Hex Cinemas With A Scarlet Witch Movie
Remember the days when the Marvel Cinematic Universe used to tread carefully around all things magical? Back in the days of yore, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) swore by science and scoffed at the supernatural, and much of Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) mythical Asgard was explained as super-advanced science. That's very much not the case these days. After Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) blasted the floodgates open in his namesake movie, magic has become one of the most integral threads in the MCU fabric.
The strange thing about magic being such an important MCU commodity these days is that the most prominent magic user the franchise has at its disposal hasn't received her own movie yet. Doctor Strange's rolling two movies deep, but Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) outclasses the sorcerer in every magical way, yet remains woefully movieless.
Sure, Wanda has received plenty of attention during Phase Four. She kicked off the Disney+ show leg of the MCU with "WandaVision," which promptly became the biggest show in the world when it started airing (via Business Insider). After becoming the Scarlet Witch and falling under the Darkhold's influence, she acts as the complex, chilling antagonist of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." However, that's not enough, and there are Wanda stories that remain untold. As such, it's high time that the MCU takes things to the next level –- by finally giving Wanda her own "Scarlet Witch" movie.
Wanda has become one of the most important MCU characters
Apart from dominating the ratings when it came out, "WandaVision" left an enduring legacy that's set to continue in a spinoff featuring breakout villain Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn). If you want more proof of how much "WandaVision" continues to dominate fan headspace, look no further than the persistent rumors that Joe Locke will appear in "Agatha: Coven of Chaos" as Wiccan, the superhero identity of Wanda's son Billy (previously played by Baylen Bielitz and Julian Hillard). Billy's eventual transformation to Wiccan is teased in both "WandaVision" and "Multiverse of Madness," and ongoing interest in the character's MCU future is just another example of how wide Wanda's influence is. What's more, there are rumors of Vision (Paul Bettany) getting his own Disney+ show. This series would also have inevitable ties to Wanda, given the two characters' history together.
As for Wanda herself, her MCU storyline has been arguably the most dramatic and difficult one out there. For every moment of happiness she gets to experience, a double scoop of loss is lurking around the corner. This has taken a great toll on her well-being, and while her deadly actions in "Multiverse of Madness" can be attributed to the Darkhold's corrupting influence, what she does to Westview in "WandaVision" is all on her.
The combination of her difficult history and her Scarlet Witch power boost is arguably enough to make Wanda one of the most fascinating characters in the MCU, if not the single most compelling one. What's more, Elizabeth Olsen is not only a commanding onscreen presence, but also the Swiss army knife of MCU actors. She's portrays Wanda as a sitcom character, a tragic heroine, a classic superhero, a ruthless villain, and a straight-up horror movie monster — all without ever losing the character's core. At the moment, it's hard to imagine a genre she couldn't play Wanda in.
All of this adds up to a character that could –- or rather, should -– easily carry her own movie, especially since Wanda is currently in dire need of a redemption arc.
The MCU's current direction needs Wanda in order to function
The Scarlet Witch in dire need of redemption after the events of "Multiverse of Madness," and there's absolutely no reason why she shouldn't receive one. From a business standpoint, she's proved to be a popular character with visually amazing powers, and at this point, it should be clear that Olsen is versatile and charismatic enough to carry pretty much any type of movie. From a story standpoint, we never actually see her perish in the end of "Multiverse of Madness," and Kevin Feige himself has teased that Wanda's fate might not be as cut and dry as the collapse of Wundagore implies. With so many crucial Scarlet Witch comic book stories still untold, and the character currently stuck just about as low as she can get, it would be massively disappointing to not bring her front and center in a future big-bucks project.
Apart from the character's own story needs, Wanda's presence is crucial for the various storylines the MCU is increasingly tinkering with. At this point of her character arc, she's connected with pretty much every Earth magician still alive, and a known player in the superhero community. Since she's the current ur-magic user in the main timeline, every magic-themed MCU story is going to have a Wanda-shaped hole until they actually bring her back in a major way, as is every storyline involving White Vision. Since there's already been a Wanda-themed Disney+ show, and she's played secondary and supporting parts in multiple movies, the only way to do this without repetition would be a Wanda-centric movie.
The best ways to redeem Wanda have already been tested on Loki
It's possible to think that after "WandaVision" and "Multiverse of Madness," Wanda is simply too far gone for any kind of redemption. That might be true it wasn't for the fact that the MCU has already successfully tried no less than two different methods for such redemption — both on the same character, no less.
Wanda's Westview mind control games and assaults on Kamar-Taj and the Earth-838 Illuminati are pretty awful. Still, they have nothing on Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who spends the entirety of Phase One plotting against entire worlds -– first Asgard, then Earth –- and unleashes a full alien invasion against New York in "The Avengers." This leaves Loki with plenty of blood on his hands, but that doesn't stop him from slowly redeeming himself over the course of the next two MCU phases. What's more, Phase Four sees a much less mature alternate-timeline version of Loki undergoing a similar arc in his namesake Disney+ show.
As it turns out, the events of "Multiverse of Madness" give the MCU a chance to take Wanda down either of those arcs. Assuming the "main" Wanda survives the movie -– which, judging by Feige's comments, she may well do -– she may have to eat a whole bunch of humble pie. Still, since she's more or less mind-controlled by the Darkhold in the movie, she could very well redeem herself by, say, saving the world from an adequately major threat. If the MCU prefers to explore the alternate-timeline route, that's also possible. After all, while Earth-838 Wanda seems to be a perfectly nice person, she does tear through that universe's main superhero team under Scarlet Witch's control. Eventually, someone'll have something to say about that, prompting much confusion and an ultimate redemption story.
There's an excellent chance that the MCU isn't done with Wanda Maximoff quite yet. Hopefully, the powers that be will bring her back in a movie of her own.