WANDAVISION Head Writer Breaks Silence On Scarlet Witch's Divisive Story Arc In DOCTOR STRANGE Sequel

WandaVision and Agatha All Along Head Writer Jac Schaeffer has broken her silence on the Scarlet Witch's divisive story arc in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness thanks to writer Michael Waldron.

By JoshWilding - Sep 21, 2024 08:09 AM EST

Filed Under: WandaVision

For a time, it looked like Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was putting all his eggs in a Rick & Morty-shaped basket. He tapped a number of writers from that series to work on the Multiverse Saga, including Jeff Loveness and Michael Waldron.

The former penned Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania before being hired for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, while Waldron was Head Writer on Loki before writing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Feige had so much faith in Waldron that he teamed with him for a Star Wars movie that never happened and even got him to replace Loveness on The Kang Dynasty. However, things have since changed and Waldron's time in the MCU appears to be over.

Despite Loki receiving widespread critical acclaim, it's believed season 2 Head Writer Eric Martin played a much bigger role in that first batch of episodes than originally reported. Meanwhile, fans turned on Waldron for how he portrayed the Scarlet Witch in the Doctor Strange sequel.

Elizabeth Olsen has previously confirmed that Waldron "had not seen" WandaVision and now the show's lead creative has shared her thoughts on the Scarlet Witch's descent into villainy while promoting Agatha All Along.

Talking to Radio Times, Jac Schaeffer said, "I love Wanda and I love all the characters that I’ve had the privilege of working with; Natasha [in Black Widow], Carol Danvers [in Captain Marvel], everybody. But one of the agreements of being part of the MCU is you're kind of borrowing characters and storylines for a time."

"You get your experience with them, and then things continue, which is one of the wonderful, special things about the MCU. A lot of my friends and colleagues were on that film," she added. "I feel grateful for my time with [Wanda] and just hopeful for more of her in any way that that might happen. And really just more of Lizzie [Olsen] in anything, she’s so spectacular."

Interestingly enough, Olsen appeared to take a shot at Waldron while discussing the Scarlet Witch's possible MCU return.

"I think so. I assume as much," she said when asked if the Avenger is still alive. "Yeah, and there was a red light of explosive energy. I think I'm dead. I would beg to leave a window open. I had so much fun doing these movies. I would like to figure out how to cleverly be undead."

"We need to find the smartest writers to figure out how to make this all make sense. I'm open to ideas," she noted.

Rumour has it Schaeffer will write the Scarlet Witch movie, though we're not expecting that to be released until after Vision and Avengers: Secret Wars are released (so likely in the next Saga which, if the fan theories are accurate, will be the "Mutant Saga").

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19 Comments

DrReedRichards - 9/21/2024, 8:14 AM

With all due respect, there was never anything "divisive" about Wanda's arc, neither in her own show, nor in Strange's sequel. In the former we saw her descent through tragedy into villainy, and in the latter she acted appropriately as such; a villain.

The only thing that can be seen as "divisive" was Monica's nonsensical, baseless, and outright stupid attempt to justify her actions in Westview:

"They'll never know what you sacrificed..."

MY ASSS!

Remove that stupid line, and it all flows like water in a creek.

TheVisionary25 - 9/21/2024, 8:18 AM

@DrReedRichards - I mean I get Monica’s perspective since she was empathizing with Wanda a bit too much perhaps given her own grief with her mothers passing and not being there for it.

I understood it to an extent from that perspective but yeah , maybe not the best line for it

EZBeast - 9/21/2024, 8:37 AM

@DrReedRichards - think they will try to redeem her or go the "vatient" style path and start again? Her path to becoming a villian seemed to work well enough but I just don't see marvel sticking with it.

DTor91 - 9/21/2024, 9:09 AM

@DrReedRichards - There was and still is TONS of divisiveness over Madness.

DrReedRichards - 9/21/2024, 10:03 AM

@DTor91 -

By those who whined mostly about America's parents, coincidentally enough. And by coincidentally I mean predictably. And by predictably I mean pattern-wise. And by pattern I mean--

I'm sure you can put two and two together.

Conquistador - 9/21/2024, 10:06 AM

@DrReedRichards - Disagree.. respectfully.

WandaVision dabbled with her ethics in holding the town captive and so on, for her to then see the error of her ways by the end and then puts things right...so she redeemed herself in a way.

By the time we get to MoM she no longer cares about who gets hurt.

Some will say it was the dark hold, but I think they tried to say it wasn't...but anyway she killed a bunch of people and then she redeemed herself again in the end.... it didn't line up and just repeated some sorry beats.

MoM would have been better if we didn't already see her go through her arc in WandaVision.

DrReedRichards - 9/21/2024, 10:09 AM

@Conquistador -

I see what you mean about repeated story beats, but I saw it more as an escalation. In WV, she was like "oops, I messed up, time to hit the road". In Mom, she turned it up to "woah, I royally f#cked up, time to off myself".

Conquistador - 9/21/2024, 10:12 AM

@DrReedRichards - The thing is WV was needed to be seen because if you saw MoM straight after Endgame (her last movie appearance) it also didn't line up... so it contradicts itself in way...it was silly. If they ended WV with her being straight up evil it would have been a much better set up.

DrReedRichards - 9/21/2024, 10:18 AM

@Conquistador -

I don't disagree that WV was necessary material before MoM, but I also don't see how it's a negative. Same way someone couldn't watch Cap 3 without watching Avengers 2, which is the case with most MCU sequels.

JobinJ - 9/21/2024, 8:28 AM

Leave her dead. She deserved it. Killed lots of people and heroes. Evil.

Unlike Bucky, she was aware of what she was doing.

TheVisionary25 - 9/21/2024, 8:47 AM

It’s a nice mindset to have since ultimately , Wanda is one of Marvel’s characters so they can do with her as they wish regardless of how people may feel about it so it makes no sense to have a sense of ownership & outrage over it.

Ultimately , I do have a bit of an issue with Wanda’s villain turn in MOM in that it felt like Wanda had atleast some regret for her actions at the end of WV so to have her already be a villain at the start of the movie was a bit jarring…

However ,. I do think it made sense to a degree aswell since she was still in a somewhat vulnerable mental state at the end of WV that made me buy her being more susceptible to the Darkhold’s corrupting influence.

Anyway , I still liked MoM overall though!!.

ObserverIO - 9/21/2024, 8:48 AM

I know this sounds like a really bad message but... it's okay to be a villain.
And by that I mean that it's okay for characters to be villains.

The best villains are the ones we understand and are sympathetic towards, then seeing them go too far is all the more tragic, all the more compelling and a much stronger morality tale than just generic evil bad guy cackling like a lunatic.

Apophis71 - 9/21/2024, 9:06 AM

@ObserverIO - Yup, I always tended to prefer the story arcs of characters who start out villain then move into the grey area or even full hero more than the boy scout who maybe gets tarnished at times like Captain America.

With those villains turned hero it also always makes logical sense they could end up on a path towards villain again and add in influences like brainwashing, or as here magic with the Darkhold or Chthon can easily go far darket than they were when they started out.

Assuming our Wanda does return (rather than recast/reboot with a Variant) there are ample ways she could remain a villain but be a more sympathetic one like how she started out in AoU or start on a path to full redemption regardless who/how many she killed (only need to reinforce and/or add to how much she was under the influence of an evil book/being).

It just remains to be seen how they handle it narratively and if they can satisfactoraly pull it off to the satisfaction of the majority of the GA.

DTor91 - 9/21/2024, 9:16 AM

@ObserverIO - Yes, but the problem is and always has been that a lot of the plot points of Strange just feels redundant as a result, and a huge piece of the puzzle is missing. If you saw WandaVision, it expects you to infer what happened in between. A scene of her reading the Darkhold just isn’t enough. And more so, repeating the idea of Wanda being at fault for a fourth time…again redundant. Built up an entire series to justify “earning” the Scarlet Witch name and then straight on villain in an instant. If you’re someone who never saw WandaVision, all of a sudden the character you knew as mostly a hero is a full on villain out of nowhere. If there was a gradual slip into villainy in Strange, I’m certain it would have been far better received.

bobevanz - 9/21/2024, 9:19 AM

I just wish Strange got his OWN MOVIE, the fact that they made it a Wanda movie with him as a side character is just wrong. What was his purpose there? His story arc was meaningless, the movie was meaningless and tame af for being a "multiverse" movie. Mid

Fares - 9/21/2024, 9:58 AM

That's the right thing to say in his position regardless of what he truly thinks. Gotta be a team player.

elcapitan - 9/21/2024, 10:09 AM

Olsen herself said she’d be interested in a story based on House of M. Clearly, that would make the most sense for a Scarlet Witch movie taking place in the Mutant Saga.

NickScryer - 9/21/2024, 10:15 AM

Doctor Strange MoM script was so bad that even Raimi couldn't turn it into a good movie.

MotherGooseUPus - 9/21/2024, 10:34 AM

i just want more lizzie olsen, plain and simple

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WANDAVISION Head Writer Breaks Silence On Scarlet Witch's Divisive Story Arc In DOCTOR STRANGE Sequel

WandaVision and Agatha All Along Head Writer Jac Schaeffer has broken her silence on the Scarlet Witch's divisive story arc in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness thanks to writer Michael Waldron.

Elizabeth Olsen Believes SCARLET WITCH Is Dead But Hopes "[Smart] Writers" Can Figure Out Return

New Rumor Describes Marvel Studios' VISION Series As "A Reverse WANDAVISION" And Teases Ultron's MCU Future