By now, there’s a very high possibility you’ve seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Even if you haven’t, then don’t be concerned, for there are no spoilers here.
It’s been all over the marketing that Benedict Cumberbatch’s second solo adventure doubles as a direct continuation of WandaVision, with the Master of the Mystic Arts tracking down Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff to ask her for her knowledge of traveling through alternate realities.
As we all know, the Scarlet Witch has mastered the dangerous Darkhold with designs on reuniting with her twin boys at any cost, with rumors having abounded since day one that she’d ultimately be revealed as the movie’s big bad. While that’s entirely up for interpretation, Olsen did admit to Harper’s Bazaar that she’s hoping fans disagree with some of the choices her character makes in Multiverse of Madness.
“I love playing characters whose actions people disagree with. In a world where we don’t really care to understand other points of view, I feel like if we as an audience can have empathy for people we don’t agree with, that’s a good thing. Then I can kind of be their lawyer and defend them. I get behind their actions, even if I don’t agree with them.”
Doctor Strange may be the undoubted hero of the piece, but Wanda’s actions in her Disney Plus series painted her in more shades of gray than ever before. She may have enslaved and manipulated an entire town, but it was done from a place of love, grief, and heartbreak, with repercussions that can be felt throughout Multiverse of Madness.