Scarlet Witch was originally going to be a villain in Avengers 5 before her turn in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Wanda Maximoff has always been the black sheep of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but she fully embraced her villainy in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Phase 4 movie pits her against Doctor Strange, who leads the Masters of the Mystic Arts in safeguarding Earth against interdimensional threats. But as it turns out, Marvel Studios was planning on saving Scarlet Witch to be a much bigger antagonist in the MCU.

Unlike most one-off villains, Wanda is more of a morally-ambiguous character in the franchise. Her life has been defined by tragedy thus far, and the lack of a consistent support system tends to easily set her down a dark path. Her latest loss came in WandaVision where she was forced to give up the ideal life she was living and part with Vision and her two kids to free the people of Westview. Further corrupted by the Darkhold, Wanda embraces her Scarlet Witch persona and embarked on a journey across the multiverse in an effort to reunite with her kids, Tommy and Billy. That's until Doctor Strange gets involved in an effort to stop her from wreaking havoc across multiple realities and protect her target, America Chavez.

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Despite this, Marvel Studios originally didn't want Wanda to be the villain of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. While the studio always knew that she would ultimately turn down a villainous path, they were saving her antagonistic debut for an Avengers film. But, as writer Michael Waldron revealed in the latest Assembled episode on Disney+, he was able to convince the company to scrap that and pit her against Doctor Strange instead. Read his full quote below:

Making her a villain from the get go. It was always like, ‘Well that’ll happen in an Avengers movie or something.’ My perspective was, ‘Why are we letting some other movie get the best villain ever?’

Elizabeth Olsen Wanda Maximoff Scarlet Witch Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Wanda already functioned as an Avengers villain when she debuted in Avengers: Age of Ultron. She and her brother Pietro Maximoff were blinded by rage as they blamed Iron Man for the death of their parents. After participating in HYDRA's Mind Stone experiment, the twins teamed up with corrupt AI Ultron to take on Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Eventually, however, they realized their mistake and switched sides, aiding the Avengers in defeating Ultron. In the end, Wanda became a member of the New Avengers until the tragedy in Lagos once again cast her in a bad light. That being said, the last time the Avengers went up against Wanda, she was still young. Had Marvel Studios stuck by their plan, it would have been so interesting to see how her former allies tried to contain the threat she poses.

It's difficult not to feel disappointed when thinking about how Scarlet Witch's villainous turn could have been done on a much bigger scale. While she was an integral part of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, she was still a supporting character, so the film wasn't able to fully focus on her. The end of the Sam Raimi-directed film hinted that she may be on the way to a redemption arc. If this is the case, then it's highly unlikely that Marvel Studios sends her down a dark path again just so she can be an Avengers 5 villain.

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Source: Assembled: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

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