Doctor Strange 2 Theory: Scarlet Witch Destroys (& Rewrites) The MCU's Reality
Scarlet Witch could be responsible for the destruction - and the recreation - of all reality in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. At last, Marvel Studios has revealed the truth about Wanda Maximoff. Introduced as a "miracle" who had mysteriously survived exposure to the Mind Stone, Wanda is actually the Scarlet Witch, a being of tremendous mystical power who even Agatha Harkness had previously believed was just a myth.
Agatha knows about the Scarlet Witch because she had read the Darkhold, which in the comics is a forbidden book of dark magic. According to the ancient witch, the Darkhold contains an entire chapter dedicated to the Scarlet Witch, and it confirms she wields a magic unlike anything seen before - Chaos Magic. Most sorcerers draw their power from other planes of reality, meaning their abilities comply with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but Wanda is capable of "spontaneous creation." Agatha was appalled to see what Wanda had done with such power, creating a sitcom-based reality so she could live out her dream of domestic bliss with her beloved Vision.
But Agatha insisted the Scarlet Witch has a dark future ahead of her. She claimed Wanda was destined to destroy the world, and indeed was terrified when Wanda finally tapped into the full power of the Scarlet Witch, manifesting a new costume to boot - one clearly depicted in the pages of the Darkhold. But it is possible Agatha has underestimated Wanda's potential - and that the Scarlet Witch will be both the doom and the salvation of the Multiverse.
Just as in the MCU, in the comics Wanda Maximoff learned the truth about her magic from Agatha Harkness - although the comic book version of Agatha was rather more heroic. "Chaos Magic is wild magick, nature magick - but she who is attuned to it can guide it, and shape it to her will," Agatha explained. Unfortunately far from mastering her Chaos Magic, Wanda became increasingly unstable as she dabbled with it. As Doctor Strange explained in Avengers #503, this was because of the nature of her powers. "Can you understand the delicate mindset of a woman, a person, who has control over reality," he asked. "It means reality controls her. Imagination becomes the enemy. Structure disappears." Every day, Wanda faced the subtle temptation to wish away anything bad that happened to her. And every time she did that, her grip on reality itself began to slip away.
Making matters worse, Chaos Magic is associated with a demonic entity named Chthon, who ruled Earth in ancient times but was successfully banished to another plane of reality. Wanda was born at a place where the fabric of reality was thin, and Chthon imbued the infant with latent Chaos Magic. When that magic emerged, every time Wanda used it so gave Chthon more of a foothold on the Earth, with the Elder God intending to possess her as his host. It is reasonable to assume the reference to Chaos Magic indicates the same is true in the MCU, and that Chthon is the villain of Doctor Strange 2 as well; it is surely no coincidence the secrets of the Scarlet Witch are recounted in the Darkhold, given that book of dark magic is associated with Chthon as well. Thus, as Wanda learns more about her powers from a book known for its corrupting influence, she is likely to tear the fabric of reality apart.
It is worth noting that, in WandaVision, Scarlet Witch performed magical feats that are already known to have precisely that effect in the MCU. In one scene, she reversed time around a SWORD agent who had infiltrated Westview, and who had been rendered as a beekeeper in her manufactured reality. According to Doctor Strange, every time you manipulate time in such a manner you do damage to spacetime. When Stephen Strange experimented with the Time Stone around an apple, he was told he was not just manipulating the space-time continuum - he was wrecking it. He had learned how to do this from the Book of Cagliostro, where the warnings were written after the spells; but the Darkhold would contain no warnings at all, because the destruction of the space-time continuum would actually be Chthon's objective.
Agatha Harkness could well be right that Scarlet Witch is destined to destroy the world - but that doesn't necessarily mean this is the end of the story. Chaos Magic is apparently the power of "spontaneous creation" in the MCU, meaning Wanda has the ability to both destroy and recreate. This would correspond perfectly with the classic House of M story in the comics, where Wanda erased one reality in order to create a new one. What is more, there is in fact comic book precedent for this kind of Multiversal reboot; in the aftermath of Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars event in 2015, Marvel revealed their Multiverse had in fact been recreated on seven previous occasions. Each time, these reboots subtly rewrote continuity, and introduced new elements into the Multiverse.
If this theory is correct, then Scarlet Witch is not just a destroyer - she is also a creator. Doctor Strange 2, therefore, would be the story in which she tore apart the Multiverse, and then - with the guidance and support of Stephen Strange - pulled it back together again. Marvel could take the opportunity to introduce whole new elements into their timeline; naturally, many will expect this to be how mutants are introduced into the MCU, but actually there is some evidence it will instead set up supernatural creatures.
In one interview in 2019, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige suggested there was a link between Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Blade. "We have, for years, wanted to find a new way into Blade," he explained. "We love that character. We love that world. Now, with Doctor Strange and the supernatural elements coming into the MCU, it felt like we could definitely start exploring that." In the comics, Chthon's dark magic is the source of werewolves and vampires, which were created by spells contained within the Darkhold. That would certainly explain how a Multiversal reboot courtesy of Chaos Magic could introduce them in Marvel's shared cinematic universe - and mean Scarlet Witch is technically the creator of some new, horror-themed threats in the MCU.
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