Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for the endings of WandaVision and Agatha All Along.
While I’ve always been a big fan of a wide range of Marvel Comics characters, the convoluted Maximoff family that bridges the X-Men and Avengers franchises never did much for me (other than the wonderfully complex Magneto). I also found the romance between Wanda Maximoff and Vision especially strange and silly. So, I was thoroughly surprised at how the writing in MCU Avengers movies like Captain America: Civil War, and especially the excellent performances of Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, got me to care for their characters. My investment in Wanda and Vision only increased significantly after watching their appropriately titled television spin-off, WandaVision.
Creator Jac Schaeffer’s acclaimed 2021 series synthesized Wanda’s history of mental health challenges from the comics into a respectful and moving meditation on grief. It also introduced entertaining versions of other Maximoff family members and adjacent characters like Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn). Furthermore, the series’ focus on paying homage to and critiquing television sitcoms also made it one of the more stylistically distinct and creative entries in the superhero genre, and an absolute treat for myself and other students of the medium to repeatedly watch and study.
While WandaVision’s success resulted in both the Wanda character and Olsen receiving well-deserved boosts in popularity, the recently concluded spin-off series Agatha All Along (also created by Schaeffer) proves that this success was not a fluke, doing an excellent job of fleshing out Agatha’s character and expanding the witch-focused portion of the Marvel mythology. Between that show being another hit and comments from both Marvel creators and Olsen herself suggesting that Wanda’s story is not over, despite her presumed death in the 2022 film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the time seems right for the character to make her grand return and the best way for her to do so is for her to finally get the solo film she deserves. And should Marvel grant fans’ wish for a Scarlet Witch film, I know I’m far from the only one who hopes that Schaeffer and her team are put in charge of its story.
A Scarlet Witch Film Can Bring the Maximoffs Back Together
To be clear, when fans say they want a Wanda solo film, most of us simply mean one in which she’s the main character, rather than part of the larger Avengers ensemble, not necessarily one in which she’s isolated from any other established characters. Indeed, one of the most exciting possible aspects of such a film would be the chance to see much of the WandaVision cast reunited. The series took place in the town of Westview, New Jersey, which Wanda magically altered to resemble the sitcoms she enjoyed watching as a child, as part of a (initially unconscious) spell that also created a new version of the then-deceased Vision and eventually led to the birth of their twin sons Billy and Tommy.
Wanda encountered variants of the boys from other universes in Multiverse of Madness, and Agatha and a reincarnated teenage version of Billy (Joe Locke) grudgingly work together in the spin-off, but the main universe versions of the foursome have remained isolated from one another since the end of WandaVision. While some of them could very well encounter one another in the upcoming Vision series, the most natural project for a full family reunion would be a Wanda film, which could serve as a culmination of the Westview storyline much as the first Avengers movie concluded the MCU’s Phase One.
Although she becomes a ghost at the end of her spin-off, Agatha is another natural inclusion for such a film, especially given that she and Billy set out to continue searching for Tommy, whose consciousness they believe Billy was able to telepathically move into a dead body, in the second series' closing scene. Hahn and Agatha’s writers have done excellent work keeping the rivalry between Agatha and Wanda alive even without the latter actually appearing directly in the series, imbuing Agatha’s every mention of the younger witch with hilarious amounts of sarcasm and venom. This makes it seem like the two witches must cross paths with one another again, either to clash, reluctantly collaborate as Agatha has with Billy, or, most likely, both. A potential meeting between Wanda and Agatha’s Rio Vidal/Death (Aubrey Plaza) would also generate excitement beyond the Marvel fandom, as it would lead to an onscreen reunion between Plaza and Olsen, who shared a memorable rapport in the beloved 2017 film Ingrid Goes West.
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A Scarlet Witch Film Is a Perfect Fit for the Multiverse Saga
A Scarlet Witch film would be fitting as one of the last entries in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, since WandaVision wound up serving as the Saga's first release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, a film about Wanda and her family could progress and possibly conclude some other storylines from throughout the Saga in addition to the core family members’ character arcs. In recent years, Marvel has been building towards the formation of the Young Avengers, the adolescent superhero team Billy and Tommy are core members of in the comics. One of the most famous Young Avengers comic book arcs, titled Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, focuses on the team searching for a missing Wanda, leading to the first meeting between her and the reincarnated versions of Billy and Tommy. Adapting that arc would be an intuitive choice for a Wanda film given the Maximoff family’s current scattered state and would likely result in greater commercial success than a project exclusively focused on the Young Avengers, who are mostly more obscure characters played by lesser-known actors than Olsen.
Similarly, the ongoing multiverse storyline makes a Wanda film a natural place to delve deeper into the character’s X-Men connections. One of the few major flaws myself and other fans were frustrated by during WandaVision was the reveal that Peters’ MCU character was a random civilian named Ralph Bohner, with no explanation provided for the coincidence of someone who looks exactly like the X-Men films’ Quicksilver getting involved in the Maximoff storyline. By bringing Ralph back for a cameo in Agatha, Schaeffer and company have reignited hopes that this strange arc might receive a course correction, and fans of the X-Men films would be delighted to potentially see Peters back on the big screen in his first Marvel role. Likewise, while making Magneto Wanda and Pietro’s father as in the comics would probably be too complicated at this point in the MCU, the multiverse storyline does offer the opportunity to have Wanda encounter the Master of Magnetism, with Olsen herself having expressed interest in depicting such a meeting in the past.
Obviously, the first steps Marvel needs to take are confirming (whether in a story like Agatha or through promotional material) that Wanda is in fact returning, and getting a movie at all. But as exciting as those announcements would be, myself and most other fans of WandaVision and Agatha would be dismayed if Schaeffer and some of her collaborators weren’t involved in such a project. Schaeffer has only directed one feature film and a few episodes of Agatha, so she doesn’t necessarily need to sit behind the camera (perhaps WandaVision director Matt Shakman could return to the character after completingThe Fantastic Four: First Steps), but the best chance Marvel has at giving fans a hit Scarlet Witch movie is to at least let her have the kind of influential writer and producer roles she’s had on her Disney+ series.
Agatha All Along is available to stream on Disney+.
Agatha Harkness, following the events of "WandaVision," embarks on a quest to reclaim her lost powers. Teaming up with unlikely allies, including the son of her former enemy, she faces new mystical threats while navigating a complex world of magic and intrigue.
Release Date September 18, 2024
CastKathryn Hahn , Joe Locke , Sasheer Zamata , Ali Ahn , Okwui Okpokwasili , Debra Jo Rupp , Patti LuPone , Aubrey Plaza , David Payton , Emma Caulfield Ford , David Lengel , Asif Ali , Amos Glick , Elaine Valdes , Paria Akbarshahi , Chau Naumova , Bethany Curry , Athena Perample , Alicia Vela-Bailey , Britta Grant , Marina Mazepa
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