As the Scarlet Witch doomed from the start? Doctor Strange writer Michael Waldron clarifies his viral comments about not watching WandaVision while making Multiverse of Madness.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had a lot of problems. Many of these problems can be chocked up to some truly baffling decisions made by the film’s writer Michael Waldron. However, no decision is more vexing than the choice to make the Scarlet Witch the film’s main villain. It confused movie fans who saw her as a hero in the Avengers, and it confused fans of WandaVision even more given they saw her as a tragically flawed victim of circumstance.
This issue came to a head not long after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hit theaters. While speaking to Vanity Fair, Elizabeth Olsen remarked that Michael Waldron hadn’t watched WandaVision due to the series not being finished while he was writing the script, leading to the Scarlet Witch’s arc feeling “repetitive” across the two projects.
Did Michael Waldron Watch WandaVision?
The fact that Michael Waldron didn’t watch WandaVision prior to writing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been taken as gospel for the past two years, especially when speaking on the Scarlet Witch’s writing in the film. However, it seems that it may not have been entirely true, with Waldron sniping back at Elizabeth Olsen in a recent Reddit AMA for his upcoming series Chad Powers.
“I liked continuing to explore Strange’s need for control, especially in the wake of his experience in Infinity War/Endgame. And this mirrored Wanda’s own struggle with control following WandaVision (which, contrary to what the internet tells you, I was reading/watching all the way through).”
Of course, it’s likely that Elizabeth Olsen didn’t mean that Michael Waldron literally had no idea what happened in WandaVision (as at least the scripts would have been finalized at that point in time). Rather, that the writer didn’t engage with the material enough to understand the similarities, and major differences, present between the show and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
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