If you were fearing that Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, was playing second fiddle to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, this latest report about her screentime might be of some interest to you.
According to a report from Comicbook.com, even though early descriptions seemed to imply that Olsen was merely a member of the film’s ensemble, it would seem that she and Doctor Strange will both share a significant amount of screentime that is pretty much on equal footing. Comicbook.com obtained the news via Marvel insider Daniel Richtman on his Twitter page. Richtman tweeted that he heard the film is just “as much about Wanda as it is about Strange.” He then added that Wanda has almost as much screentime as Cumberbatch’s titular character. You can check out the tweet below!
This is bound to be happy news for fans of Scarlet Witch, who gained significant popularity following the success of the Disney+ Marvel series, WandaVision. Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff was always a bit of a fan favorite but the series fleshed her out in a way that she had never been before and the show’s finale left us wondering what place she would be in following its conclusion. This film provides us with those answers and allows us to continue to watch her evolution.
Director Sam Raimi previously spoke to Fandango about the two characters and he was excited for fans to see these two powerful entities interact:
“That’s a question I’ve been asking kids on the playground since third grade. Who is stronger, this character or that character? Well, I think Wanda’s magic, from Marvel lore, is more powerful than almost any of the other characters in this picture, but Doctor Strange has the knowledge of the mystic arts that Wanda doesn’t have, and he’s got the help of Kamar-Taj. If you were to pit them against each other, different altered versions of themselves … there could be a Doctor Strange out there that’s more powerful than our Wanda. Or there could be a Wanda out there who is more powerful than our Wanda here. So, because of these altered versions, it’s all a mixed bag of possibilities.”
Marvel Studios describes Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as “a thrilling ride through the Multiverse with Doctor Strange, his trusted friend Wong and Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch.” The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Xochitl Gomez.
The film will see the characters going up against monsters and villains from the multiverse as they spill over into our world. This has been explored across WandaVision, Loki, and Spider-Man: No Way Home as it has become clear that the structural integrity of the multiverse has come into question. Promotional suggest we are getting an evil, alternate version of Doctor Strange that originally appeared in the animated Disney+ series What If…? Along with him, a tentacled monster with a giant eye is also on display and is likely based on the comic-book villains Shuma-Gorath and Gargantos.
Are YOU excited about Scarlet Witch’s screentime in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? The film hits screens on May 6, 2022.