Marvel Studios’ WandaVision spawned countless fan theories when it originally aired in early 2021. Many of the theories that sprouted around it turned out to be incorrect. The most well-known among these is the belief certain viewers had that WandaVision‘s final episodes would reveal a red-skinned comic book figure named Mephisto as the show’s secret villain. However, one strong rumor that also grew in the weeks leading up to WandaVision‘s finale back in March 2021 was that Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) was going to make a surprise cameo appearance in the show.
That never ultimately came to pass, but it turns out that fans weren’t entirely misguided in thinking it would. In a recent interview with Variety, WandaVision and Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer revealed that Stephen Strange was at one point supposed to appear in WandaVision. When asked if she could divulge any scrapped post-credits scenes that she’s written for Marvel over the years, Schaeffer responded, “Yes. I’ll tell you this one, because it’s been a long time, and so maybe the statute of limitations is up on it. Initially, Doctor Strange was going to appear in the tag for WandaVision.”
Schaeffer went on to describe the scrapped scene in question, revealing, “It’s Wanda sitting on the porch of that cabin, and she’s rocking peacefully. And you know how Strange can do those circles around someone and make them go somewhere? The circle starts around her, like she’s going to be teleported somewhere, and she stops it, so Strange has to show up in person. I just loved that so much, that Wanda would be like, ‘No, I’m not going to go where you want to teleport me. You’re going to have to come to my door.’ It was a good one, but another tag took its place.”
Schaeffer’s initial idea was replaced by a scene that still finds Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) living in a remote cabin. Rather than her seemingly peaceful existence being interrupted by Doctor Strange, though, WandaVision‘s post-credits scene instead reveals Wanda’s astral form feverishly studying the pages of the corruptive book known as the Darkhold and hearing the voices of her two sons, Billy and Tommy, calling to her for help. The scene heavily foreshadows the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in which Wanda takes a villainous turn when trying to hop into an alternate universe where her sons are still alive.
The scene that Schaeffer describes would have similarly set up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, particularly Wanda’s antagonist relationship in that film with Stephen Strange. Not much was, therefore, lost by cutting the latter character’s cameo, though Marvel Cinematic Universe fans were certainly disappointed in 2021 when he didn’t appear in the show’s finale. At least those same viewers can now take solace in knowing that their WandaVision theories about Doctor Strange weren’t nearly as unfounded as their Mephisto ones.
WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are both streaming now on Disney+.