2020 was the first year without any content from the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2009. A streak of 10 years lost. This is more heart-breaking than losing an 800 day streak on Snapchat. Anyway, I think a break might be a good thing.

On the one hand, it means we have to wait longer for Black Widow’s last ride, Vision’s resurrection and whatever the hell the Eternals will be about. However it also gives us time to reflect on the MCU so far.

And more importantly, it gives us time to make our predictions on the future! In this series, I’ll be collecting the predictions and writing my biggest hopes for the future of Marvel. (Spoilers ahead: DUH).

Today’s article will be focused on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) aka Scarlet Witch, what her journey might be in the upcoming WandaVision series and her role in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (the latter I think she might take a more important role than the titular character).

First up recap. Wanda Maximoff is a bit different from her comic counterpart. This is mostly due to Disney not having the rights for certain characters. It is this same rights issue that actually got Wanda’s brother, Quicksilver, killed off in Age of Ultron in one of the dumbest deaths in movie history.

A speedster not being able to outrun bullets. Don’t even get me started on the fact they literally set up Hawkeye to die a very emotional death and then was like nope let’s kill Quicksilver instead when he had barely a personality.

This is beside the point (but I shall continue this rant in the Hawkeye article). Wanda was introduced in Age of Ultron; a traumatised orphan who allowed herself to be experimented on by Hydra before setting out to destroy the Avengers.

Then she received another dose of trauma when her brother died, followed shortly by her inadvertently causing the multiple deaths at the beginning of Civil War, which kicked off the whole shebang.

If you thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. She falls for fellow hero Vision only to kill him in Infinity War to save the universe. Their loving sacrifice was cut short by Thanos who was still able to gain the mind stone in Vision’s head. So yeah. Scarlet’s had a very rough road and I think it is probably going to get worse.

We will next see the Scarlet Witch in the first Disney+ Marvel series WandaVision. On the surface, it’s a lovely little sitcom about Wanda and Vision living life as a married couple.

Yeah, you heard right. Vision is somehow alive and well. Is it a dream? A manifestation of Wanda’s powers? An alternate universe? Only time will tell.

However, some major clues have been dropped through the trailers and interviews. This series might be based on the comic House of M. This is where we see Scarlet Witch at her prime of her power rewriting reality with three words. ‘no more mutants’. This almost brought the mutant race to extinction.

There is an easter egg in the first trailer referencing House of M. Signs do point to it being Scarlet Witch’s reality-altering abilities that cause Vision to resurrect momentarily.

I may be giving Kevin Feige and Marvel too much credit, but having Scarlet Witch be the one to resurrect Vision in her madness seems simple. Too simple.

Don’t get me wrong. I think they are setting Scarlet Witch up for a psychotic break with the amount of trauma they are piling on the poor girl.

I also believe this will be a big plot point in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness. Yet, another force might be the cause of Vision’s resurrection. Think about it. Wanda’s abilities have not been able to change reality thus far.

She moves objects around and can manipulate emotions and memories. Nothing as grand as bringing a person back to life and create a fake world to live in. Wanda’s abilities come from the mind stone not the reality stone meaning her abilities should be more linked to that.

This leaves me with two theories. A villain is manipulating Scarlet to unlock abilities she did not know she had or has put her in this separate world themselves.

The most recent trailer backs up this theory. We hear someone say on the radio “Wanda, who is doing this to you?”. This implies that this alternate world is not something she is in control of.

Alternatively, SWORD (Basically SHIELD but for extra-terrestrial threats) is causing this to contain Scarlet Witch; likely thinking she is too dangerous to be left unchecked.

Either of these will force Scarlet Witch to deal with her past trauma and come out stronger either by dealing with it or it breaking her apart leading straight into Doctor Strange 2.

Even when Wanda realises that this world is fake, she will fight to keep it for Vision which will have dangerous effects. Will she be able to let Vision go a second time?

I have really high expectations for this series, which I try not to have for Marvel content but I just have to get excited.

We have a great cast including Kat Dennings returning as Darcy (Thor and Thor 2), Randall Park as Jimmy Woo (Ant-man and the Wasp) and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau for the first time.

Akira Akbar played the younger version of Monica in Captain Marvel. In the comics Rambeau becomes the superheroine Spectrum with abilities that rival Captain Marvel.

It is a sitcom which becomes more sinister as the episodes go on. They are actually changing up the sitcom styles for different episodes and the show was even recorded in front of a live studio audience.

The series seems like it will be a lot different than the usual superhero content we see from Marvel. I think this is very important especially in Phase Four to stop people from getting superhero fatigue.

Plus with rumours about Scarlet Witch’s children (Wiccan and Speed, twin heroes who later become part of the Young Avengers) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver from Fox’s Xmen) appearing in the show, I cannot wait for January 15th.