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‘VisionQuest’ Finally Delivers Wanda’s Return, and It May Point Straight to ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

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Few questions have hung over the MCU as long as the fate of Wanda Maximoff. Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch appeared to meet her end in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, when she brought the temple of Mount Wundagore down on herself, and the franchise stuck to that story for years. Even so, fans kept hoping Olsen’s Wanda return was only a matter of time.

That hope only grew as the ‘WandaVision’ trilogy rolled on. ‘Agatha All Along’ left the door open by suggesting nobody could be sure the Scarlet Witch was truly gone, while ‘VisionQuest‘ spent much of its run reinforcing that she was dead, with characters mourning her and even Vision grieving. Olsen also denied that she would show up in the spinoff, which made a surprise feel unlikely.

Then came the finale. Episode 8, titled “Forever”, wrapped the trilogy with a post-credits scene that gave fans the first look at Olsen back as Wanda Maximoff. The scene revisits her apparent demise under the rubble, where a hooded figure who appears to be Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr., lifts debris off her body, and her eyes shoot open.

Screen Rant went as far as calling it perhaps the biggest post-credits scene any Marvel TV show has delivered. Whether or not that holds up over time, the reaction online has been loud, with viewers thrilled that the most requested Avenger in the franchise is finally back in the picture.

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The moment was reportedly kept off the episode screener sent to press, so even critics watching ahead of time missed it. That helped preserve the shock, especially since the finale also brought back Joe Locke as Billy Maximoff, a return that had been widely expected after the promo teased one final surprise.

Showrunner Terry Matalas had hinted that Wanda was a delicate subject. Speaking to TheWrap, he said that “when you introduce Wanda again, it needs to be her story” and that her future would be up to Marvel. The idea of reuniting the family with her was apparently on the table, but the series chose to leave the full reveal for later.

That “later” looks like it points to the next big crossover. With ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ set to open in theaters on December 18, the final seconds of the finale read like a handoff, and outlets are treating it as a strong sign that the Scarlet Witch will be involved in the movie. Fan theories about her role had been circulating for months, and this scene appears to back them up.

The image of Doom stepping in to free her also raises new questions. Does he rescue Wanda out of kindness, or does he have a plan for one of the most powerful heroes in the franchise? Marvel has stayed quiet on specifics, so for now the answer is wide open.

Some of the promotional material for the movie had already fueled speculation. A cloaked, red and orange figure appeared in several promotional pieces in poses that fans compared to Wanda, and earlier reports suggested the character could be involved in a way that would not demand much on-camera time from Olsen. None of that is confirmed, and the finale itself does not spell out Wanda’s role.

Interestingly, Olsen herself has not commented on the appearance, according to Screen Rant. She had previously indicated that she would not be part of ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ or ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’, though fans have long noted that she misdirected audiences before the original ‘Avengers: Endgame’ return.

That history makes her earlier statements easy to take with a grain of salt. It also adds to the sense that Marvel enjoys keeping its biggest comebacks under wraps until the last possible moment.

For now, the trilogy has ended with the reunion fans wanted, or at least the first piece of it. Wanda is alive, Billy is back, and the road to ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ just got a lot more intriguing.

Are you excited about Wanda Maximoff's surprise return in the VisionQuest finale?

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