The Agatha All Along Trailer Confirms What We All Suspected About Scarlet Witch

In 2021 and 2022, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) was arguably the most important player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First, she was the epicenter of the inaugural MCU Disney+ show "WandaVision," where her grief after losing Vision (Paul Bettany) during the events of "Avengers: Infinity War" causes her to create a magical family while enslaving an entire town and forcing the residents to live out her sitcom fantasies. Then, she became a Darkhold-corrupted antagonist whose relentless pursuit of a reality where her children are alive verges on the kind of horror villain territory even Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is powerless against. Near the ending of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" she finally realizes what she has become, and opts to destroy every multiversal incarnation of the Darkhold, which leaves her in the middle of the collapsing Mount Wundagore.

While "Multiverse of Madness" leaves Wanda's fate somewhat ambiguous, it always seemed unlikely that even she could survive the destruction of an entire mountain. Now, the creepy first trailer for "Agatha All Along" reveals in no uncertain terms that she's dead — or, at least, as dead as anyone can be in the MCU. At the end of "WandaVision," Wanda strips the evil Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) of her magic and permanently traps the witch in her Agnes identity. In the trailer, the spell has twisted in a way that's left Agatha working as a detective who investigates a mysterious case where the unseen victim's name is W. Maximoff, and Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) confirms that Wanda is "gone." 

Put all this together, and Wanda really does seem to be dead. But what does this mean for the MCU?

No one stays dead in the comics, and Wanda's sheer popularity in the MCU makes it unlikely that she'll be gone forever. However, between "WandaVision" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," the original MCU version of the character has burned every available bridge so thoroughly that she may very well be gone for good — for the sake of narrative convenience, if nothing else. After all, any future storyline involving her would be constantly derailed by the fact that the U.S. government, Kamar-Taj, and probably many others now view her as an unstable weapon of mass destruction.

Fortunately, the MCU has already introduced a backup Wanda in the shape of the Earth-838 version of the character. She's the Wanda whose children the Scarlet Witch is after, and who ends up killing the Illuminati under her alternate-universe counterpart's mind control. The fans are already familiar with this Wanda and her sons Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy (Jett Klyne), and since their home timeline might be a little hot under their feet thanks to the whole Illuminati thing, she might be a natural replacement for the Wanda who died at Mount Wundagore. 

It remains to be seen whether the MCU opts for this route, but it would provide an easy solution if the Avengers need a Wanda who doesn't have to keep dodging authorities and vengeful Kamar-Taj survivors. Having the Earth-838 Wanda switch timelines would also be interesting considering the Marvel rumors teasing Paul Bettany's return as Vision. The current, all-white iteration of Vision might have all his old memories, but he still has a lot of soul-searching to do, so introducing him to a similarly fish-out-of-water Wanda who's literally from another universe might be an interesting twist on their dynamic. 

Of course, it's possible that Wanda has been removed from the equation for a very specific reason: To give her character some room to breathe before moving her to the mutant corner of the MCU. In the comics, the Scarlet Witch isn't actually a mutant, but was presented as Magneto's daughter for a long while. She's also a very important figure in the X-Men timeline, and causes one of the mutantkind's most dramatic and destructive events with her reality warping powers. 

All of this might be very important at some not-too-distant point down the line. Marvel's "X-Men" movie reboot may be closer than fans think, and judging by Beast's (Kelsey Grammer) appearance in the end of "The Marvels," there's every chance that they will occupy a timeline of their own — much like "The Fantastic Four" seems set to do. Thanks to Wanda's X-Men connections, it wouldn't be all that shocking to see some version of her join the X-Men side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to wreak havoc once more.