Did Marvel Really Confirm The Scarlet Witch's Death In 'Marvel Studios' The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline'?

The long awaited book Marvel Studios' The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, has finally hit stores worldwide, providing fans with a truly official timeline of events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the very first time.

The book apparently confirms the death of Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, with many fans and media outlets running with the news, mourning the lost potential of the character's future. Others a questioning if the death is truly confirmed, or whether there could be some clever wordplay at work.

Let's take a look at some of the evidence.

The Devil is in the detail

Per the book, the events of the smash hit series WandaVision are occurring right now, in Fall/early November of 2023, after which Wanda studies the Darkhold for about a year, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness taking place late in the year 2024.

This is how The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, describes the moment of the Scarlet Witch's supposed death:

"[Wanda] destroys Wundagore – and collapses it upon herself – ending two great threats to all of the Multiverse."

Some fans believe that one of the two 'great threats' ended was the Scarlet Witch herself, thus confirming the character's death.

On the other hand, other fans have pointed out that the book does not explicitly use the word 'dead' in relation to Wanda, and nor does it elaborate on the two threats that were ended. This opens the wording up to interpretation.

Yes, it is possible that one of the ended threats could be the Scarlet Witch. But it is just as possible that the two ended threats could refer to the Darkhold, and Mt. Wundagore, which serves as the original copy of the Darkhold within the MCU. Or, one could interpret the ended threat being the Darkhold's influence over Wanda, rather than Wanda herself.

After realizing her mistake and freeing Westview at the end of WandaVision, Wanda was seemingly neutralised as a threat, to the point of Doctor Strange seeking her help in Multiverse of Madness despite being aware of what had happened in Westview.

It is only after discovering her corruption by the Darkhold that Strange realizes that she has again become dangerous. The Darkhold was the true danger. The real Wanda, as Strange says, is not really there when the evil book takes hold.

"Wanda's gone. She has the Darkhold, and the Darkhold has her."

Once free from that influence, Wanda is no longer a threat. From this perspective, it is easy to interpret the words in the Official Timeline as the Scarlet Witch ending the threats of the Darkhold and Wundagore. The Witch herself may still be very much alive.

The comics, while not always reflecting the MCU directly, would seem to support this hypothesis.

Comic Remix

The MCU is known for sometimes heavily remixing stories from Marvel comic books when adapting them for the big screen. Some fans believe WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness are loose adaptations of two major Scarlet Witch-centric comic book stories, House of M and Avengers: Disassembled. Collectively, these two stories form the bulk of Wanda's villain era in the comics, albeit a somewhat sympathetic one.

Avengers: Disassembled opens with Wanda's discovery that her memories of her twin baby sons, killed when their souls were absorbed by the demon Mephisto, had been erased in a misguided attempt at helping her heal. As the other Avengers, who's memories were also erased, try to convince Wanda that the children never existed, the Scarlet Witch's sanity begins to slip, and, now blaming her former teammates for her loss, embarks on a grief fuelled rampage, resulting in the deaths of her mentor Agatha Harkness, Ex-Husband Vision, Hawkeye, and Scott Lang's Ant-Man.

Wanda is eventually defeated and taken to safety by Magneto, eventually leading into the events of House of M, during which the Scarlet Witch rewrites the whole world, attempting to give everyone their greatest desires.. including, for herself, the restoration of her children. A small group of heroes, eventually noticing the change, gather to attempt to reverse it, eventually leading to Wanda's uttering of the words:

"No more Mutants."

Many fans see WandaVision, in which Wanda creates a perfect, sitcom world for herself and her family, as having been inspired by House of M. Meanwhile, the Scarlet Witch's slaughter of Earth-838's Illuminati seems to have been a clever way to adapt Disassembled without needing to sacrifice any major players from the core MCU timeline.

Following the comics House of M event, Wanda disappears for sometime, before reappearing in Young Avengers: The Children's Crusade, where she at first appears with amnesia, before regaining her memories and taking the first step in a redemption arc spanning years worth of stories.

Interestingly, a Children's Crusade adaptation is one of many projects currently rumoured to be in development at Marvel Studios. So, if the MCU's Scarlet Witch is in fact alive, the character's many fans should see her get a chance at redemption.