It appears that we finally know the original plot of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which would have reportedly tied in much better with Wanda’s story from WandaVision. This leak was shared by My Time to Shine Hello, who posted information about leaked concept art and the synopsis of the movie. They claimed this was confirmed by Bo Deo, the showrunner for X-Men ’97 Season 1, who was later fired by Marvel for sexual misconduct.

In this article, we’ll dive into the details of the scrapped movie, how it could have better aligned with WandaVision, and why Marvel decided to go in a different direction.

Background: The Early Days of Doctor Strange 2

To set the stage, let’s go back to when WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were both announced at Comic-Con in 2019, just a few months after Avengers: Endgame. Alongside other Phase 4 films and Disney Plus series, the original creative team was set to include Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson and writer Jade H. Bartlett. It was also announced that Scarlet Witch would appear in the movie, but her role wasn’t specified at the time.

However, it soon became clear that Marvel Studios and Scott Derrickson were not on the same page. In October 2019, Derrickson hinted at his frustration with the studio, tweeting, Based on my own experience and recent conversations with five other tent-pole directors, the most common challenge and difficulty for event movie filmmakers is getting unwanted major script changes in pre-production. By December 2019, he posted several now-deleted tweets suggesting his struggles:

1. Studio release dates are the enemy of art.
2. Most major life choices come with major regrets, it’s unavoidable, but the worst choice is not choosing at all. Hell is sitting down at the crossroads.
3. Thank you, Rian Johnson, who has just been trending, just two days after he took time out of his vacation to talk with me at length about a personal situation I’m dealing with.

Finally, in January 2020, Derrickson and Marvel announced they had parted ways due to creative differences.

The Changing Vision Behind Doctor Strange 2

These tweets painted a picture of a director struggling with Marvel Studios’ control over his film. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed everything, pushing the release of Multiverse of Madness from May 2021 to May 2022. This delay gave Marvel more time to find a new writer and director who would align with their vision, leading them to hire Loki head writer Michael Waldron and director Sam Raimi.

While Multiverse of Madness delivered a fun Sam Raimi film, it had its fair share of issues that disappointed fans and cast members alike. For instance, the exploration of the multiverse felt limited, with only one notable sequence showing a trip through various dimensions. The Illuminati cameos were brief and, for some, distracting. But the biggest issue was how the movie undermined Wanda’s arc from WandaVision.

In WandaVision, Wanda grapples with her grief over Vision’s death by transforming a New Jersey town into her own sitcom reality. By the series’ end, she accepts her role as the Scarlet Witch, releases the townspeople, and is left to deal with her guilt. The post-credits scene teased her using the Darkhold and hearing her children calling out to her. However, in Multiverse of Madness, Wanda is suddenly portrayed as a villain from the start, seeking to hunt down and kill a teenager instead of embarking on a quest to save her children from another dimension. Even Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Wanda, expressed her dissatisfaction with this shift. She revealed to Vanity Fair that she had asked the writers of Multiverse of Madness if they were familiar with WandaVision, to which they replied they had not. Olsen also mentioned in an interview with Collider that Marvel seemed unsure of what to do with her character.

What the Original Doctor Strange 2 Could Have Been

Despite these criticisms, Multiverse of Madness had its strong points, like Sam Raimi’s distinct horror style, Zombie Strange, and Doctor Strange’s pep talk to America Chavez, which ranks among some of the best moments in the MCU. However, the film’s overall impression was that of a movie shaped heavily by committee. Waldron admitted that one of his first ideas upon joining the project was to make Wanda the villain from the outset. He also revealed that he was rewriting the screenplay as they were shooting.

Until recently, the specifics of what Doctor Strange 2 was initially supposed to be remained a mystery. But now, thanks to the leaks from My Time to Shine Hello, we have a clearer idea. According to these leaks, the original plot of Multiverse of Madness began with Wanda as a hero, not a villain. The main antagonist was meant to be Nightmare, and Wanda was set to assist Doctor Strange in defeating him. However, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and Waldron ultimately chose to rewrite the story and make Wanda the primary villain. This change resulted in a complete overhaul of the plot. There were even plans at one point for Chthon to play a significant role in the film, but Feige decided to save that for a possible Scarlet Witch movie in the future.

These leaks gained further credibility when Bo Deo, the former showrunner of X-Men’97, confirmed them and added more context. According to Deo, the original drafts did justice to Wanda’s character. After the events of Westview, Wanda would be seen recovering and grappling with guilt over her actions. She would join forces with Doctor Strange, Wong, and America Chavez, whom she would mentor, to battle Nightmare across the Multiverse. During this journey, she would encounter happy variants of herself living peacefully with her children. Wanda would resist the temptation to alter reality, using her experiences from WandaVision to guide Chavez in using her powers responsibly. In a dramatic climax, Wanda, struggling with her desire to be with her children, would inadvertently kill Wong in a moment of desperation, setting up a cliffhanger ending where she flees, filled with remorse.

According to Deo, this version made much more sense narratively. Even in her darkest moments, Wanda’s actions were driven by her longing and guilt, making her a more nuanced character. In comparison, elements of this draft did make it into Waldron’s version, such as the deleted opening scene where Baron Mordo confronts Wanda, only to be swiftly killed. These leaks suggest a vastly different direction for Doctor Strange 2, raising questions about how it might have impacted the MCU, Doctor Strange’s character development, and whether it could have mitigated some of the fan backlash that developed during the early stages of the Multiverse Saga.

Conclusion

In the end, the Doctor Strange 2 we got was vastly different from the one originally conceived. While the final film had its moments, it missed opportunities to build on Wanda’s story in a meaningful way that connected with WandaVision. With Marvel’s decisions often shaped by various creative and strategic considerations, it’s fascinating to speculate on what could have been—a story where Wanda’s journey would have felt like a more natural extension of her character arc, rather than an abrupt turn into villainy. As fans continue to dissect the MCU’s choices, it’s clear that the version of Doctor Strange 2 left on the cutting room floor still sparks interest and debate.