Warning! SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Scarlet Witch’s ultimate fate in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ends up copying the stories of two different Spider-Man movie villains. The overlap between Wanda’s arc and the arcs of other Spider-Man movie villains likely wasn’t intentional, as there are only so many stories for a superhero project to tackle. Even so, the similarities are worth mentioning, as they can help to give added context to Wanda’s arc in Multiverse of Madness.
Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. Scarlet Witch is the main antagonist of Doctor Strange 2. Through a combination of the trauma she’s gone through since her debut and the influence of the Darkhold, Wanda has been hunting America Chavez across the multiverse in order to steal her powers and find a universe where she can be with her family again, regardless of the dangers her plan could impose on the multiverse. By the end of the movie, however, Wanda realizes the error of her ways and moves to make amends for her crimes.
The way that Wanda’s arc is written has clear overlap with the villains of two different Spider-Man movie villains: Kingpin from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2. For the former, both Wanda and Kingpin are trying to use the multiverse to get their families back, regardless of the negative consequences it might bring about—incursions for Multiverse of Madness, the destruction of New York for Into the Spider-Verse. For the latter, both Wanda and Otto spend their movies being villains because something is corrupting them, Wanda the Darkhold and Otto his arms, and by the end of their stories, they each have a moment of clarity that allows them to fight back against their corruptions. Otto’s arc is more generic a story, but since Sam Raimi directed both films, the similarities could easily be intentional.
Scarlet Witch, Kingpin, and Doctor Octopus
The end of Multiverse of Madness also has a lot of smaller moments that further sell the similarities. For starters, Wanda’s moment of clarity is sparked by America sending her to Earth-838 so that she can witness that universe’s version of her family react to the monster she’s become in Multiverse of Madness, and a similar moment happened in Into the Spider-Verse when an alternate version of Kingpin’s family run away from him as he’s fighting Miles. Not only that but just like Doctor Octopus, Wanda decides to atone for her crimes by sacrificing herself to destroy whatever was currently putting people in danger, in this case, the spells of the Darkhold transcribed into Mount Wundagore. Thanks to those smaller moments, the overlap between Wanda’s story and Kingpin and Otto’s stories becomes all the more apparent.
It likely wasn’t intentional for Wanda’s story to have so much overlap with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man 2, but regardless it does help to give added context to her arc. Both Kingpin and Doctor Octopus were varying degrees of tragic villains, so Wanda taking so much from their stories in Doctor Strange 2, inadvertently or otherwise, can work to emphasize the tragedy her character has been going through since she first appeared in the MCU. With that in mind, it’s easy enough to conclude that the similarities end up making her story in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness even stronger than it already was.
