That’s all, folks! WandaVision ended with its ninth episode (“The Series Finale”) today and while a lot of our wild fan theories turned out to be wrong, the ending still gave us a lot of magic rumors to chew on.
***WARNING! The following are the main spoilers of the plot for the station end of the WandaVision series! ***
Take, for example, Darkhold – a remarkable grimoire of black magic from comics, whose iteration within the Marvel Cinematic Universe predicts the end of the world at the hands of the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). He also claims that the Scarlet Witch has more power than the Supreme Wizard, a cloak currently held by Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch).
If the term “Darkhold” sounds familiar, it is because the artifact has already appeared and / or been mentioned in two previous Marvel series: SHIELD agents. (where it served as a key plot point for an entire season, including the Ghost Rider arc) and Hulu Fugitives (where it was used by Morgan le Fey in the final season). Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider took him to Hell, but apparently he found his way back and fell into Agatha’s clutches.
Despite the fact that none SHIELD or Fugitives are firmly rooted within the larger MCU, especially now that all TV content is under the direct supervision of Kevin Feige, the inclusion of Darkhold in WandaVision it still represents a fun Easter egg and light connective tissue from those shows that don’t come with a ton of luggage.
Sure, the book looked a little bit different on these other shows, but hey, this is what transmutative texts usually do, right?
The only real problem here is that it will be an entire year before we see Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) – now officially the Scarlet Witch – again in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which takes to theaters everywhere next March. During a Tonight’s show appearance earlier this week, Olsen teased that WandaVision is “a complete T-shirt for” the role of the Scarlet Witch in the Doctor Strange sequel, which is being filmed in London with Sam Raimi in charge. As we know that A) Wanda is the Nexus of All Realities and B) is more powerful than Strange, it stands to reason that she does not stop causing problems.
Based on the post-credit scene in the finale, it appears that Wanda is using his exile from Bruce Banner to study the Darkhold and hone his skills in an effort to bring Tommy and Billy back. Will she open the multiverse to find them? Will we end up discovering that the two boys were actually two pieces of Mephisto, as they are in the comics? Will Darkhold corrupt it as it did so many before?
Audience members are understandably looking forward to the next chapter in Wanda’s story and were not afraid to express their impatience (and yes, theories) on Twitter after seeing the ending.
Let’s not forget that before the COVID-19 pandemic, Multiverse of madness was originally configured to open it is May. If only we had the Stone of Time to speed things up …
All nine episodes of WandaVision are now broadcasting on Disney +. You can learn more about how the series was made next Friday (March 12) in the first episode of Marvel Studios’ Mounted. The next MCU show – The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – premiere at Disney + Friday, March 19.
* Additional reporting by Trent Moore.