Comic-Con and D23 just wrapped up, and Marvel Studios used both events to unload a flood of trailers, first-look images, and casting reveals. But oddly enough, it’s not the footage that’s got fans buzzing the loudest right now. It’s a toy. Hot Toys unveiled a new Doctor Doom figure, and tucked into his hands is a leather-bound book that bears an unmistakable resemblance to the Darkhold, the cursed tome from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that Wanda Maximoff supposedly destroyed at the end of that film. That single detail has reignited a theory fans have been chewing on for years: that Wanda didn’t actually die, and she’s now working alongside Doom.
The evidence didn’t stop with the figure, either. Marvel’s convention booth also displayed several costumes pulled straight from Avengers: Doomsday, including one labeled simply as the “Latverian Witch,” a mysterious ally apparently fighting on Doom’s side. Nobody’s confirmed who’s wearing that costume yet, but the timing and imagery line up a little too perfectly with the Scarlet Witch rumors for fans to ignore. Add all of this together, and it starts looking like Marvel wants us paying close attention to Wanda’s story again, right as the countdown to Doomsday begins.
The Case for Bringing Wanda Back
There’s a practical reason Marvel might want to do this. Since Phase Four kicked off, the so-called Multiverse Saga has been a rockier ride than the Infinity Saga ever was. Plotlines have been introduced and abandoned. Villains have been recast or quietly written out. Audiences have grown a bit skeptical of where any of it is actually heading. So it tracks that the studio would want to lean on something that actually worked, and few things in this era of Marvel worked better than WandaVision.
That series wasn’t just a hit. It was a genuine cultural moment. Released in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became the first Disney+ series set in the MCU, the opening chapter of Phase Four, and a format-breaking experiment that pulled in viewers who didn’t normally watch superhero content. It was strange, sincere, and emotionally heavier than anything Marvel had tried before, and people loved it for that. The show was successful enough that it spawned a follow-up, Agatha All Along, and now Marvel is framing both series as part of a three-part arc that wraps up with VisionQuest this fall. Branding it as a trilogy right before Doomsday arrives isn’t a coincidence. It’s a signal.
Here’s the thing about the Multiverse Saga: it’s littered with loose threads Marvel never followed through on. So when the studio deliberately draws attention to a specific storyline this close to a major crossover event, that’s usually because it matters. Unlike a lot of other dangling plot threads, Wanda’s arc never really tangled with the abandoned Kang the Conqueror storyline that Marvel scrapped after recasting issues. That means her story doesn’t need a complicated retcon to fit into where the franchise is headed now. If anything, bringing her back could be the smoothest way to make Doom’s sudden rise to main villain feel like it was the plan all along, rather than a last-minute pivot after the Kang situation fell apart.
Marvel typically prides itself on secrecy, on catching audiences off guard with twists nobody saw coming. But there’s also something to be said for giving people what they’re already hoping for. Predictability gets a bad reputation in storytelling, but when handled well, it can feel less like a cop-out and more like a payoff years in the making. The Doom figure clutching a spellbook wasn’t a subtle choice. Marvel Comics has plenty of lore connecting Doom to dark magic and to artifacts similar to the Darkhold, so the studio had other options if they wanted to avoid the Wanda comparison entirely. They didn’t.
As for the Latverian Witch costume, fans have run with the idea that this could be our first real glimpse of Wanda in disguise, possibly rescued, resurrected, or otherwise pulled back from wherever she ended up after her apparent death. It’s worth remembering that the Scarlet Witch got a brief look into Doom’s home universe, Earth-838, during her rampage in Multiverse of Madness. We also already know how far she’s willing to go when she believes the cause is justified. Whether Doom manipulated her, made a genuine alliance with her, or something messier is going on remains unclear. But nothing about the theory feels like a stretch given what we know of her character.
What VisionQuest Might Reveal
If Marvel is dropping breadcrumbs, VisionQuest is probably where the trail leads next. The series premieres October 14, making it the last piece of MCU content to release before Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18. That gap is notable. VisionQuest has reportedly been in development for a long time, and other Marvel productions with similar timelines have released much faster. That kind of delay suggests the studio may have been deliberately holding the show back, possibly to ensure it lands right before the crossover event it’s meant to support.
There’s also a thematic thread running through all of this that’s hard to dismiss as coincidence. Doom’s whole identity blends cutting-edge science with inherited magical tradition, a genius inventor who also dabbles in sorcery. Wanda’s powers work in a similar duality. Her magic wasn’t purely mystical to begin with; it was shaped and intensified through exposure to the Tesseract, a piece of alien technology. Vision fits this pattern too. He’s a synthetic being built from advanced AI and vibranium, yet the spark that brought him to life came from a very literal, very magical strike from Thor’s hammer. As a couple, Wanda and Vision have always represented this same tension between science and sorcery, technology and mysticism, which happens to mirror exactly what Doom represents as a villain.
That overlap might be exactly why Marvel is positioning this trilogy the way it is. If the studio wants Doom to feel like a threat with real emotional stakes rather than just a new antagonist wearing metal armor, tying him to characters audiences already care deeply about is a smart move. Wanda and Vision may be Marvel’s best shot at making this new villain resonate on a personal level, not just a spectacle level.
WandaVision and Agatha All Along are streaming now on Disney+. VisionQuest premieres there on October 14, and Avengers: Doomsday opens in theaters December 18.
