Doctor Strange 2 Was Supposed To Kill Off A Major Marvel Character
Originally Evangeline Lily's Wasp would've been one of the Illuminati members murdered in Doctor Strange 2.
Doctor Strange 2 featured plenty of brutal deaths, but it seems like they almost had one more in store for us. In the audio commentary for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, writer Michael Waldron reveals that there were plans for Evangeline Lilly’s Wasp was going to get killed by Wanda/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). They opted to leave this out in the final product.
Going into further detail, Waldron revealed that the Wasp would have been part of the version of the Illuminati team that we met in Doctor Strange 2. According to him, the Wasp would have flown toward Wanda to attack her and would have just been clapped and smushed between Wanda’s hands. It seems like they might have left this out because the Wasp is already a character that we’re very familiar with who has an active role in the current MCU. The other characters that Wanda brutalized in the movie were either variants, outside of the current MCU lineup, or hadn’t been introduced yet. With the exception of Anson Mount’s Black Bolt who was in the critically reviled Inhumans.
Although we didn’t see a Wasp kill in Doctor Strange 2, the writers certainly didn’t hold back with the other Illuminati members. Black Bolt’s head was blown up by his own voice, Mr. Fantastic (John Krasinski) was turned into stretchy spaghetti, Professor X (Patrick Stewart) lost a mind battle, Captain Marvel (Lashana Lynch) was crushed, and Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) was killed by her own shield. It seems like the Wasp was definitely spared from a gruesome fate. It’s always possible that the Wasp could have been a variant played by someone other than Evangeline Lilly, but the Illuminati scene we got definitely seemed sufficient enough to show how strong the Scarlet Witch had become.
While it doesn’t seem likely that we’ll be seeing Wanda again anytime soon after the events of Doctor Strange 2, the titular character himself was able to come out the other side of the conflict relatively unscathed, though with a third eye now in his forehead. We saw Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange leap through a portal with Charlize Theron‘s Clea in the post-credits sequence, so we’ll definitely be getting more adventures from Strange and his new sorcerer friend.
Of course, we won’t be short on Marvel content anytime soon. Though Doctor Strange 2 was the most recent theatrical offering from the comic book studio, there is plenty more movies and TV shows coming up throughout the rest of the year. The next big feature will be Thor: Love and Thunder which hits theaters on July 8. The movie will reunite us with Thor and see Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster taking on the mantel of the God of Thunder as they go up against Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher. On the TV side of things, the coming-of-age tale Ms. Marvel is currently streaming new episodes on Disney+. We’ll also be getting a She-Hulk show in August before the year wraps up with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
