Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom Revives Wanda in 'VisionQuest' Finale Stinger

By Marcus Bennett

Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom lifts Wanda Maximoff out of the rubble in the post-credits scene of the "VisionQuest" finale, now streaming on Disney+. The moment confirms what fans have suspected for months: the Scarlet Witch returns for "Avengers: Doomsday," which opens Dec. 18.

The scene replays the ending of 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," in which Wanda eradicated the Darkhold from every corner of the multiverse before apparently dying beneath a collapsed mountain. This time the camera keeps rolling. Doom appears, clears the rubble, and speaks to her.

"Scarlet Witch, awaken — your power will be mine," Doom says, as Wanda gasps and opens her eyes.

What does the finale change for the Maximoff family?

The episode, titled "Forever," closes the saga that began with 2021's "WandaVision." Before the stinger, the story reunites Vision with his and Wanda's grown sons. Ruaridh Mollica's Tommy Maximoff carried the series throughout, and Joe Locke's Billy Maximoff arrives in the final stretch to complete the family reunion.

Doom's collection of captured heroes may not stop with Wanda. In "Avengers Endgame: Encore," a newly added post-credits scene shows Doom kidnapping the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo.

Marvel teased the finale with a tweet written entirely in binary code. Fans decoded the zeros and ones within hours. The message read: "We could never truly leave each other, even if we tried." The line comes from the 2021 finale of "WandaVision."

A decade of grief, from Sokovia to Wundagore

Elizabeth Olsen first appeared as Wanda in the post-credits scene of 2014's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," which set up her full debut in 2015's "Avengers: Age of Ultron." Her early years in the franchise were defined by loss: the death of her brother Pietro, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and the destruction of her homeland Sokovia in "Age of Ultron." Vision died at her side in 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War."

That grief drove the plot of "WandaVision," Marvel Studios' first television series for Disney+. Overwhelmed, Wanda seized an entire New Jersey town and remade it as a chain of American sitcoms, complete with a reconstituted Vision and twin sons, Billy and Tommy. Her encounters with the witch Agatha Harkness, played by Kathryn Hahn, revealed her true identity as the Scarlet Witch, one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel universe. By the end she had to let her family go.

The thread continued. "Agatha All Along," the 2024 Disney+ series, introduced Joe Locke as the grown Billy Maximoff. In "Multiverse of Madness," Wanda turned fully villain, killing anyone who blocked her search for her sons across the multiverse while corrupted by the Darkhold. She destroyed the book everywhere, then seemingly perished inside Wundagore mountain.

Has Olsen been waiting for this call?

Asked by Variety in 2022 whether she hoped to play Wanda again, Olsen answered with a laugh and an optimistic caveat.

"It's weird that I'm expecting to return, but no one's told me I'm doing anything!" she said. "But in my mind, I'm just making the assumption that they'll have me again. I don't know to what capacity, but I hope I'm back. I hope there's also more fun to be had in something different."

The stinger suggests her assumption was right, and "Avengers: Doomsday" will now reveal what capacity — and what Doom intends to do with a power he claims as his own.