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Marvel has finally confirmed what fans have argued about since 2022: the Scarlet Witch is dead. In TVA #5, a newly canonized Nightmare reveals to Ghost-Spider that a version of Wanda Maximoff was found frozen in one of the Time Variance Authority’s restricted timelines. But here’s the rub — Nightmare clarifies that the Scarlet Witch, who was buried beneath the rubble of Mount Wundagore in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, is gone for good.
The comic closes the door on years of speculation about whether Elizabeth Olsen’s character secretly survived the temple collapse at the end of the Sam Raimi-directed MCU film. Fans had previously clung to a blink-and-you-miss-it visual during the scene—a flash of red energy similar to Wanda’s arcane energy—as proof that Wanda might still be alive. But TVA #5 makes the difference explicit: the Wanda they found was from a different timeline. That means the original Scarlet Witch — the one from the main Marvel Cinematic Universe — is dead.
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A New Villain, A Final Answer
Nightmare, a classic Marvel villain with deep roots in the spookier side of the comics, appears for the first time as a multiversal threat tied directly to the MCU. Though he’s got a penchant for chaos, he brings clarity here. As he fights Ghost-Spider, Nightmare explains that he’s been tracking a Wanda variant through the multiverse. Nightmare’s inclusion, giving such a crucial reveal with major MCU consequences, signals the franchise’s growing investment in supernatural and horror sides of the canon — from Werewolf by Night to Agatha All Along.
The move fits a broader trend of Marvel using comics to tidy up unclear post-Avengers: Endgame storylines. It did the same ahead of Secret Invasion, using tie-in issues to reset key characters. Now, with the TVA series, the company doubles down. The death of the main Wanda has kept fandom buzzing since the pandemic-era release of the Doctor Strange sequel where she seemingly perished. Comics being the source of confirmation regarding a key player like Wanda Maximoff’s fate is not to be overlooked for a franchise currently parlaying its future around infinite timelines.
With the multiverse in play, Marvel continues to lean into multimedia elasticity, telling stories across multiple forms of media. Still, with the MCU in such flux ahead of X-Men integration and the hijinks sure to come in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, the true canonicity of Wanda’s fate as revealed in TVA #5 can always be retconned.
In the meantime, fans can speculate for themselves by reading TVA #5, which hit shelves on April 30.
“}]] Did Wanda Maximoff really die in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The answer just came from an unlikely and unexpected source in the comics. Read More