WandaVision is over and we finally got an origin story for The Scarlet Witch. We learned more about Wanda’s past and her potential future. However, with some of this new information, we may need to take another look at the past events in the MCU. One event I think we should reconsider is in Avengers: Endgame and the battle against Thanos. What if I told you, that it wasn’t Tony Stark that was the only hero of Avengers: Endgame?
Before any Marvel fans decide to riot, let me just say that this is not an effort to disrespect the sacrifice of Tony Stark made at the end of Endgame. He put his life on the line to save the universe and no one can take that away from him. However, this theory suggests that there’s more to that sacrifice, then just snapping Thanos away.
The Theory:
After watching WandaVision, and the new information it revealed, I believe that Wanda Maximoff was the primary reason why the Avengers defeated Thanos and his army in Endgame. If it wasn’t for her, the Avengers would have lost the battle and the universe would still be in peril. In order to do that, I believe we have to establish a couple of things that we learned in WandaVision and the other MCU movies to make this more clear.
Wanda’s Powers
We learned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier that HYDA’s experiments on her with the Mind Stone gave her powers. She was able to exhibit telekinesis powers as she moved objects with her mind. We then saw her show off her mind control abilities in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Fast forward to WandaVision, we saw her be able to rewrite reality into TV sitcoms, mind control an entire town, create a new Vision, and make herself some magical children. One common thread among these abilities is that they all get amplified greatly whenever Wanda is in a high emotional state. (Keep that in mind for later.)
During the memory flashbacks with Agatha, we revisited Wanda’s childhood where a Stark Industries bomb was in the middle of her home. Wanda was miraculously able to prevent that bomb from going off for two days. According to Agatha, this was due to the fact that Wanda was born a witch, and that she had cast a probability spell on the bomb preventing it to go off. In addition to that, she was able to cast the spell without using any incantations.
Another thing we learned in WandaVision was up to that point in time, Wanda had yet to control her powers. Couple that with the fact that her powers used Chaos magic, they did not need incantations, and she was suffering from incredible grief. With the emotional state at a high and the lack of control of her powers, this actually explains why so many crazy things were happening in the town of Westview. Wanda was never aware of what she was doing subconsciously to others.
The Scarlet Witch: a Nexus Being
Agatha said that Wanda was actually the mythical Scarlet Witch; a powerful being capable of spontaneous creation and even more powerful the Sorcerer Supreme too. With this title of the Scarlet Witch, WandaVision’s “Nexus drug commercial” may have alluded to the notion that Wanda may actually be a Nexus being. (You can see her swallowing a “Nexus pill” a few scenes after the commercial.) Nexus beings in the comics are rare individual entities that act as the keystones of the Multiverse and are crucial to its ultimate coherence and stability. More importantly, they ability to affect probability and thus the future, thereby altering the flow of the Universal Time Stream.
The Avengers Probability Game:
And this is the point where I believe we need to take a trip back to Avengers: Infinity War. In order to defeat Thanos, Doctor Strange viewed 14,000,605 futures and only found one possibility where the Avengers would come out successful. When I did the math on this, the percentage of that 1 in 14million futures came out to be 0.0000071% chance of success. Well, I believe that this ridiculously high level of probability is only possible because of Wanda Maximoff coming back into the fold.
As for Doctor Strange, maybe in his mind he knew that giving up the Time stone, and eventually seeing Tony make the sacrifice were the main reasons why the Avengers would win. However, If Wanda really is a Nexus being, then that means her powers could literally tip the statistical balance of power in the favor of whoever’s side she’s fighting on.
Wanda In Avengers Endgame:
When Wanda entered the battle in Endgame, she was extremely angry. (High emotional state, check). She began unleashing a flurry of hell on Thanos, almost ready to tear him apart. As mentioned before, Wanda’s powers do get a boost wither higher emotional states. She can also unconsciously cast spells without incantations. Thus, she could have unconsciously cast a massive probability hex spell on this battle to have the Avengers win. This would be no different than when she stopped the bomb from going off when she was a child.
Plus, you’d probably need a Nexus being in order to bring about a victory that only had a 0.0000071% chance of success. This could explain any and all crazy and improbable things that happened in Endgame. Wanda’s probability hex spell may be the very reason why Captain Marvel was able to catch Thanos JUST in the nick of time before snapping his fingers again.
In case you were wondering, there is a comic book precedence for all of this. As I mentioned before, not only is a Nexus being, but she’s altered the probability of events with her powers on a number of occasions. So this idea of her affecting the probability in favor of the Avengers winning this battle could have some comic inspiration.
Why Didn’t Wanda Stop Thanos In Infinity War?
Let’s revisit that tragic moment of Avengers Infinity War when Wanda was about to kill Vision. During this highly emotional time, we see Wanda not only destroying the powerful infinity stone, but she’s also holding back the Mad Titan himself at the same time. While she was able to destroy the stone, her efforts were for nothing. Thanos simply reversed time and took the the stone for himself. As we’ve seen, a number of times, when Wanda gets really emotional, her powers do tend to kick in. So why didn’t she stop Thanos right here? Well unfortunately he smacked to her sleep and she simply wasn’t conscious at the time.
Wanda’s Not Perfect
It should be noted that just because a probability hex spell may have been cast in Avengers: Endgame, that doesn’t guarantee an outcome without causalities. Recall, Wanda wouldn’t be in full control of her abilities at that time. Meaning that even if she was the key factor in making the highly improbable victory possible, that doesn’t mean she could prevent Tony Stark from dying. So yes, Tony Stark’s sacrifice and all the other heroes that fought in the battle mattered for sure. However, I believe that Wanda’s presence and maybe even her powers could possibly have tipped the scales to make that sacrifice possible in the first place.
From Hero to Villain?
If it’s true that Wanda’s powers can shift probability on whatever side she’s on, then let us not forget the other thing we learned about her in WandaVision. According to Agatha and the Darkhold, the Scarlet Witch is destined to destroy the world too. So if Wanda is capable of helping the heroes defeat Thanos and save the universe, what could that possibly mean if she’s the villain and on the opposing side? We did see her presumably up to no good in the final post credit scene of WandaVision. Maybe she could end up being an even more dangerous villain than ever before.
Be sure to follow E-Man’s Movie Reviews on Facebook, Subscribe on YouTube, or follow me on Twitter/IG @EmansReviews for even more movie news and reviews!