NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Scarlet Witch from the Marvel Cinematic film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Scarlet Witch (Marvel).
Wanda: You took everything from me! Thanos: I don't even know who you are. Wanda: You will.
„
~ Scarlet Witch to Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.noicon
“
In a given space, only the witch who cast them can use her magic.' Thanks for the lesson. But I don't need you to tell me who I am.
„
~ Scarlet Witch to Agatha Harkness.noicon
“
You break the rules and become the hero. I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair.
„
~ Scarlet Witch to Doctor Strange.noicon
Wanda Maximoff, also known as Scarlet Witch, is a major character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She is a Sokovian native who was born with the power of chaos magic, but was experimented on by HYDRA alongside her twin brother Pietro, which gave her the ability of psionic manipulation.
Wanting to get revenge on Tony Stark due to his weapons being used in a bombing that killed her parents, she worked with Ultron to destroy the Avengers. Once she learned of Ultron's true motives, Wanda and Pietro joined the Avengers to stop him from destroying Sokovia at the cost of her brother's life. Wanda would remain with the Avengers until the Sokovia Accords was created, and clashed with Iron Man's faction before being briefly imprisoned in the Raft.
Living with her boyfriend Vision, Wanda returned to the Avengers to stop Thanos from obtaining the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of the universe. She was among the causalities of the snap, but was resurrected in 2023 by the Hulk, and assisted the Avengers in fighting Thanos. After the defeat of the mad titan, Wanda attended Stark's funeral to honor his sacrifice, but was left with grief from her personal loss of Vision.
Using her chaos magic, Wanda created an idyllic life in Westview, enthralling its citizens to live peacefully with her and Vision, who she recreated from a piece of the Mind Stone. When her neighbor, Agatha Harkness, wanted to take her chaos magic, Wanda decided to stop her before ending her idyllic life to understand her powers from reading the Darkhold.
I have what I want and no one will ever take it from me again.
„
~ Wanda Maximoff.noicon
Having dealt with tragedy and turmoil at such a young age, Wanda desired to free her country from the terrors of war. This desire grew to such a point that she volunteered to be experimented on by HYDRA, eventually gaining the formidable powers she now possesses. Compared to her brother, Pietro, Wanda is quieter and less aggressive. Despite that, she appears to have full control of her power and would not hesitate to use it on her enemies to achieve her goals. She was not the type to face a foe in direct combat, opting to disable her foes with her powers when their guard is down.
Despite her desire to destroy the Avengers, she ultimately chose to betray Ultron after learning his true intentions and sided with the very people she tried to take down. This shows that Wanda is willing to set aside personal grudges for the common good, as she ultimately joined the Avengers in evacuating Sokovia and opposing Ultron.
Her hatred for Tony Stark's role in the destruction her country endured and the death of her parents motivated her to implant visions of a bleak future into his mind, thus setting up the events that led to the eventual destruction of Sokovia. Wanda acknowledges this to Hawkeye, sordidly blaming herself for the carnage and questioning why she let such chaos happen.
However, after being encouraged by Hawkeye, Wanda displayed great courage and selflessness, aiding him in fighting off the Sentries and protecting and escorting civilians to safety before standing alongside the Avengers in wiping out most of Ultron's forces. This is paramount by how she chose to stay behind and guard the key, reiterating that it was her job, and making Pietro promise to come back for her only when everyone else is safe.
Wanda and Pietro share a deep, emotional bond, though they would occasionally bicker like normal siblings. Wanda was looked after by Pietro and she would always rely on him for support. Pietro's death by Ultron's hands unleashed a fury within Wanda that pushed her to leave her post and rip out Ultron's central processor to make him feel the pain he inflicted, avenging her beloved brother. She had decided to die with Sokovia, but she was rescued by Vision, which began her second chance at life.
Despite the pain of losing her brother and the loss of her home, Wanda still chose to join the second team of Avengers, led by Captain America. Wanda seemed to establish a closest bond with Vision; upon his "birth" she appeared in awe of him, and he fascinated by her. This mutual interest developed into a strong friendship, which was briefly disrupted by the Avengers Civil War, however, ultimately their relationship advanced and they became lovers, despite holding loyalties to split factions of the Avengers.
While Wanda would overcome her guilt in her hand in the creation of Ultron, she would continue to struggle with guilt in later incidents, such as losing control of Crossbone's suicide vest that ended up killing dozens of civilians. Her perhaps most cutting remorse was when she unwittingly enslaved the town of Westview to enact her idyllic sitcom fantasy just for a content life for once, yet her immaturity and naivete with her chaos magic making her unaware of how much suffering she was forcing upon her puppets until it was exposed by Agatha Harkness to taunt her.
Wanda always struggled with how to identify herself, since initially she and Pietro were acting as villains for what they felt was justice against Stark, then they became heroes in the fight against Ultron, then she was forced to be a criminal due to opting out of signing the Sokovia Accords, but then was a truly noble hero as she had to destroy the Mind Stone, thus kill Vision whom she loved most, to prevent Thanos from collecting all six Infinity Stones. She was able to use her grief constructively in the final battle against the 2014 variants of Thanos and his forces. In the aftermath, however, her grief made her pursue Vision's remains, but finding them empty, she impulsively conjured a spell that imprisoned all in Westview as false personas just to sate her sorrow. While Agatha attempted to undermine Wanda's self-esteem by reciting her sins, Wanda was able to defeat the older, malevolent witch, and depart without issue; unfortunately, she took the Darkhold from Agatha's lair, whose dark magic would corrupt her into a true villain, until a variant of herself saved her, although Wanda herself appeared to commit suicide to destroy all versions of the Darkhold as penance.
Powers and Abilities[]
“
You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?
„
~ Scarlet Witch in Captain America: Civil War.noicon
Psychic Powers: Maximoff has magical psychic abilities. Her powers allow her to read and alter the minds of others, as well as affect the physical real world with her own mind, and alter the fabric of reality. Her powers do require direct focus and control to maintain and to disrupt her focus would be to prevent the use of those powers. Hawkeye was able to do this by attaching an electric device to her head, War Machine did this by shooting her with a sonic weapon, and Proxima Midnight did this by hitting her head with the hilt of her sword. Her powers often require hand gestures, and restricting her hands and arms can also prevent the use of her powers, such as when she was placed in a straight jacket on the Raft. When she uses Mental Manipulation to inflict emotional pain on others, she experiences that same emotional trauma with them, leaving her in mental anguish, as we see in the Age Of Ultron. Wanda's telekinetic and psionic energy manipulating abilities increase in capability when she experiences emotional turmoil or an increase of confidence. Wanda's power increased when she grew more confident due to Hawkeye's talk to her making her an Avenger. When Pietro died, Wanda lashed out in sorrow, boosting her powers to destroy many Ultron minions around her. Wanda's powers were temporarily weakened in the Civil War due to her guilt overpowers accidentally causing the deaths of many. In Infinity War after her gaining more of an understanding of her abilities and more confidence, her powers were accomplishing way more impressive feats while still not even testing the limits and capabilities of her powers. During Endgame she was enraged by Thanos aiming to take his life, amplifying her powers through a subtle confidence and a greater understanding. This granted her the capability she needed to kill Thanos with ease.
Telekinesis: Maximoff has the magical ability to mentally move, levitate, and manipulate objects through force of the mind. She can also affect and control particles and molecules, as well as physical forces such as kinetic energy, friction, pressure, state of matter and even gravity, allowing her to fully control matter and energy at the molecular level. She demonstrated this when she moved wooden blocks around while imprisoned in Wolfgang von Strucker's secret facility. She pulled them apart with her power, and suspended them in the air, removing all motion and gravity from the pieces. Maximoff used this power to stop an off-rail train in Seoul, and tear apart Ultron Sentries. Her telekinesis is enough to break through Vibranium as she did manage to rip Ultron's primary body apart to get his central processor. Maximoff was able to telekinetically lift up and throw an armed goon of Crossbones, a knife, Vision, and Proxima Midnight. Maximoff was able to draw a copious volume of gas from a building and manipulated it by spreading her Psionic Energy through every molecule of gas making it dissipate completely, and temporarily contained an explosion and lifted it away from innocents. Maximoff threw cars and rubble at Ironman, Spider-Man, and War Machine. Wanda was able to freeze a soldier's arm when trying to grab his gun, Black Panther's arm, Black Widow's leg, and Proxima Midnight's blade in mid air, and hold back a collapsed Watchtower from a long distance. In Scotland, she was able to deflect Proxima Midnight's attacks and redirect the force back at her. Wanda also has shown great precision with her telekinesis, as she was able to heal Vision's wounds by telekinetically repairing it at the molecular level. In Wakanda, Wanda was able to lift multiple of Thanos' Threshers and redirect them back at Thanos' Outriders. After her Resurrection, Wanda's telekinetic capabilities had grown, allowing her to lift 2 large pieces of debris and launch them at Thanos, hold back Thanos' sword and break it, lift Thanos high in the air while crushing him and his armor, and even hold back a Leviathan.
Psionic Energy Manipulation: Maximoff can magically uses manipulate matter with to create blasts, beams, and waves of psionic energy under her telekinetic spheres of influence. This energy can still the fast movements of her targets to improve her focus on them so she can use telekinesis to input further damage, or she can use it to rip apart the matter of her targets. She used this prominently against Ultron's robots during the battle of Sokovia. Her Psionic energy was even able to destroy the Mind Stone, and hold back the other 5 Stones at the same time in Wakanda. After her Resurrection, Wanda's empowering had increased the damage of her Psionic blasts. She forced Thanos to go on the defensive side with her attacks, and her psionic energy had been able to knock back Thanos' sword made of Uru metal while her telekinesis broke it.
Levitation: Maximoff can magically levitate herself from extreme heights. She first learned this by pushing herself into the air by blasting psionic bolts of energy into the ground, then uses telekinesis to lift herself in the air, and then she comes down by blasting psionic energy to the ground to slow down her momentum for a soft landing. She first learned this when starting off with the New Avengers, then in the events of Civil War, she could lift herself higher and for a longer period of time. This improved in Infinity War, where she could stay longer and higher, but could telekinetically lift other objects at the same time. After her Resurrection and Empowerment, Maximoff was able to Add to telekinetically lift herself in the air without the need to blast energy from her hands, just lifting herself with telekinesis and she could stay in the air in one place without needing to come back down. Her multitasking improved as well. She was able to fly and telekinetically lift 2 large pieces of debris with ease. She was even able to fly and hold back a Leviathan.
Force Field Generation: Maximoff is able to magically create highly durable fields of psionic energy that can deflect incoming attacks. These durable barriers of energy can dissipate from loss of concentration or from too much force. Ultron's minions were eventually able to break through it, along with the blasts from Thanos' ship. Wanda also uses this to increase her durability to a large extent by forming an amour of psionic energy around herself to save herself from incoming blows, or to cushion extreme impact(high falls etc.). She used this when being blasted by Promixa, first into a window without a scratch, and second when falling from an extreme height.
Telepathy: Maximoff can magically read the minds of others, being able to sense the thoughts and emotions of others. She does this through a neuro-electric interface. With this she can also communicate telepathically and view their memories. Sometimes when she focuses on specific targets, her eyes glow a dark red color. She used this to view Tony Stark's memories and view his worst fear that she put in his mind, she tries to see into the Mind of Ultron, but failed because of his lack of a human brain, she used this to view the memories of the Avengers to show them their worst fears. She temporarily used this to merge her conciseness with Ultron's to see his plans for world destruction. Maximoff used this to when she peeked into the heads of many Sokovians in order to mind control them to get to safety away from the city. The last time she used this was her sensing the death of her brother Pietro Maximoff like she had seen it in person.
Mind Manipulation: Maximoff is able to magically manipulate others' thoughts, memories, senses, and mental state as a form of hypnosis. She can also use this to make her victim hear, feel, and see whatever she wants (most notably something the person fears or a traumatic past experience) through illusions. This power is possible through a neuro-electric interface, just as her telepathy is. She was able to use this ability to cripple the Avengers, forcing them each to recall the darker events of their pasts and were put inside daydream-like visions of them that subdued them. When this ability is in use, Maximoff's reddish energy takes a more mist-like form, floating into the head of the victim in the form of neurons. The effects also distort the victim's iris coloration, causing them to shine a dark reddish color. This also allows her to control other people's actions, as she did with a considerable number of civilians in Sokovia to aid in their evacuation, causing them to experience a form of sleepwalking and making them all get up and leave the city. Maximoff's mental power is strong to reverse the effects of the Mind Stone, one of the most powerful objects in existence, as shown when she freed Dr. Helen Cho from the stone's control. She can also manipulate the memory and senses of others at will, induce sleep or pain and create illusions without any difficulty.
Avengers: Age of Ultron Prelude - This Scepter'd Isle
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (mid-credits scene)
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Season Two
The Dirty Half Dozen (mentioned)
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Captain America: Road to War
Captain America: Civil War
Black Widow Prelude (flashbacks)
Black Widow (indirety mentioned)
Spider-Man: Homecoming Prelude
Avengers: Inifnity War Prelude
Avengers: Infinity War
Captain Marvel Prelude (computer screen)
Avengers: Endgame Prelude
Avengers: Endgame
WandaVision
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (mentioned)
Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness
Ms. Marvel (depiction)
The Marvels (mentioned)
Deadpool & Wolverine (footage)
Agatha All Along (corpse; illusion and mentioned)
Quotes[]
“
Sometimes it's hard, but sooner or later every man shows himself.
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~ Scarlet Witch to Ultron.noicon
“
Ultron can't see the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that from?
„
~ Scarlet Witch to Captain America.noicon
“
I just did. Do you know how it felt? It felt like that...
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~ Scarlet Witch to Ultron.noicon
“
I'm still me, I think. But... that's not what everyone else sees.
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~ Scarlet Witch speaking with Vision.noicon
“
I can't control their fear, only my own.
„
~ Scarlet Witch to Vision.noicon
“
I have what I want. And no one will ever take it from me again.
„
~ Wanda in WandaVision.
“
Then it won’t be Wanda who comes for her. It will be the Scarlet Witch.
„
~ Wanda deciding to hunt down America Chavez.noicon
“
Sending those creatures after her instead of myself was mercy. And in spite of your hypocrisies and insults, I begged you to safely get out of my way. You have exhausted my patience. But I do hope you understand that even now, what's about to happen; this is me, being reasonable.
„
~ Scarlet Witch to the Masters of the Mystic Arts.noicon
“
What mouth?
„
~ Scarlet Witch to Mr. Fantastic, mere moments before taking away Black Bolt's mouth.noicon
“
Good. There will be someone left to raise them.
„
~ Scarlet Witch to Mr. Fantastic.noicon
“
I opened the Darkhold. I have to close it. No one will be tempted by the Darkhold again.
„
~ Scarlet Witch deciding to destroy all Darkholds in the multiverse.noicon
Trivia[]
In the Marvel comics, Scarlet Witch is a mutant and a founding member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, being initially identified as the daughter of Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr) and his then-wife Magda Lehnsherr (née Eisenhardt) in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 (1983), 19 years after Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's first appearance. Magda leaves Erik while pregnant and takes sanctuary at Mount Wundagore in Transia, the home of the High Evolutionary, where she gives birth and later dies. The High Evolutionary then places them instead in the care of the Romani couple, Django and Marya Maximoff, who raise them as their own children. Prior to that, in Giant-Size Avengers #1 (1974), they were revealed to be the biological children of Golden Age superheroes The Whizzer and Miss America, a fact that was later retconned. In Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #7 (2014), it was revealed that Pietro and his sister have no blood ties to Magneto and are not related after all. In Uncanny Avengers #4 (2015), it is confirmed not only are they not related to Magneto but they are also not mutants, as the High Evolutionary was the one that genetically altered them as infants, giving them their powers, before returning them to their true parents, the Maximoffs. Quicksilver is indeed a mutant and Magneto's son, in the X-Men Cinematic Universe.
In their first prominent appearances in Age of Ultron, Wanda and Pietro were referred to as "enhanced," likely due to the 20th Century Fox owning the film rights for "mutants," in 2015. Although, later Disney would acquire the studio and its assets, thus started using the term "mutant" for characters like Kamala Khan, a variant of Professor X, Namor, and a variant for Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast, although not explicitly for Scarlet Witch yet.
Wanda ultimately destroying Ultron's primary body in the film is probably an allusion to the fact that her powers in the comics are considered one of Ultron's most significant weaknesses.
Although Wanda's comic book moniker was never spoken by anyone during the course of the films, in Age of Ultron Iron Man did disparagingly refer to her as a "witch", alluding to her Scarlet Witch moniker. Besides, in the credits of the films, she appears as "Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch".
During the events of the WandaVision series, Wanda is finally called by her alias name, though it is a title from a prophecy, rather than simple moniker.
Similar to the WandaVision series, in the comics, Wanda also marries Vision and has two sons with him.
Kevin Feige confirmed that Wanda is an actual witch, with her various powers actually being her involuntarily casting magical spells.
Wanda size is 5'6".
Since it was confirmed in the episode "Previously On" of WandaVision that she has had her powers since she was born, this might imply that she is a mutant.
Maximoff's stage name "Glamour" in Don't Touch That Dial is a reference to Glynis Zarkov, a Leonia resident with superpowers, that she hides under the guise of the stage magician "Glamor", alongside her husband Ilya.
