Geeking Out About Cinema #8: MCU Rewrite | Fixing Wenwu & Scarlett Witch’s Conclusions

During my MCU rewatch marathon, I came across an interesting revelation revolving around just how similar the villains of both Shang Chi and The Multiverse of Madness were. You have a character who was a complex but generally “good person” struggling with grief that, in their depression, became corrupted by an outside supernatural sinister force. The Shang Chi movie handles this conception idea by having the sinister force reveal itself in the movie in the form of a Kaiju battle finale that feels lacking in emotional connection and leaving behind what could’ve been a superior dramatically gripping father-son battle. 

In Multiverse of Madness, Wanda’s turn to villainy is stated as being a product of the Darkhold, yet the movie sidelines the narrative significance of deeply fleshing out the sinister force behind the evil book itself in favor of just focusing on Wanda going on a killing spree to obtain a version of her children. I think both movies could’ve uniquely benefited in its execution on handling its “hidden true villain” a lot better.

What if instead of having some giant CGI monster battle in Shang Chi’s conclusion, we had Shang fighting Wenwu at his peak of corruption and madness in front of the Dweller of Darkness mountain. Their battle is epic in traditional MCU visual spectacle with excellent fight choreography while the storytelling is equally engaging as we see this tragic family battle ensue. During the fight, Wenwu is constantly trying to break open the doors as he’s constantly hearing his wife call out to him while fighting Shang who is desperately trying to stop him. Some of the creatures are shown making their way out of the cave eventually causing major casualties to the community below the mountain. We get this extensive battle between the two until Shang is placed in an intense situation where he has to decide whether he has to kill his own father (who he knows is being manipulated) or find some way to snap him back to reality.

Such a powerful character dilemma would've made for a compelling finale battle that the audience can be both visually entertained by and emotionally invested in. The movie then concludes with him managing to finally get his father to snap out of the Dweller’s manipulation fully embracing and accepting his wife’s death in a tear jerking, amazingly directed, exceptionally performed, and well written character interaction scene. Unfortunately, it comes at the tragic price of Wenwu’s death when the Dweller does manage to partially (emphasis on partially here) make it out of the mountain to which Wenwu sacrifices himself to defeat it somehow with the help of his son. 

This would've spotlighted the dramatic angle of Wenwu's redemption while keeping the mystery and terrifying nature of the Dweller's presence intact. No giant surface-wise cool but internally hollow monster battle needed. Keep it about a son trying to get his father back and the tole that grief can bring on a family. That's the way that Shang Chi in my opinion should've concluded.

With Multiverse of Madness, I think a good portion of what that movie did can still play out the same way, but towards the finale, the focus should be on disconnecting Wanda from the Darkhold’s hold on her. This allows the narrative to highlight the book itself. After all, the Darkhold is basically this movie’s Dweller in the Darkness (the hidden evil force corrupting the antagonist). You can have that emotional scene with the other universe's Wanda trying to comfort her, but also highlight the presence of Chthon (the source of the Darkhold and chaos magic) in the background being this manipulating and terrifying entity creating an obstacle. 

Have him be the embodiment of what makes the Scarlet Witch’s horror scenes so creepy in the movie and I think you'd really have something special here. Think of it like this. Chthon’s Darkhold is what allows him to have a “dark hold” over Wanda’s powers forging within her heart a “dark hole” that can only be filled with her deepest desires. Find a way to emphasize her grief and agenda to forcefully have a family as being in line with Chthon’s mythology expansion of being this demon of corruption. With this approach, I think you would’ve had a more satisfying story arc at the end of the day.

Wanda accepting not having children shouldn’t be the victory of the movie. Considering the journey that we went through in WandaVision, I'd say that’s a very problematic conclusion for this story. Instead, it should be Wanda being snapped out of Chthon’s hold on her at the realization of the fear being shown coming from the children of her other variant. Allow Charles Xavier to have seen not just a trapped Wanda and eventual red mist of the Scarlet Witch but also a nightmarish tease of Chthon lurking in the shadows as well smiling in a visually terrifying manner. 

A frightening nightmare fuel blink and you'll miss it face, a freaky looking silhouette, or a disembodied low registered creepy laugh within the mist would've really imbued a sense of dread and darkness clawing its way through Wanda's mind. Think The Exorcist's demon subliminal imagery but with Cthon instead. Allow for Earth-838’s Wanda, at the end when she confronts our Wanda, to bring up feeling trapped by something purely evil that she knows wasn’t her variant but some outside force with a menacing aura of sorts. Having these other characters show deep fear towards Chthon's mysterious presence would've perfectly highlighted the true villain of the movie while also introducing the idea that demons in the MCU can be truly menacing if one were to interfere with our heroes.

Bring attention to these types of interaction scenes without the need to have Chthon be represented in some big CGI battle at the end with Wanda and Strange fighting some giant demon. Leave the conclusion with our Wanda destroying all known multiversal variants of the Darkhold with this emphasized possession-horror context that we've talked about prior and you'll have yourself a scary and unsettling new villain for the MCU (Chthon) being well established. This would also bring a cause for concern with Wanda’s power level for the future of the MCU's heroes considering what could happen if it's being used with evil intentions. This is a story of someone who was actually in the process of accepting her actions (the town brainwashing) preparing to turn herself in and the loss (Vision and her fabricated perfect family) not being able to fully move on due to something menacing halting her arc to control her.

If we’re pitching Multiverse of Madness as being the MCU’s first horror movie, I think this revelation being spotlighted would’ve really embraced the genre with the movie as a whole. It’s a tragedy of a character arc because simply…she never got there. We literally have a villain who stopped a character arc from happening by inserting themselves at the perfect time of emotional vulnerability which I find really fascinating and unique to explore. You can maybe show the moment that she got possessed as a flashback reveal with WandaVision's cabin cliffhanger or you can leave it for the viewers to speculate on. Tie Chthon to Agatha's fascination over Wanda's magic considering she was  the previous user of the Darkhold book and you have yourself a great double-feature villain event from series to movie.

Here's an idea. You can make a flashback cut where Wanda, on her own free will and decision making, initially created her version of Vision and built her own dream home without ever going beyond that plot of land. This spark of reality bending magic was enough to catch Cthon's attention who then drove Agatha's fascination to finding Wanda. This is where Cthon plants the seed in her mind to expand her fantasy beyond her home eventually leading to the town becoming victimized by her without her realizing. This would make WandaVision's story so much more dramatically intriguing now that we know that Wanda actually would've never affected anyone's lives and would've just stayed within the confines of her family life until Cthon entered into the picture and subtly corrupted her. 

As a matter of fact, I think it's monumentally important to make an additional change here (WandaVision specifically). Instead of the ending that we got in the finale where she just walked pass everyone and flew away with Monica's controversial statement "They'll never know what you sacrificed for them", I'd have Wanda crying in confusion and distress apologizing to the people. You can have the entire town looking at her as some kind of twisted monster leading to her flying off as Monica calls out to her. Give Monica a quick statement with one of the agents saying how Wanda looked genuinely confused which is concerning and end it there with her dialogue (much better in my opinion). Later on you can have the new version of the cabin scene with Wanda drinking tea now looking at the lake with regret and distraught in her eyes before beginning to sense something calling her from the cabin.

She walks in to see the Darkhold book on a table and the camera slowly zooms into it as this unnerving score begins building in the background. Cut to a slow zoom in shot on Wanda's face looking at the book in fear until we get one last cut back to the book as faint voices of her children are heard echoing around getting louder and louder screaming for their mother while faint cult-like chantings of the word "witch" can be heard. Eventually, a deep unsettling voice cuts through all of the noise calling Wanda out by name and we get our final shot of the series showing her face looking increasingly paranoid as if she's about to scream from something that she's seeing offscreen before cutting to black. 

And there you have it. Ending the series like that would perfectly set the groundwork for the revelation of Cthon and tie-ins taking place in Multiverse of Madness making Scarlet Witch a scary villain with an arguably even scarier one pulling the strings. So, with that out of the way, tell me what you guys think of my ideas and whether or not they would've helped or hurt what the writers did. Also please don't get the wrong idea in thinking that I hated these movies or shows when they came out. As a matter of fact, I actually enjoyed them all for what they were despite their issues. I just felt there was a much better version that practically wrote itself that didn't get to see the light of day hence why I enjoy doing these re-write articles.