From 'Ultron' to 'WandaVision': What Happened to Wanda Before 'Multiverse of Madness'

First introduced in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', Wanda Maximoff was a Sokovian girl with telekinetic abilities, clinging to her brother Pietro and dealing with severe trust issues.

And even though her powers clearly hinted at her impressive superhero potential from the very beginning, Wanda had to go through a lot before her quiet line "That doesn't seem fair" in the 'Multiverse of Madness' trailer sent goosebumps running down everyone's spine.

Let's take a quick look back at the MCU journey of the Scarlet Witch.

'Age of Ultron'

In the second 'Avengers' movie we meet Pietro and Wanda Maximoff – two mutants who willingly became test subjects for Hydra's Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Pietro boasts superhuman speed, and Wanda is capable of moving objects without touching them and interfering with people's minds.

That's exactly what she does to Avengers after the twins are recruited by Ultron (an AI created by Tony Stark that gone out of control): using her abilities, Wanda creates visions that haunt the superheroes. Particularly, she causes Bruce Banner to turn into Hulk before Iron Man stops him with his armor.

Maximoffs hold Stark responsible for the death of their parents in Sokovia, because they were killed with his weapon company's arms. It makes it easy for Ultron to control the twins, but it was Wanda who eventually read his mind and discovered his sinister plan to eradicate humanity.

The twins change sides, but, as they fight alongside Avengers, Wanda's brother dies, marking one of the biggest tragedies in her life – but certainly not the last one.

'Civil War'

After Ultron was defeated by Vision, the android created by Tony Stark based on his destroyed AI system J.A.R.V.I.S., he and Wanda begin to form a bond. However, the very fact that Vision was assigned to prevent Wanda from leaving the Avengers base after she inadvertently caused a deadly explosion in Lagos drives her angry. With Hawkeye arriving to recruit her to fight on Captain America's side against Iron Man, Wanda forces Vision to let her go and joins Steve Rogers' team. At the end of 'Civil War' she and other allies of Cap end up being captured and held in underwater prison The Raft, but Rogers arrives to free them.

'Infinity War '

Starting a romantic relationship, Wanda and Vision escape to Edinburgh, but they are ambushed by Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, the Children of Thanos who aim to retrieve the Mind Stone. The two are rescued by Captain America and Black Widow, and then Vision asks Wanda to destroy the Mind Stone, which is engraved in his forehead.

She refuses: her attempt to destroy the stone would kill Vision. But over the course of an ongoing battle with Thanos for Infinity Stones Wanda eventually is forced to do it anyway, and Vision dies so that the Mind Stone is destroyed.

However, Thanos then uses the Time Stone to reverse it and, having collected all the stones, he snaps his fingers.

Wanda disappears in what would later be known as The Blip. Half of all life in the universe is also disintegrated.

'Endgame'

Following the Avengers' desperate endeavor to rewind the course of events and bring back those who were disintegrated, Wanda and the others come back to life. Thanos ends up being killed, but, due to a hiccup during the time travel, a variant of his daughter Nebula manages to drag the past version of the Mad Titan to the Avengers' timeline.

In a vicious final battle Wanda clashes with Thanos in a dangerous one-on-one fight, making him seriously fear for his life at some point. However, he manages to outplay her and make it out alive.

Tony Stark ends up being the one to sacrifice himself and kill Thanos and his army. However, even though all disintegrated life comes back, Vision is still dead: he was killed by Wanda, not by the Blip.

'WandaVision'

Vision's death is not something that Wanda can easily cope with. She is devastated and unable to accept the reality of him gone, so she creates her own sitcom-like world, in which she and the android live a happy utopian life in a cozy suburban city of Westview.

The only problem with her coping mechanism is that Wanda actually holds all residents of the real Westview captive, forcing them to play the roles she wants them to play. She and Vision even have kids somehow: twins who grow up unnaturally fast.

Wanda does not seem to realize she has taken people hostage, but even when she finally begins to wrap her head around it, she is reluctant to destroy her comfort world, as it would mean that she has to accept Vision's death.

Still, after discovering that one of her neighbors, Agatha Harkness, is in fact an evil witch, Wanda faces her in a final battle, even though Agatha is clearly more experienced in witchcraft than Wanda is.

Harkness ends up being captured in the fake Westview reality forever. After the battle Wanda gets her hands on the Darkhold – a magical grimoire filled with secrets of chaos magic.

Having faced her trauma and made peace with her mind, Wanda releases the residents of Westview and has to say goodbye to Vision and her kids.

She then seems to distance herself from everything Avengers-related, focusing on improving her skills as Scarlet Witch and studying the Darkhold. However, the Westview reality reaches out to her: at some point, she hears her kids' voices.

'Multiverse of Madness'

In the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel Wanda appears to play a role as important as Strange himself. The wizard contacts her, asking for some help with the Multiverse. However, according to one of the trailers, Wanda later takes issue with how the violation of multiverse rules appears to be forgivable when Strange does it, but when it is she who breaks the rules, it is a punishable offense.

It seems that it will be up to her to decide whether she is a friend or a foe of Doctor Strange after all.

We will learn more about Wanda's decisions when the movie finally hits screens on May 6.