WANDAVISION Head Writer Jac Schaeffer Talks About Trying to Write Doctor Strange Into the Series and Why They Scrapped It

WandaVision was the perfect series to usher us into the TV phase of the MCU. It was full of mystery and intrigue, and it was a great story with excellent acting. It was so cool to see how the ending set Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) up to return to the films, where she will face off with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Strange was rumored to have had a cameo set up for WandaVision, but that obviously didn’t work out. But now, we have a reason why. WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer recently sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about making the series, and offered some background on what went into writing the series and why that cameo didn’t pan out.

Schaeffer explained:

“The plan when I came on board was that there would, at the end of the series, be a handoff, and that Doctor Strange’s participation would amount to essentially a short cameo. So early outlines had varying versions of the two of them [Wanda and Doctor Strange] kind of riding off into the sunset together. And it didn’t feel quite right. We wanted to fulfill Wanda’s agency and autonomy within this particular story. So it did feel a little tacked on. Another problem was, if Doctor Strange shows up at just the end, where was he this whole time? I did love writing variations of Doctor Strange, variations on those final beats. It was a pleasure to write for him. There were versions where she was flying past the city limits and then encountered Doctor Strange, that kind of thing.”

MCU head Kevin Feige previously said that the dated commercials included in the WandaVision series were actually part of the build-up to Doctor Strange’s appearance, and the idea of him starring in one of the commercials was introduced by Schaeffer. One of her ideas was “that in the Nexus commercial [in Episode Seven], it would kind of be a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo, a quick image of Doctor Strange as the pharmacist in the background. I was very inspired by Fight Club, when Brad Pitt’s character is on the TV in the hotel — like, if you’re looking closely you’d see it for just a second. We were like, ‘The Nexus commercial is her subconscious. What if Strange is in the background and trying to reach her?’ But ultimately we decided in favor of Wanda’s own story.”

But none of that came to fruition, and it seems like it was for the best. Instead of just sticking the character in the series, we got a more focused story that is ready to launch into the next phase.

WandaVision is available to watch on Disney+, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on March 25, 2022.