Doctor Strange 2: How Chaos Magic And WandaVision’s Darkhold Will Wreak Havoc On The Multiverse

In the WandaVision finale, there was a post-credits scene that showed her using Chaos Magic as she read from the Darkhold, aka, the Book of

By Ishita Chatterjee
January 4,2022
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In the WandaVision finale, there was a post-credits scene that showed her using Chaos Magic as she read from the Darkhold, aka, the Book of Sins.

Wanda sequestered herself to a mountain valley, and then something interesting happens before the scene gets cut- she hears her kids calling out to her.

Fans couldn’t stop theorizing about this scene and how it was going to connect to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. When the first trailer for the Doctor Strange sequel dropped, that theorizing went into overdrive.

Everyone was thinking about the various roles Wanda would play in the story and how Chaos Magic would be used in it after Doctor Strange himself seemed to use it in the new footage.

So let us break down Chaos Magic and what exactly it is in Marvel comics. We will also talk about how Wanda has used it in the MCU as well as how both the Darkhold and it will factor into this Doctor Strange sequel.

Scarlet Witch And Chaos Magic In Marvel Comics

Agatha Harkness vs. Scarlet Witch
Agatha Harkness vs. Scarlet Witch

In WandaVision, Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness says in the penultimate episode that Wanda was “supposed to be a myth” and that her new Westview life was created using this Chaos Magic. This “makes her the Scarlet Witch.”

So not only was the Scarlet Witch seen as a myth, but Chaos Magic usually was too. As per Agatha, there’s “an entire chapter devoted to [Wanda] in the Darkhold,” and she also said, “‘The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is forged. She has no coven, no need for incantation.'”

Harkness further said that Wanda’s magical powers “exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme” and that ultimately it is her “destiny to destroy the world.”

On the pages of Marvel comics, in issue #503 of “Avengers” (1998), the Sorcerer Supreme claimed that, “There’s no such thing as Chaos Magic.” But years later, it was revealed that Doctor Strange said this just because he assumed that Chaos Magic didn’t exist.

The witches, mages, and sorcerers of the world all united under a single lie to prevent Chthon, the Elder God’s rise. This lie was, “There is no God of Chaos. There is no Chaos Magic.” And this helped explain why Doctor Strange didn’t know about this kind of magic.

Agatha Harkness was alive since the 19th century, and she was searching for the magic of the “unworthy.” She too believed that the Scarlet Witch and Chaos Magic were just myths until Westview.

So, it’s not really a stretch to believe that Doctor Strange thought the same as well. Strange only realized that the myth was real when he got to know what Wanda did at Westview and came to her regarding the multiverse.

This means she does know more than what she’s showing.

The Clues Lie In The Spherical Objects Surrounding Wanda

Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

In WandaVision’s post-credit scene, it’s commonly believed that Wanda was using the Darkhold to learn about herself as well as the Chaos Magic she uses. But more than that, she wanted to find her sons.

As she read from the book and cast a spell, audiences could hear Tommy and Billy crying and asking their mother to help them. But one intriguing part of this entire scene are the spherical objects that float all around Wanda.

Could these spheres represent other universes? Maybe each sphere is an Earth? This might be the reason Wanda could hear the voices of her twin sons while searching the multiverse for them.

After all, if her twins didn’t exist in her world anymore, and if the multiverse was truly infinite, then her actions might have given birth to a reality where her sons exist without her magic.

Even though, like in the comics, the Sorcerer Supreme will surely have issues with Wanda meddling with reality.

Is Doctor Strange Using The Darkhold’s Powers?

Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch
Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch

The Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer had plenty of little tidbits that fans were intrigued by. One of them was the Sorcerer Supreme using Chaos Magic. Or at least, for now, he is using Chaos Magic.

Fans looked closely at the scene and found something interesting on the floor in front of Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange could get Darkhold away from the Scarlet Witch.

And he is channeling Chaos Magic using it, or what’s more likely is that it is the Darkhold that is channeling Chaos Magic through him. Harkness had said before that Scarlet Witch was the only one who could use Chaos Magic.

Looking closely at the scene, similar to when Wanda had used the book, there are the red spherical objects again. Since the Doctor Strange sequel will involve variants (and we already saw one of Doctor Strange in the trailer) the possibility that these red spheres represent the multiverse is stronger now.

What could Strange be doing in this scene specifically? The master of the mystical arts might be trying to figure out what Wanda was doing with the Darkhold and how he was going to reverse what she had done to the multiverse or herself.

Will Chthon Show Up?

Chthon
Chthon

Chthon, the God of Chaos, was the one who wrote the Darkhold. And he is the one who is directly connected to Wanda in the comics. As such, he might play a role in the sequel.

Rumors regarding the plot of the movie indicate that Wanda will be a villain. However, that shouldn’t come as a surprise after the ominous WandaVision post-credits scene.

In the comics, it’s said that those who read from the Book of Sins will slowly find their soul corrupted, and gradually Chthon will possess it. This had happened to Wanda in the past.

Also, Chthon had marked Wanda as a potential vessel since her birth, and this could explain her close connection to Chaos Magic in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer, Wanda can be seen with blackened fingers like Harkness. This heavily implies that Wanda will use darker magic or even siphon magic from other kinds of magic users.

Maybe Wanda realizes that if she wants to find her children in the Multiverse, then she will have to find more magic. And you know what it reminds us of? The What If…? episode of Doctor Strange.

There Strange too, tries to gain more magic to bring back the love of his life. And we all know how it all ended. So maybe that Doctor Strange variant we saw in the trailer is indeed the same one from What If…?, and he might be here to warn about the potential universe-ending consequences of Wanda’s actions.

Also, the corrupting powers of the Darkhold can help explain why Harkness, an ally in the comics, was a villain in WandaVision. So this corruption might make Wanda do terrible things in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Well, we will know for sure when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on March 25, 2022.

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