Marvel just made its most controversial movie totally pointless

The mystery of Teen's origins in Agatha All Along have been at the center of the series long before it even began. Ever since Joe Locke was cast in the role, rumors about his character's potential origins have made their way around the internet as Marvel fans speculated about the possibility of Wiccan joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The fifth episode of the Disney Plus series confirmed as much, when Teen used his powers for the first time, sending Agatha Harkness, Lilia Calderu, and Jennifer Kale into the mud on the side of the Witches' Road. He also did some nifty mind control, just like his mother Wanda Maximoff did during her first appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It was a reveal that many predicted but no one truly saw coming in that particular moment.

The sight of him standing there on the Witches' Road, as the crown formed over his head, set the stage for an episode that would explore his origins. "Familiar By Thy Side" did just that, but in doing so, it also made one of the MCU's most controversial movies, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, seemingly pointless.

Billy Maximoff's origins, explained

In Agatha All Along episode 6, we are introduced to William Kaplan; a 13-year old boy who is celebrating his Bar Mitzvah in Eastview when an evacuation order is sent out due to the Westview anomaly. William's parents take him home and they all drive by Wanda Maximoff's infamous Hex, which begins to get smaller just as it did at the end of WandaVision. But as their attention is on the Hex, they almost crash into oncoming traffic. The near-miss forces William's dad to swerve, crashing the car into a nearby tree.

William dies at the scene of the accident, but he is seemingly revived when he awakens, screaming "Tommy!". But it's not William Kaplan; it's Billy Maximoff, whose soul was somehow able to make its way into William's body due to his proximity to the Hex. How do we know this? Well, right before he comes to, we hear audio of Billy and Tommy Maximoff telling each other "goodnight" right before the Hex comes down (again, as seen in WandaVision).

Wanda created her and Vision's children out of love, grief and magic. Following Vision's death in Avengers: Infinity War, she made her way to Westview and, in an emotional outburst, released a wave of chaos magic that turned Westview into her own personal sitcom, complete with a whole family. None of it was technically real as Vision and the boys were tied to the Hex, meaning that they ceased to exist whenever it came down... or at least that's what we thought.

Wanda's children may have been magical, but she somehow she created souls for them, too. It's a rather stunning development for those who haven't read the Marvel Comics, but when you remember who and what the Scarlet Witch is, it shouldn't be all that surprising. She's a being capable of spontaneous creation, we just didn't realize how deep her ability to create went. Souls included.

And yes, I said children; for Agatha All Along reveals that Tommy Maximoff (a.k.a. Speed) is out there too. Billy can feel his presence, and that's why he has chosen to walk the Witches' Road. It's really quite touching because, just as the reports said, Agatha now serves as the continuation of WandaVision's story. But where does that leave the show's original follow-up?

Agatha All Along renders Doctor Strange 2 meaningless

Stephen Strange told Wanda Maximoff that her children weren't real in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The 2022 movie picked up shortly after the events of WandaVision as the Scarlet Witch, now overwhelmed by grief and corrupted by the Darkhold, decided to venture into another universe so that she could live a happier life with versions of Tommy and Billy that were real. And if that meant having to kill America Chavez (and that other universe's version of Wanda) to do it, then so be it.

But it turns out that Tommy and Billy were real. Granted, they were created by magic using the Hex, but even after it came down - no, immediately after it came down - their souls were transported into nearby vessels, allowing them a chance at life. Real life. Life that Wanda could have lived with them had she known they existed. But it didn't work out like that, and fans aren't particularly thrilled about that.

That means that in the three years that the soul within William Kaplan's body realized that he was, in fact, Billy Maximoff, Wanda was wreaking havoc across the multiverse, trying to take a different version of Tommy and Billy away from their mother, threatening to kill a teenager, and actually killing a bunch of heroes from another Earth. The film was heavily criticized for this, with audiences feeling that it misunderstood the nuances of WandaVision by having the Scarlet Witch descend into villainy. Yes, Wanda is a complex character who always felt like she was a tragic push away from the dark side, but Multiverse of Madness took her so far down that road that it felt like there was no way back for her.

Her sacrifice in the end of the movie was her one shot at redemption, as she realized what she had become and decided that the Darkhold must never be allowed to corrupt anyone else ever again. As such, she brought down Mount Wundagore on herself, destroying all copies of the Darkhold, and seemingly ending her own life in the process. Agatha All Along has implied that she is still dead on multiple occasions (although now it has shifted to referring to her as "gone"), but it's widely expected that she will return someday.

Wanda's villainous turn in Doctor Strange 2 was extreme and it often felt hard to reconcile that with the character we saw develop in WandaVision. She was always troubled, but many felt that the 2022 film took things too far. And that was before we discovered that her children were still alive all along, rendering her entire arc in that movie completely and utterly pointless.

Why Wanda didn't know Billy was still alive

"Every witch with a beating heart can hear you now." That's what Agatha told Billy when the sigil placed on him was broken. It was a pretty apt way to close out "Familiar By Thy Side" as that episode also revealed who placed the sigil on Billy in the first place. It was indeed our very own Lilia Calderu, portrayed by none other than Patti LuPone.

Prior to his accident, William Kaplan was just a young boy having a good time at his Bar Mitzvah ceremony. During the night, he decided to have his palm read by the witch booked for the event. It turned out that Lilia was that witch and upon reading his palm, she deduced that he would be destined for two lifelines: William Kaplan's and Billy Maximoff's. She also placed the sigil on him after he left so that no other witch could find him, immediately forgetting he existed as soon as she did so.

The fact that Billy's abilities are similar to his mother's makes him almost as powerful as her too, and that would have likely made him a target to other witches. Remember, when Wanda first unleashed the full extent of her powers to form the Hex, that drew Agatha to Westview. So Lilia likely saw William's fate (which included Billy's arrival) and placed the sigil on him to protect him from other witches.

The downside of that, however, is that it also shielded him from Wanda. She left Westview shortly after she brought the Hex down, so she very well could have flown over the scene of the car accident that claimed William Kaplan's life, the hospital that Billy recuparated in, or even his home in Eastview and she never would have known that her son was alive. A sigil protects someone's identity from all witchfolk, and now we know that includes even the Scarlet Witch.

But that Sigil has been broken now, and as we contemplate what that means for Billy's future, we still can't help but think about that line from Agatha: "Every witch with a beating heart can hear you now." If Wanda is still out there, she just might hear him, too.

Taking all of that into account, it's really quite ironic that Agatha All Along is more of a faithful sequel to WandaVision than the film which brought back its main character. While Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did continue the story that the Disney Plus series set in motion, it misunderstand a number of the intricacies in its storytelling that left fans of the Scarlet Witch feeling a little short-changed.

In terms of how in enhanced the story, there are only vague elements that were carried forward into Agatha All Along, such as Wanda's apparent death and the destruction of the Darkhold - neither of which have come into play much outside of the first episode.

Agatha All Along has served as a direct continuation to WandaVision's story extremely well, while also proving that the controversial events involving Wanda Maximoff in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness weren't all that necessary after all.