WandaVision's eighth episode debuted last week, the penultimate point in the story of Scarlet Witch and her hubby, and with it, a wealth of backstory, retcons, and context was thrown out and into the world. We learned an awful lot more about her powers, with a huge hint towards her already being connected to magic prior to her exposure to the infinity stone - is she a mutant, or just a natural? Or, is it her lineage? There were plenty of references to the Scarlet Witch moniker having already existed in the MCU prior to Wanda Maximoff -- could it be a hint to her real mother?
To get into Wanda's convoluted parentage in the comics would be a nightmare. She was the daughter of Bob Frank - Whizzer, who appeared in Netflix's Jessica Jones, - and Miss America, Joyce Frank. So, she went by Wanda Frank, but then Magneto came onto the scene and proclaimed, "Wanda, I am your father." Fair enough. But, then, in 2014... it came out that she wasn't his daughter? A later comic then revealed that Wanda's true mother was Natalya Maximoff, the previous Scarlet Witch. It's a tough one to follow, but the important part is the Scarlet Witch lore that encompasses it all.
Scarlet Witch is the embodiment of chaos magic, and as it turns out, that embodiment came with a mantle, one passed down through generations. Wanda isn't the first, nor will she likely be the last, and the latest episode of WandaVision heavily hinted towards there having been Scarlet Witches prior. For instance, when she peers into the infinity gem of Loki's staff - the mind stone - she sees a vision of the Scarlet Witch, an illuminating heavenly figure appearing in the comic's getup, towering over her. It felt very akin to one of the panels Natalya Maximoff held.
Speculation is already rampant on what Wanda saw - was it her future, did she peer into the multiverse's Nexus and see the comic-book Scarlet Witch, or, like in the comics, did she see her mother? Something that makes me personally think it's her biological mother is a key element of context - where she was during this revelation. With Agatha Harkness, the Salem-era Witch, she was walking down memory lane rather literally, peering into her own past, confronting her inner demons. The final stage of grief - acceptance.
It felt an awful lot like the Witches' Road from the comics, a place where, when she traversed it with Agatha no less, she first encountered her true mother, learning of the age-old mantle of Scarlet Witch. What this ultimately does is transform it from a superhero name to a title akin to that of Black Panther, something that is passed from generation to generation. Given that mantles seemingly are a large part of the fourth phase of the MCU, what with Captain America passing his down into a pile of conflict, could it be that Wanda is jumping into the fun? Perhaps.
Another huge part that hints that Scarlet Witch is a mantle is Agatha Harkness' dialogue as she directly refers to Wanda as the Scarlet Witch after fumbling in fear of her use of chaos magic, implying that Scarlet Witch is a moniker that has historically been held by those who embrace that sect of the occult. Now, she has parents - we saw them in the flashbacks, but that doesn't discount this theory. See, in the comics, Natalya is believed to have died after attempting to rescue both Pietro and Wanda from the High Evolutionary, and so Wanda was never raised by her nor does she fully remember her. As such, a retcon like that could also work in the MCU.
Whether this blossoms into anything has yet to be seen, but there's a wealth of potential for Wanda's story going forward in the MCU, and one of the best stories that she could possibly tell relates to the death of magic in-universe, a narrative in which her mother is the focal point. In the comics, for reference, magic drains a person's soul, aging them, and how they look to everybody else completely differs from how they appear to themselves. In Scarlet Witch (2016) #3, Wanda is an older woman while appearing younger. She encounters her mother and, at that point, Agatha is an old, bitter ghost that follows her around like a bad smell. Agatha knows the truth but withholds.
In the comic's story with ghost Aggy and momma Scarlet, Wanda goes back to the Witches' Road, this time traversing her troubled past - not unlike in episode eight. Here, they find that the Abstract Entity of chaos is attempting to kill their Goddess. As such, her mother sacrifices her soul to save Witchcraft. In the process, she loses her very sense of self, her personality, and her memories. But, before that happens, she reveals that it was Wanda's father who killed her. A twist, a Shakespearean plot of family drama and intrigue. This could be repurposed in the MCU as Magneto having killed her true mother, leaving her without parents, to be adopted, and finding herself in the care of two loving Sokovians.
Introducing her mother now and placing her parentage into question would be the perfect way to introduce the idea of Magneto as her potential true father, if Marvel indeed goes down that route. It likely won't be a revelation in what looks to be a packed 50-minute finale, but it's something that could be expanded upon in further media that features Wanda. After all, her parentage has been a hot topic of contention in the comics since her inception. Hell, in her debut, she wore green - a lot has changed, and a lot can change in the MCU for her.
In the comics, her mantle, Scarlet Witch, was also revealed to be an in-family one passed down from generation to generation, while in WandaVision, Agatha knows of it, so perhaps she knows of Wanda's ancestors should the MCU be taking the same road so to speak. The episode also heavily featured Wanda's parents, and the show as a whole is entirely centered around family and loss, uncovering secrets, and the death of loved ones. What better way to expand upon that than to delve deeper into why she has these powers? That "why" could be her link to the Scarlet Witches of old, her very own biological mother.
It's a fun topic to speculate and ponder about, and while a lot of elements of the latest episode strike a chord feeling akin to that comic and its own revelations, it could very well be a coincidence, and Marvel Studios may very well abscond from tying Wanda and Pietro to old Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants altogether. Funnily enough, however, that run was on sale on Comixology to celebrate WandaVision's debut, along with all the others that have visibly inspired the show thus far. But, now that they have Fox's X-Men, and with how successful WandaVision has been, they should continue her story. And honestly, something as grandiose as healing magic itself seems perfect for her.