Image credit: Legion-Media
Wanda Maximoff quickly went from fan-favorite Avenger to one of the MCU’s most terrifying villains with her turn in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness.
Fans saw her brutally slay alternate versions of their favorite heroes, but apparently, it could have been far more gruesome.
The film’s fight coordinator was Liang Yang, who’s worked on some of the most popular action movie franchises of the 2010s – Jurassic World, Mission: Impossible, Star Wars, Wonder Woman. This was her first time working with the MCU.
Yang posted a video on her Instagram page (@liangstunts) of a deleted fight sequence that would have pushed the limits for even Multiverse of Madness – arguably the most brutally violent MCU film to date.
It was rehearsal footage from an unused fight during Wanda’s attack on Kamar-Taj. It’s incomplete and uses stand-ins, though CGI is sparingly used. It’s filmed as a one-shot – with the camera always rotating around Wanda as she viciously slays her opponents.
In one part, she controls an enemy’s sword and slings it in a circle, slicing down everyone nearby. She then makes the sorcerer slice his own neck. The corpse – now without its head – is flung into an oncoming enemy, killing him too. She then uses her power to grab a man’s face – it cuts back to Wanda, and blood sprays into her eyes. She quickly spins, lifts a man into the air, and snaps all of his bones before exploding him into pools of blood.
That scene might have bumped Multiverse of Madness into Rated R territory, something the Disney executives didn’t want for their family-friendly franchise.
The Kamar-Taj scene was important because, while fans theorized Wanda would take a turn toward evil, they didn’t know the extent. In terms of sheer slaughter, Wanda now ranks up with Hela, Thanos, and all of the other brutal MCU bad guys.
Later in the film, fans did get to see some version of a massacre. The Illuminati slaughter was a bloody mess, starting with the unexpected Black Bolt head explosion. That scene alone could have warranted an R rating.
Director Sam Raimi, famous for bloody horror films, mentioned in the commentary that there was another scene cut for being too extreme. The Illuminati would have featured an alternate version of the Wasp, whom Wanda would have squished between her fingers.
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Wanda ended the movie with a glorious redemption and sacrifice, with her future status remaining unknown. Yang, however, is confirmed to return as fight coordinator on 2023’s The Marvels.
Source: startefacts.com
