Marvel’s ‘WandaVision’ Team Cut ‘Doctor Strange’ Cameo From Finale To Avoid ‘White Guy’ Saving The Day, Mansplaining Magic

The team behind the Marvel series, “WandaVision,” which aired on Disney+ earlier this year, cut a planned cameo from another of the Marvel Universe’s heroes over concerns it would look too much like a “white guy” had swooped in to save the day.

“WandaVision” focused on the plight of Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch) following the events of “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” and, notably, the death of “Vision,” Paul Bettany’s mind-bending cyborg — and Wanda’s love — that perished at the end of the last Marvel story arc.

The show takes place inside Wanda’s self-created universe, where she’s trapped a town of people in a manufactured dream-world that closely resembles a classic American sit-com. The show was originally slated as a bridge from Marvel’s first major story arc into its second one, pieces of which will begin to hit theaters starting later this year with the second installment of the Doctor Strange franchise, “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.”

All season long, Marvel stars teased a major cameo in the show’s season finale, but fans were left disappointed when it turned out the “cameo” was just Bettany in a different role.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explains that yes, Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, was set to appear in the “WandaVision” finale, but the “WandaVision” team decided against it, almost at the last minute, to avoid it looking as though a “white guy” would have to save Wanda and her imprisoned neighbors.

Feige also implied that the “WandaVision” team didn’t want it to seem as though Doctor Strange needed to explain — or man-splain — to the novice witch Wanda how to use her magic powers.

“Some people might say, ‘Oh, it would’ve been so cool to see Doctor Strange,’” Feige said. “But it would have taken away from Wanda. We didn’t want the end of the show to be commoditized to go to the next movie — here’s the white guy, ‘Let me show you how power works.’”

The “WandaVision” team was already reported to have made significant changes to the show’s major plotlines after fans guessed some of the big reveals early on, but the team seems to have pulled Doctor Strange’s appearance at the last minute. IndieWire reports that Cumberbatch had already inked a deal to appear in one episode of the series, and that a series of “commercials” that appeared on the show, during breaks from Wanda’s self-created sitcom world, were supposed to be messages from Wanda to the Sorcerer Supreme, as the two tried to break open a line of communication.

“Doctor Strange was going to arrive in the finale, and ‘Marvel had even finalized a deal with Cumberbatch to appear in the season’s final episode,’” IndieWire reported. “The plan got nixed so that ‘WandaVision’ could stand on its own and to also avoid a male character arriving to save the day and explain Wanda’s powers to her.”

Wanda’s fully realized Scarlet Witch is expected to appear in the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel.

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