Fans of the MCU were aflutter with rumours of Mephisto appearing in Disney Plus series WandaVision, and again in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The villain appeared in neither, and those hints people were convinced of were based on nothing, according to the writer.
When asked by Variety about Mephisto, and whether she was ever pencilled in for either project, Doctor Strange 2 writer Michael Waldron shuts down the idea point blank. “No. Only in jokes. Only in bits I did in the writers room and in text messages I sent to Jac Schaeffer [WandaVision head writer],” he says. “Mephisto was never in play for us.”
This might sound surprising given just how emphatic some corners of the fanbase were about Mephisto’s appearance, but it’s important to remember that guesswork and fan theories are just that. In WandaVision’s case it was Agatha all along, just as the banger of a song put it, and in Doctor Strange 2, well, we’ll avoid that due to spoilers, but it’s not Mephisto, in any case.
The two projects are heavily linked. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness largely occurs due to Wanda’s actions in WandaVision, and they share a lot of thematic common ground.
A dab had in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Waldron also created Loki on Disney Plus. He’ll be returning to the trickster god for Loki season 2, which is due to start filming this summer. Maybe that’ll feature Mephisto in some way, shape or form?
We won’t hold our breathe. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theatres now.