If you don’t know who Wanda Maximoff is yet, let me bring you up to speed. Wanda Maximoff was first introduced in the end credits of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” along with her twin brother Pietro. 

We really get to meet her and Pietro in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” where we learn exactly how Wanda acquired her powers. Wanda and Pietro both volunteered to undergo genetic experimentation overseen by HYDRA’s Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. They were using Loki’s scepter, to potentially give them powers. 

The set of twins were the only two that survived the given experiment and because of this Wanda acquired many abilities which include telekinesis, energy manipulation and some form of neuroelectric interfacing that allows her to both read thoughts as well as provoke waking nightmares on others. Her twin brother, Pietro, acquired the ability of super speed. Both of their powers are derived from the mind stone which was inside Loki’s scepter. 

In “Age of Ultron” the twins team up with Ultron himself to take down the Avengers. The reason for this agreement is because Wanda and Pietro lost their parents to a bombing of missiles in Sokovia. Another missile landed and almost killed the twins but it never went off. After that, they were trapped in the rubble of their apartment with nothing but the name Stark staring back at them from the side of the missile. This scared both Wanda and Pietro and a deep hatred for Stark began to grow within them. 

However, in the film “Age of Ultron,” they realized what Ultron was planning and switched over to the Avenger’s side. In the process, Pietro attempts to save Hawkeye and dies instead. Devastated over her loss, Wanda unleashes a gigantic wave of power destroying the majority of Ultron’s minions. In the end, she is seen with the other avengers ready to take on whatever evil comes their way. 

Wanda appears again in “Captain America: Civil War” helping out Captain America take down the bad guys while attempting to save Cap from a bomb explosion. She accidentally sends the bomb into a building that takes the lives of many innocent people instead. This sparks the war between Cap and Iron man in which Wanda takes Cap’s side. 

“Captain America: Civil War” is the film where we see Wanda and Vision’s relationship begin to develop. There is a small rift between them as Wanda sides with Captain America and Vision sides with Iron man. This leads to the first time we get a feel for how powerful Wanda really is. Vision is tasked with keeping an eye on Wanda to make sure she doesn’t hurt anyone else; all of which is unknown to Wanda until hawkeye comes to save her. During this small fight, Wanda uses her powers to sink Vision deep within the ground, allowing her and Hawkeye to escape. 

The next time we see Wanda is in “Avengers: Infinity War” where she and Vision head out as they go after Thanos because he is after the stones and sadly for Vision, he possesses one. While in hiding, Wanda and Vision are discovered by the members of the black order who are helping Thanos acquire the stones. They fight the order and she shows a great deal of power here as she single-handedly puts up a good fight against them until Cap shows up to help. However, she shows even greater power later in the film when she destroys the stone inside Vision’s mind with one hand and keeps Thanos away with the other.

This shows just how powerful she can be since at this point in the film Thanos already has five of the six infinity stones. She also has to face the struggle of killing the person she loves the most to keep other people safe. All this ends up being in vain because Thanos uses the time stone to reverse the events. After taking the mind stone, Thanos snaps his fingers and Wanda is one of the many who turn to dust. 

Wanda does return at the end of “Endgame” to help fight Thanos and take him down once and for all. There is one scene in this movie that reassures how powerful Wanda is as she goes head to head with Thanos and nearly kills him.

It has been argued by fans that she could’ve taken Thanos down herself, although others believe she was not that strong (these people are liars). Even Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, has said that Wanda could have killed Thanos if he hadn’t called in the airstrike. The topic was even brought up in the latest episode of WandaVison confirming that she could’ve taken down Thanos. 

There is still a great deal to learn about Wanda and the powers she possesses which is currently getting explored in the new Disney+ series “WandaVison.” If you haven’t started watching the series yet you are completely missing out. New episodes of Wandavision air every Friday with only four episodes remaining till the season finale. 

If you have any opinions about Wanda or would like to debate about how powerful she really is leave a comment down below.