Exclusive Interview: Steve Orlando Spills on ‘Scarlet Witch: Sorcerer Supreme’
I attended Motor City Comic Con 2025 last month and was lucky enough to speak with a comic book writer that’s on every Scarlet Witch fan’s radar: Steve Orlando! Orlando has been writing Scarlet Witch comics since 2023 and is about to push her character into the stratosphere as Wanda becomes the new Sorcerer Supreme. The upcoming comic promises plenty of drama, with the return of Agatha Harkness as the “chosen” Sorcerer Supreme versus Wanda’s self-claimed title.
Every MCU Wanda fan is hoping that this upgrade could hint at Scarlet Witch’s broadening importance to the Marvel universe, potentially even serving as the basis for a solo film – and don’t worry, I was sure to ask Steve Orlando his thoughts on that!
[Editor’s note: quotes have been edited slightly for clarity.]
Steve Orlando on Scarlet Witch as the new Sorcerer Supreme
Uday Kataria: So I know that you are currently writing for Scarlet Witch, and Scarlet Witch is my favorite [Marvel] character. I saw that she’s going to be the new Sorcerer Supreme in a new series. That title’s been around for a long time; Wanda’s been around for a long time. Can you tell me why now is the right time for her to become the Sorcerer Supreme?
Steve Orlando: Well, I think they’ve been in orbit with each other for a long time. But one of the things is, as we saw in “One World Under Doom,” Stephen has already sort of traded the mantle to Doctor Doom, if you’re looking at the bigger picture, at the end of “Blood Hunt.” This led to “One World Under Doom.” The system of succession has already kind of been meddled with.
And when the events of “One World Under Doom” happen, which I can’t spoil in the interview, because Marvel will strike me dead, the artifacts are left in a place where, yes, most people maybe wouldn’t be able to find them. Most people wouldn’t be able to know that they were in need of help.
But here we have Wanda, who’s been on this trajectory with things like the Last Door, creating a system where folks who have no one else, beings who have no one else. Well suddenly they do, and it’s her.
SO (cont.): So as the Sorcerer Supreme mantle and the succession became sort of muddled with Stephen basically day trading it to Doom, you also have Wanda moving in a place with her own character, where she’s in a position to help the helpless. Well, suddenly, that’s the Cloak of Levitation; that’s the Eye of Agamotto. And you get a situation where, to her, yes, she’s becoming the Sorcerer Supreme, not because the Vishanti have chosen her, but because she’s vowed to protect these vestments from everything because they’ve asked for her help, which is all she needs.
That’s all it is. There’s no agenda. And unfortunately, when she offers that help to them and makes that vow, that includes people like the Vishanti, who believe that they get to choose; they have to oversee that power. So that’s how you get Wanda in that role, and it’s also how you’re going to get Agatha as the rival, the quote-unquote “preferred” Sorcerer Supreme, to bring them into conflict.
On Wanda’s conflict with Agatha Harkness
UK: Yeah, I heard that Agatha Harkness was going to be in this series. Is there anything you can tease about the storyline beyond that, or is it just that they’re coming into conflict?
SO: Well, they’re coming into conflict, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s what Agatha wants to do. There are levers in place that mean that she has to do this. It also means that there’s going to be new artifacts. We’ll be debuting the Cloak of Devastation. We’ll be debuting the Skull of Necrom. Necrom is an older Sorcerer Supreme who once tamed the Phoenix, so I’m very excited to get a little nod to him in there.
But as with everything, you know Agatha, there’s plans within plans, and you’ll see why she takes on this role, and then she will have a role going forward. We know that Wanda has an advisory council that includes people who she trusts, people who know her both as a person and who know magic, including her worst enemies, like Chthon. So there might be a role for someone like Agatha there as well.
Why Sorcerer Supreme and not Sorceress?
UK: Interesting. I think, in the past, in the comics, we’ve had a Sorceress Supreme, right? So why is Wanda the Sorcerer Supreme and not a Sorceress?
SO: I can’t even dress that up because marketing has decided the book is called Sorcerer Supreme.
UK: Okay, okay.
SO: I wish I could give you a sexy answer for that, but joking aside, I do think there’s an angle to that. In the same way that as a culture we’ve sort of moved away from gendered terms as a divider, in the same way that we call most people actors now, as a way of not delineating the talent or the skill on a gendered basis. So while I think that this is a visibility-driven decision, I do think that there’s a statement to be made there where we’re not saying, ‘Oh, this is somehow something different’. This is the skill, this is the job. And of course, in real life, most things we don’t have a separate term for; for example, doctor isn’t a gendered term.
UK: Yeah, that’s very true.
SO: And I think that’s why you’ve seen things like ‘waiter’; that’s why you see ‘flight attendant’ instead of ‘stewardess.’ I think that there is a progression there, and there’s an equitability question there that, regardless of why that’s the name of the book, I do think it shows progress.
UK: It does remind me of how, in the MCU, Valkyrie is just the King of Asgard, right? She’s not the Queen.
SO: Yes, yes.
On whether this story is laying some groundwork for the Scarlet Witch in the MCU
UK: Finally, I know you might not be involved with the movie side and the MCU, but do you think Wanda becoming the Sorcerer Supreme is laying the groundwork for a similar story in film, and maybe a solo Wanda movie?
SO: Well, as you said, as a disclaimer, anything I say is just as much of a guess as you would have because they do not tell us a lot about the movies, probably because comic creators can’t stop running their mouths [in] interviews. I could see it being that way.
I will say, movie stuff in the same way doesn’t necessarily influence comic decisions as much as you would think, at least not beforehand. The question is, ‘What is interesting? What is going to get new eyes on a book?’ Now, the opposite might happen. It’s possible that they see this and say that this is a way to get Wanda back into the story.
But if I had to hazard a guess, I think that Wanda’s becoming the Sorcerer Supreme, because for us, yes, this is a place where she could elevate her character, not in a power sense, but in doing what she does. She is the primal disruptor. This is a hegemonic system that she wants to break.
She will say in the first issue that magic has to change. A lot of times, things like rules, things like costs—a lot of the terms associated with magic can also be called barriers to entry. And Wanda is someone that doesn’t want to see a world of different castes, different classes. She thinks that this is something; if it can benefit everyone, it should benefit everyone.
So from a character standpoint, this is the right time for her to get in there because she sees something that could do more. And when you’re looking at Wanda Maximoff, when she decides that, nothing’s gonna fucking stop her.
From a movie standpoint, again, my guess is as good as yours, but I do think it’s possible that they can see the book and say, ‘This is a nice way to get her back in’. But there are a lot of ways, you know. I mean, listen, it’s comics. We didn’t see a body, is all I would say. And in her case, even if you did, right? So I wouldn’t be sad if that’s how she came back, and I wouldn’t be sad if there’s a Wanda solo. But your guess is as good as mine, I must stress, as far as what’s coming next.
UK: Well, I’m really excited. I hope that it’s a sign of bigger and better things to come for Wanda.
SO: I hope so too.
UK: Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
SO: It’s my pleasure, my friend.
That’s it for my interview with Steve Orlando at Motor City Comic Con
Thank you to Steve Orlando for discussing the upcoming Scarlet Witch: Sorcerer Supreme with us! It’s available starting December 31st, 2025.
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