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In the post credit scene in the final episode of WandaVision Season 1, Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch) is seen reading a book. What's the origin behind the book & what's it called?

Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch) reading a book in the post-credits scene of the final episode of WandaVision

BCdotWEB
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Jash Jacob
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2 Answers2

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The book is the "Darkhold," or "the book of the damned," as mentioned earlier by Agatha when she is reading from it.

Agatha: Wanda, you've never been up against another witch before. Did you know there's an entire chapter devoted to you in the Darkhold? That's the book of the damned. "The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is forged. "She has no coven, no need for incantation."

WandaVision, Series 1 Episode 9, “The Series Finale”

Apart from that, per the MCU we don’t really know much about it; it doesn’t show up in Doctor Strange if I remember correctly. It seemed Agatha was able to conjure it up though, so presumably Wanda got the book in the same way.

The book does show up in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Runaways, but as the canonicity of those shows to the MCU is a little debatable at this point, and I haven’t watched them, I’m not going to look into it here.

DavidW
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TheLethalCarrot
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    Arguably, the book does show up in a negative way in the Doctor Strange movie. When he visits the library of chained-up books in Kamar-Taj, there’s a blank space where one book is missing, which may well be the Darkhold. See here: https://thedirect.com/article/wandavision-doctor-strange-agatha-harkness-magic-theory. – Mike Scott Mar 07 '21 at 10:19
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    @MikeScott we have no confirmation that, that was the Darkhold missing though so I’ve chosen to exclude that for now. – TheLethalCarrot Mar 07 '21 at 10:32
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    “I haven’t watched them” — you’ve got Disney Plus and a worldwide pandemic, get on it bro. – Paul D. Waite Mar 07 '21 at 14:27
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    Some of the AoS aren't bad. I liked the Ghost Rider, even though it was Robbie Reyas rather than Johnny Blaze. – NomadMaker Mar 07 '21 at 17:23
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    "canonicity of those shows to the MCU is a little debatable" Really? The Agents of SHIELD lead character/actor is from Avengers. Plus Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Lady Sif. Somebody is going to a lot of trouble to orchestrate that. – Paul Draper Mar 07 '21 at 19:54
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    @PaulDraper I think when AoS was launched, they had intention to make that show part of MCU, but later it become more detached. For instance, "snap" wasn't completely addressed in AoS. – user902383 Mar 07 '21 at 20:16
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    There definitely were tie-ins between AoS and the MCU, at least in the earlier seasons. To the extent that a) AoS would have spoilers if you didn't watch the latest MCU movie in about the first week, and that stuff in the movies would make more sense if you were also watching AoS. It arguably didn't hold up well after the first few seasons, however. (And, yeah, I can't recall AoS talking about The Snap at all, really.) – Matthew Mar 07 '21 at 20:46
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    @user902383 that's a very good point. I withdraw the argument. And actually, they've even blown up whatever continuity they had with the first seasons. MCU recently put Thor: The Dark World chronologically before Iron Man 3, which completely contradicts the tie-ins the AoS did in Season 1 with Extremis experimentation (post Iron Man 3) happening before Coulson cleaning up Thor's London (immediately following The Dark World). Completely different timelines. – Paul Draper Mar 08 '21 at 02:36
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    The two major AoS tie-ins to MCU films (as opposed to going the other way) was that AoS showed that Coulson and his team gathered the intelligence to locate Strucker's HYDRA base the Avengers assaulted at the start of Age of Ultron, and the mysterious project Coulson was keeping secret through that same season was to complete the Helicarrier that showed up at the end of the film to rescue the civilians from Sokovia, explaining how a bunch of former SHIELD agents (since the organization was disbanded after The Winter Soldier) had a helicarrier. – Keith Morrison Mar 08 '21 at 05:21
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness expounds upon the nature and origin of the Darkhold. It has been described as the "book of the damned" in WandaVision by Agatha, and Strange confirms it.

Strange: The Darkhold.
Wanda: You're familiar with the Darkhold?
Strange: I know it's the book of the damned...
And that it corrupts everything and everyone that it touches.

According to Wong, the Darkhold that was in possession of Wanda was a copy. And the author of the Darkhold was the first demon, Chthon.

Wong: The Darkhold was a copy!
Wanda: A copy?
Wong: Legend speaks of a mountain with the wretched spells you seek carved into its walls.
It's there the Darkhold was transcribed.
Mount Wundagore.

Wong: Eons ago, the first demon, Chthon, carved his dark magic into this tomb.
These same spells were later transcribed into the Darkhold.

It allows dreamwalking.

Mordo (Earth-838): There is a spell contained within those pages...
Corrosive to the soul...
A desecration of reality itself.
Dreamwalking.
A dreamwalking sorcerer projects their own consciousness from their universe into another possessing the body of an alternate self.
They may puppeteer this unholy doppelganger and pursue their enemies from afar.
The possession is not a permanent link between realities.
But in the fleeting time they dreamwalk...
They can do irreparable damage to the universe they invade.

It has an antithesis.

Strange: What do you know of the Book of Vishanti?
Mordo: The Darkhold's antithesis?
It can give a sorcerer whatever power they need to vanquish their enemy.

There are versions of the Darkhold in other universes too. It was revealed that Earth-838 Illuminati Mordo and Sinister Strange guard their respective universes' versions of the Darkhold.

At the end of Multiverse of Madness, according to Strange, Wanda destroyed the Darkhold in every universe.

galacticninja
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