According to Marvel Studios President and Marvel Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige, cutting Doctor Strange from WandaVision made Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness better.
Speaking to Rolling Stone for the magazine's oral history on the making of WandaVision, Feige justified the decision to drop the Sorcerer Supreme from the show's finale. "Some people might say, 'It would’ve been so cool to see Doctor Strange,' but it would have taken away from Wanda, which is what we didn’t want to do," he explained. "We didn’t want the end of the show to be commoditized to go to the next movie, or, 'Here’s the white guy, ‘let me show you how power works.' That wasn’t what we wanted to say."
WandaVision's commercials were supposed to be Strange's way of trying to reach Wanda, culminating with his appearance in one of them during the show's finale. This would've also paved the way for the Scarlet Witch's involvement in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, because that idea was ultimately dropped, Feige said he and the series' other creatives "had to reconceive how [Strange and Wanda] meet in that movie"
"And now we have a better ending on WandaVision than we initially thought of, and a better storyline [for Doctor Strange 2]," Feige added. "And that’s usually how it works, which is to lay the chess pieces the way you want them to go in a general fashion, but always be willing and open to shifting them around to better serve each individual one."
Despite the change, WandaVision's creatives made an active effort to ensure the series' finale would dovetail smoothly into the events of the Doctor Strange sequel. "Doctor Strange [2], their story room is right around the corner from our prep office," said WandaVision director Matt Shakman, speaking in a previous interview. He added that he talked to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness director Sam Raimi "a couple of times and our art departments spoke and we wanted to make sure there was a seamless handoff for sure."
Written by Jac Schaeffer and directed by Matt Shakman, WandaVision stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, Paul Bettany as Vision, Randall Park as Agent Jimmy Woo, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau and Kathryn Hahn as Agnes. The full series is streaming on Disney+.
Source: Rolling Stone