Elizabeth Olsen shades Marvel in talking about Wanda’s potential return
Elizabeth Olsen has had a fascinating journey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She first started playing Wanda Maximoff back in 2015, with a starring role in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and she’s been a popular character ever since, but one who’s gone in some unexpected directions.
Olsen’s finest hour as Wanda was the 2021 show WandaVision. This show examined Wanda’s many losses, including that of Vision (Paul Bettany), and demonstrated what an immensely powerful being she was. Although Wanda did many dark things in the show, she seemed to be moving towards the light at the end … but then, to the irritation of her fans, she went completely dark side in her next outing, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She was the main antagonist in that film and committed terrible crimes. Wanda also appeared to die at the end of the movie, another choice displeased fans.
Ever since then, Wanda fans have hoped for her triumphant return to the MCU, and that’s what Olsen was asked about recently in an interview with an interview with FM104. Agatha All Along, starring Kathryn Hahn as WandaVision villain Agatha Harkness, is coming out soon, and many people have wondered if Wanda might make a surprise appearance.
In the interview, Olsen said,
[Wanda is] a character that I love going back to when there’s a way to use her well, and I think I have been lucky that when I started I was used well. I think people didn’t know what to do with me for a second there … if there’s a good way to use her I’m always happy to come back.
Those “when I started” and “people didn’t know what to do with me” comments indicate that perhaps there’s more to say on the subject that Olsen has chosen not to derail the conversation with. Olsen has always been very diplomatic about Multiverse of Madness, but some of the things she’s said in the past indicate that she wasn’t completely happy with the way Wanda was written. Back in 2023, she told Vanity Fair,
It’s a similar arc in Multiverse of Madness that it is in WandaVision. There could be parallel stories being told there of dealing with grief and loss. Well, I proposed that to the writers who wrote Multiverse of Madness. I said “Do you know what we’re doing in WandaVision? Have you seen it?” And no, they had not seen it because it wasn’t finished yet. So I had to try and play it differently. I had to attack the same themes in order for it to be interesting for me, I think, and potentially for the audience. I just had to come at it from a different point of view so that it wasn’t repetitive.
Trouble is, there’s a huge disconnect between WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness now. It’s true that in the latter, Wanda is corrupted by the Darkhold, but her sudden turn into villainy still feels strange. (Pun not intended.) Still, it’s good to know that Olsen is happy to return to the MCU. Maybe she’s hoping she can redeem Wanda’s arc a little?
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