In a series of recently uncovered quotes, Wanda Maximoff actress Elizabeth Olsen shared a few thoughts on her MCU character's mistakes.
Olsen's super-powered character has had a tenure within the super-powered franchise full of tumult.
She has gone from villain to hero and back to villain again, before ultimately dying (at least that is what it looked like) at the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
This villainous turn in Doctor Strange 2 came as a surprise to many, including Olsen who said she was "shocked" when she found out her character would be the big bad of the Multiversal sequel.
Elizabeth Olsen on Wanda's MCU Mistakes
Speaking as a part of the Art of The Movie: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness artbook, Scarlet Witch star Elizabeth Olsen addressed her character's mistakes in the MCU.
She remarked, "It’s not the most fun, in my mind, to always play the hero," which is a reason she "really enjoyed Wanda from the beginning:"
"It’s not the most fun, in my mind, to always play the hero of a story where they do no wrong. I don’t find that interesting. And I think the reason why I really enjoyed Wanda from the beginning is she’s very clear in her beliefs. They just don’t align with others’, and that’s okay."
Olsen brought up the fact that Wanda has "her own realizations and admit[s] when she makes mistakes," pointing to WandaVision as a particular project where her character "[took] her life into her own hands:"
"And then she’ll have her own realizations and admit when she makes mistakes. And that affects her in different ways. And then I think Marvel Studios’ 'WandaVision' was this journey of her, for the first time, taking her life into her own hands, making decisions for herself, and recognizing that maybe she has a lot to process."
The Disney+ series was about "accountability" for Wanda, as the MCU hero looked at "what she had done to this town" while experiencing "this huge loss:"
"And she’s also feeling a sense of accountability for what she had done to this town and to these people, but then also experiencing this huge loss of this other life that she had created for herself -- that now can exist In The Multiverse."
This was in line with comments from Marvel Studios Director of Visual Development Andy Park, who had to signal this villainous switch for Wanda by way of her costumes in WandaVision and Doctor Strange 2.
Speaking as a part of the art book, Park noted, "That idea of her becoming corrupted by the Darkhold" at the end of WandaVision, "meant that costume started to not fit as well:"
"That idea of her becoming corrupted by the Darkhold and taking a more villainous turn meant that costume started to not fit as well, because the whole idea was that she finds herself at the end of WandaVision and, essentially, it’s her at the height of her power in her most Super Hero type of look."
"Everything about it [was] positive," he added, before "[she became] corrupted" in Multiverse of Madness:
"Everything about it is positive. In 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,' it’s her, the same character, but she’s becoming more negative. She’s becoming corrupted. So how do we take this costume and corrupt it and make it dark? How do we make her look villainous?"
Did Wanda's Villainous Turn Make Sense?
As much as people like Elizabeth Olsen wax poetic about how Wanda becoming the villain of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Maddnes made sense for the character, there is going to be a certain contingent of fans who will not accept it.
Most of those detractors think the turn was not the issue, but the speed in which it happened.
Even Doctor Strange 2 writer Michael Waldron called it an "accelerated descent into madness," but he said it was justified as "[Wanda] walked away from WandaVision with the Darkhold and the knowledge that she was the Scarlet Witch."
Olsen's streaming series did lay the seeds for the character potentially breaking bad, it was just a very quick flip of the switch.
With the character seemingly dead, it would be a shame for such a beloved MCU personality to go out on a sour note for so many.
Wanda has however been teased for a return however, with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige hinting, "Anything’s possible in the Multiverse."
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is streaming now on Disney+.
