Elizabeth Olsen is now outright saying that she wants Marvel Studios to bring her back, but she wants the “smartest” writers it has to do it.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe desperately needs established stars to get it back on track. After nearly two decades of sustained box office success, the MCU began to stumble after Avengers: Endgame (2019) and is now the prime target of innumerable op-eds about “superhero fatigue.”
Aside from the understandable exhaustion after the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, the franchise also lost key figures like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson.
Since then, Marvel Studios has been playing defense, trying to shake off the negative publicity behind Disney+ series like Secret Invasion and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and figure out how to make a movie for less than $600 million while also wondering why they don’t break even.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel President Kevin Feige have reportedly been hacking and slashing projects behind the scenes, and now there’s a new strategy: the resurrection of the dead.
Aside from making a literal Marvel Zombies show, the studio is bringing back Robert Downey Jr., albeit as Doctor Doom rather than Iron Man, though the fandom is still debating exactly how that will work. There is also increasing speculation that Marvel will bring back Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), the Scarlet Witch.
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While nothing is confirmed yet, Elizabeth Olsen herself frequently confirms on a press tour for her new movie, His Three Daughters (2023), that she is eager to return as the Scarlet Witch.
In a new appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the actress revealed that she believed her character was dead, saying, “I think so. I assume as much. Yeah, and there was a red light of explosive energy. I think I’m dead.”
Olsen continued, saying, “I would beg to leave a window open. I had so much fun doing these movies. I would like to figure out how to cleverly be undead. We need to find the smartest writers to figure out how to make this all make sense. I’m open to ideas.”
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Some Marvel fans are taking this “smartest writers” comment as some shade toward Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), the film in which Scarlet Witch officially became a villain and then, maybe, sort of died under a huge pile of rubble.
Elizabeth Olsen has previously expressed interest in returning as Wanda Maximoff, saying, “[she’s] 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.”
We’ve already made the case that the MCU is forming a tight nucleus of storytelling around Wanda Maximoff, what with Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and Vision (Paul Bettany) both soon to appear in WandaVision spinoff shows. Maybe soon we’ll get the actual star herself back.
Do you want Scarlet Witch back as a heroine or villain?