Elizabeth Olsen had already been playing the Marvel superhero Scarlet Witch for years before she starred in the spinoff WandaVision. Despite Marvel’s success with movies, however, Olsen felt doing a television series like WandaVision was a huge risk for both her and the studio.
Elizabeth Olsen was really scared about doing ‘WandaVision’
Olsen already fulfilled her contractual obligations as the Avenger Scarlet Witch when she was offered WandaVision. The limited series would be one of Disney +’s first live-action superhero streaming shows, and took an experimental approach to Marvel’s familiar formula. WandaVision would have Scarlet Witch using her reality warping powers to live out the sitcoms she’d seen as a child. But Olsen had a few reservations regarding the series.
“My contract with Marvel was done. Kevin Feige, who runs Marvel, had me come into his office, and he pitched me WandaVision. I loved the concept of it, but I was terrified of a new streaming service- that is now Disney+,” she once told W.
She echoed these sentiments in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
“I was really scared about doing a Marvel project for TV, because these are otherworldly, larger-than-life characters that are seen in films, and I didn’t know if it would still work on a television at home,” she said. “But I had confidence in the format because the storytelling really honoured the TV medium.”
At the same time, Olsen felt WandaVision couldn’t have debuted at a more opportune time. Back then, the world was still in the midst of the pandemic, which she felt helped viewers connect more with the show.
“We really felt we were Marvel’s weird cousin. We didn’t know it was going to have such a response. It came out during the pandemic and it almost had way more relevance to everyone’s lives; [we were all] trying to function in these bubbles that we were put in, and then there was this world outside of a bubble. No one even knew what reality was at that point,” she said.
Elizabeth Olsen was sure that ‘WandaVision’ wouldn’t be coming back for a season 2
Although WandaVision was a success, Olsen seemed very doubtful that the series would return for a second season.
“It’s definitely a limited series,” she told Kayley Cuoco about the show in Variety’s Actors on Actors.
However, Olsen didn’t rule out the possibility entirely. Especially when the Marvel series was one of the shows that helped Olsen realize how much she enjoyed doing television shows.
“The thing that I did learn through Sorry For Your Loss and WandaVision is that I love doing television,” Olsen said. “And I do miss, I think, the four-five week experience of making a film — it just feels so exciting and like camp for a little bit. But I think this six-month experience of really hard work with the same people and it’s exhausting…it just feels really good.”
What happened to Olsen’s character in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness might also make starring in another WandaVision difficult. After the film, the Scarlet Witch hasn’t been seen or heard from since. However, that doesn’t mean audiences have seen the last of the character. And if ever Marvel needs Scarlet Witch to make a return, Olsen would be more than happy to oblige.
“It’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,” Olsen said in an interview with FM104. “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.”
