Press: (RUMOR) Wanda Will Reportedly Be Responsible For The Sinister Six Entering The MCU

WE GOT THIS COVERED: As far as we know, Elizabeth Olsen isn’t involved in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but she has been rumored for a cameo appearance just like virtually anyone to have ever appeared in either a Sony or Marvel Studios movie involving the web-slinger in some fashion over the last two decades.

Whether she winds up putting in an appearance or not, we can gather that Tom Holland’s third solo outing will be the middle chapter in a multiversal trilogy, bookended by Disney Plus’ WandaVision and next March’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. So, even if Scarlet Witch doesn’t show up in person during No Way Home, you can guarantee that her fingerprints will still be all over the broad strokes of the plot.

Of course, the majority of the most recent speculation surrounding the MCU threequel has revolved around the Sinister Six, with three members each hailing from both the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb timelines. And we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Captain America 4 with Anthony Mackie was in the works long before it was confirmed – that Wanda will be responsible for them entering the MCU.

According to our information, it’ll be tied to WandaVision‘s post-credits scene, where the franchise’s most powerful hero hears her children calling out to her from a different reality. This causes Scarlet Witch to go on a tear through the multiverse to try and find them, with the butterfly effect eventually weakening the barriers and allowing Green Goblin, Sandman, Doctor Octopus, Lizard, Electro and Rhino to make their way to the present day timeline where they’ll cause some serious trouble for Peter Parker, presumably leading to Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s protagonist roping in a bit of multiversal backup of his own to try and even the odds in his favor.

Filed under: Marvel, Press

June 08 2021

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Press: Kaley Cuoco & Elizabeth Olsen On WandaVision, The Flight Attendant, and Sitcoms | Actors on Actors

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June 08 2021

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Press: The Oral History of ‘WandaVision’

Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, and more tell the story of how the year’s biggest, boldest show came together

ROLLING STONE: It was the monoculture all along. Marvel’s WandaVision debuted on Disney+ on January 16th, timed perfectly for a pandemic-pummeled nation fresh from an assault on its Capitol so outlandish it could’ve been pulled from MCU outtakes. WandaVision was a turducken of cultural comfort food, a loving tribute to sitcom history with supernatural mystery and superheroics bubbling underneath: “a combination of Nick at Nite and Marvel,” in the words of series director Matt Shakman, all of it driven by themes of grief and loss that also fit its era all too well.

With Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprising their movie roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision, fiction’s only witch-synthezoid couple, the show was also the first Marvel Studios TV venture to truly connect to its culture-conquering movies (not to mention the first Marvel project after a lengthy break, since Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019).

In a major vindication of Disney’s retro, anti-Netflix, once-a-week release schedule, WandaVision topped streaming charts, which, in a stay-at-home-and-stream moment, made it feel like everyone was watching. In the process, it even spawned a hit song of sorts, with “Agatha All Along,” the theme for the show’s villain, Kathryn Hahn’s brassy Agatha Harkness. Here’s a look back at how they pulled it all off.

In 1964, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created Wanda Maximoff, known from the start in the comic books as the Scarlet Witch. Originally, she was a sort-of villain in the X-Men comics, and later embraced heroism and joined the Avengers. By 1968, Lee’s protégé, Roy Thomas, was writing The Avengers, and needed more members for the team. Thomas (with artist John Buscema) came up with the Vision, loosely inspired by a 1940s character with the same name, and soon began developing a Scarlet Witch-Vision romance.

Roy Thomas: Stan said, “I want the new Avenger to be an android.” So I made up a new Vision, and made him an android. I swiped the diamond symbol on his chest from an old 1940s character I liked called Spy Smasher. John [Buscema] added the jewel on his forehead, which was initially just a design element. I guess in the movies, they made it an Infinity Stone. Somehow it was just natural to have Vision and Scarlet Witch attracted to each other. The whole idea was he was supposed to be a very human robot — in his second appearance I had him shedding tears. So it made sense for him to have a romance. But we didn’t have a lot of women around to have a romance with. Black Widow was taken. The Wasp was taken. And there was the Scarlet Witch, the extra girl at the dance! It worked out well, but it was pretty much luck that it happened. A romance of convenience.

In the comic books over the years, the Scarlet Witch became more and more powerful, and developed a complex relationship with a witch named Agatha Harkness, who tutored her in magic. In the Eighties, Scarlet Witch and Vision tried to settle down in suburbia, and had kids who later turned out to be mystical creations with souls borrowed from a demon. (It happens.) In 2016, the comic-book Vision returned to the suburbs, building a different, robotic family, in a surreal series from writer Tom King and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta.

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Filed under: Marvel, Press, WandaVision

June 02 2021

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Press: How The ‘WandaVision’ Stars Became Acquainted With Their Marvel Characters – Contenders TV

DEADLINE: Across five MCU movies, Elizabeth Olsen has played the sorceress Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, but it arguably wasn’t until the Disney+ series WandaVision that she saw the character in her entire zenith.

A master of chaos magic and a native of the fictional war-torn Eastern European country of Sokovia, Wanda saw the villainous Ultron destroy the capital city and her twin brother Pietro along with it before she teamed with the Avengers. WandaVision takes place in the events following the team’s fight with Bad Guy Thanos in the town of Westview. It’s a town Wanda has taken over quite literally to live an American family life with her android beau Vision.

Westview is a place that Wanda has literally created in her vision, inspired by the sitcoms she grew up watching as a child in Sokovia, i.e., The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, Family Ties and more.

“She for the first time has this sense of agency and making her own decisions that she hasn’t really had. She was kind of moved around a bit based on circumstances. This was something, even if she was aware of it or not, she completely controlled on her own even to a fault and by the end of it has great accountability. That was the newest journey for her and the processing of her experiences,” Olsen said during the series’ panel at Deadline’s Contender Television awards-season event.

Teyonah Parris plays Monica Rambeau, a SWORD agent who is a quiet ally of Wanda’s monitoring her from outside the shell of Westview which she’s created. Monica’s boss at SWORD is looking to defeat Wanda. The last time we saw Monica, she was 11 years old in the 2019 feature Captain Marvel.

In informing her performance, Parris combed the Marvel comics, reading up on the legacy of Rambeau, and “looking at the young actress Akira Akbar and her performance (in Captain Marvel) and her relationship with Carol Danvers and Maria her mom.”

As Agnes, the noisy next-door neighbor-turned-villain Agatha, Kathryn Hahn had a deep sitcom trove to pull from, especially in regards to the former. But there was one person in particular who shined through in her portrayal.

“My maternal grandmother,” said Hahn, who was nominated for a supporting actress comedy series Emmy for Transparent in 2017. “I heard her sing-song voice, definite [during] the ’50s and ’60s [eras]; everything ended on a question. She was in there.”

Filed under: Marvel, Press, Videos, WandaVision

May 22 2021

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Press: An Exclusive Q&A With the Actors, Head Writer/Executive Producer & Director/Executive Producer of “WandaVision”

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

5:00pm PDT

Actors Elizabeth Olsen, Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, head writer / executive producer Jac Schaeffer and director/executive produce Matt Shakman of “WandaVision” join Variety’s Angelique Jackson in the Variety Streaming Room presented by Disney+ for an exclusive Q&A discussing clips from the show.

After losing her love Vision, Wanda Maximoff undergoes a dissociative event and creates a world where he is alive, and they can start a family. Fueled by Wanda’s comfort in sitcoms, her TV reality embodies an ever-manageable suburban existence, but when Wanda’s denial is challenged, so is the reality.

Click here to register.

Filed under: Marvel, Press, Upcoming Event, WandaVision

May 15 2021

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Press: Lifetime, Hollywood Reporter to Present ‘Women in Entertainment: The Next Generation’ Special on May 24

The special will feature talent including Padma Lakshmi, Anna Kendrick, Elizabeth Olsen, Gillian Anderson, Jurnee Smollett, ‘Girls5eva’ star Sara Bareilles and more as it spotlights five female students mentored by top women execs in Hollywood.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: As a presenting partner for The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast, Lifetime has joined with THR for the evolution of the event.

Lifetime will air a broadcast special titled Lifetime and The Hollywood Reporter Present Women in Entertainment: The Next Generation, a Voices Magnified program celebrating female trendsetters, industry leaders and potential future female power players.

The special, set to premiere at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Monday, May 24, will be hosted by Padma Lakshmi. The hourlong show also will feature appearances by Anna Kendrick, Anitta, Elizabeth Olsen, Emma Corrin, Gillian Anderson, Lana Condor, Jurnee Smollett and Kathryn Hahn. The special also will feature an interview and special performance by Grammy winner and Girls5eva star Sara Bareilles of her hit song “Brave.”

Voices Magnified aims to give “a national spotlight to timely and important conversations on equality and social reform which are occurring across America today.”

THR’s pioneering Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program, which, in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, grants $1 million in scholarships to L.A. high school seniors from underserved communities, will be spotlighted in the special. Five of the program’s mentees will share their stories, how they were motivated by their mentors’ belief in what they can accomplish and how their mentors guided them on their journey to college and their future career paths.

The special also highlights Comcast NBCUniversal’s workplace mentorship program with Big Brothers Big Sisters, which has become a mentoring model for corporations nationwide.

Scholarships to Loyola Marymount University and Chapman University underwritten by Spotify, Sony and The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation will be awarded. Lifetime also provides a $10,000 scholarship to each of the girls who participate in The Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program. Cadillac also is a sponsor of Women in Entertainment.

The five mentor/mentees that will be featured in the special include Ali Hoffman (president, domestic networks for Starz) and Emely Menjivar; Cassidy Lange (director, original studio film, Netflix) and Gracie Flores; Deborah Thomas (senior vp entertainment publicity for NBC) and Celine Mendoza; Mioshi Jade Hill (president, Sirens Media) and Miranda Brock; and Terry Kalagian (executive vp creative content, Gaumont) and Wynda Lee.

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May 15 2021

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Press/Audio: WandaVision fan theories, and why Kathryn Hahn ‘was gonna be so angry’ if anyone else sang ‘Agatha All Along’

The WandaVision cast and creative team are the first guests on the new season of The Awardist podcast, where EW’s Kristen Baldwin and Gerrad Hall kick things off with a look at the Limited Series race.

EW: The history books are closed on this year’s Oscars, so Hollywood — and EW with it — is opening a new one focused on this September’s Emmys.

That means a new season of EW’s The Awardist podcast is now underway, kicking off with the cast and creative team behind the blockbuster equivalent of a TV series: WandaVision. The first Marvel television show on Disney+, which debuted in January, is one of the many limited series in contention this year, and we’re breaking down that category as well as lead actor and actress in a limited series/TV movie. In addition to WandaVision’s Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, stars including Hugh Grant (The Undoing), Kate Winslet (Mare of Easttown), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton), and Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You) are among those vying for a nomination come July 13.

In the case of WandaVision, traditional superhero fare is turned on its head with a story that focused on Wanda’s (Olsen) grief following the death of her beloved Vision (Bettany). But here, she uses her immense powers to manufacture a town and home where Vision is actually alive, and they’re living an idyllic life via the world of comfort-TV shows like those she grew up watching as a child in Sokovia. Add to it Teyonah Parris as S.W.O.R.D. agent Monica Rambeau, and Kathryn Hahn, who plays nosy neighbor Agnes/powerful witch Agatha Harkness, and the stakes are raised by people who are trying to stop Wanda — for reasons both good and bad.

The four actors, along with series head writer/EP Jac Schaeffer and director/EP Matt Shakman, joined The Awardist podcast, where they talked about audience reaction, fan theories, and memes, tackling grief in a profound but entertaining way, and watching Hahn top the iTunes chart with “Agatha All Along” (and besting Justin Bieber in the process). They also reveal their favorites moments from the nine episodes — some of which may surprise you.

You can listen to the full episode of The Awardist below.

Edit: Added the video –

Filed under: Audio, Interviews, Marvel, Press, WandaVision

May 13 2021

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Press: How Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange Almost Appeared in ‘WandaVision’

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explains why a planned Dr. Strange appearance would’ve “taken away from Wanda”

ROLLING STONE: The story of WandaVision‘s main character, Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch (played by Elizabeth Olsen), is set to continue in 2022’s Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, but the two projects were almost linked much more directly. As Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reveals in Rolling Stone‘s upcoming, extensive oral history of WandaVision, Marvel struck a deal with Benedict Cumberbatch to appear in the final episode of the show as Dr. Strange. But late in the process, they wrote him out.

“Some people might say, ‘Oh, it would’ve been so cool to see Dr. Strange,’” says Feige. “But it would have taken away from Wanda, which is what we didn’t want to do. We didn’t want the end of the show to be commoditized to go to the next movie — here’s the white guy, ‘Let me show you how power works.’” That meant the Dr. Strange movie, too, had to be rewritten. In the end, Feige says, Marvel’s process is “a wonderful combination of very dedicated coordination, and chaos. Chaos magic.” At one point, back when Dr. Strange was supposed to be part of the story, the in-universe commercials were going to be messages from Strange to Wanda, and there was also talk of having Cumberbatch appear in one of the ads, head writer Jac Schaeffer says.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Olsen is pushing back on criticism that Wanda got off too easy by flying away without punishment after she forced an entire town of people into her sitcom fantasy world. “She had to get away before the people who have to hold her accountable got there,” she says. “And where she went is a place that no one could find her. Because she knows that she is going to be held accountable, and I think she has a tremendous amount of guilt.”

Our oral history, which tells the entire story behind the making of one of the year’s best TV shows, will also include interviews with Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn, Teyonnah Parris, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, and many more.

Filed under: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Marvel, Press, WandaVision

May 04 2021

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Press: John Stamos posts a precious tribute to Elizabeth Olsen for the finale of ‘WandaVision’

CNN: John Stamos posted an adorable tribute to Elizabeth Olsen for the finale of ‘WandaVison.’
Stamos shared the image of himself and Olsen, who is the younger sister of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, from the set of Full House, both in their younger years. Olsen’s famous sisters played Stamos’ niece Michelle on the show.

“One day she’s a little girl wandering the set, and next thing you know, she’s taking over a whole town, mind-controlling the citizens to play out her favorite TV Sitcoms! They grow up so fast…” Stamos wrote on Instagram Friday.

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A post shared by John Stamos (@johnstamos)

Stamos then plugged WandaVision’s finale and his new show coming to Disney+ in April.

The series took viewers into a world made by Wanda Maximoff, Olsen’s character, to give her and her dismantled love, Vision, a life together, but all is not as it seems. The show is just one of many planned Marvel character stories set to hit the popular streaming service.

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March 07 2021

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Press/Video: Jimmy Fallon Takes a WandaVision Trip Through Late-Night History With Elizabeth Olsen

VULTURE: Everyone is obsessed with WandaVision, including, apparently, Jimmy Fallon. He’s so obsessed that he even imagined himself inside the TV show about a grieving Marvel superhero who imagines herself inside other TV shows. Kids, feel free to use this sentence in English class when your teacher asks you to explain what “meta” means.

In a new sketch called “FallonVision,” debuting right here on Vulture ahead of its broadcast on Fallon’s late-night show tonight, the host hops through time and several iterations of The Tonight Show. Elizabeth Olsen, the star of WandaVision and a guest on The Tonight Show this evening, is present throughout the whole journey in the role of the actress-guest who always behaves decade-appropriately. “Water?” she quips in the 1950s, before taking a sip and adding, “Well, that’s an odd way to pronounce ‘rum punch.’” In the ’70s, she smokes a cigarette (not necessarily of the nicotine variety) on live TV.
The one story you shouldn’t miss, selected by New York editors

Just like on the Disney+ series, it eventually becomes clear that Fallon is beaming himself through classic television as a way to escape his grief about what’s happening in real life in 2021. There’s also a twist at the end that suggests another WandaVision character may be the one responsible for all this. [Wink.]

Director Chris Tartaro, who has filmed and edited many prerecorded sketches for Fallon during his tenures on both Late Night and The Tonight Show, jumped on the phone less than an hour after capturing the sketch’s last shot to explain how it all came together. Watch the sketch first, because spoilers are below.

After the idea was conceived and fine-tuned by Fallon and his writers’ room, the first step was to confirm that Olsen, already booked as a Wednesday guest, was game to participate in the homage. She was, though she had to improvise a bit when wigs and other props couldn’t be shipped to her quickly enough. (Olsen is currently in London shooting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.) “She took her Sunday to do this with her team, and they didn’t have costumes, and they just used what they had,” Tartaro says. (Feel free to closely examine every item Olsen wears in the sketch for possible clues about the Doctor Strange movie.)
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Filed under: Press, Talk Show Appearance, Videos, WandaVision

March 04 2021

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