VARIETY – Elizabeth Olsen told The Times of London in a recently published interview (conducted pre-strike) that she is aggressively seeking a “variation” of characters after working for four years solely in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Olsen filmed “WandaVision” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” back to back, which was perhaps too much time dedicated to only playing Scarlet Witch. That’s a large reason Olsen was drawn to playing alleged axe murderer Candy Montgomery in Max’s “Love and Death.”
“I’m trying to figure out… Because, specifically in the last four years, my output has been Marvel,” Olsen said. “I don’t want… it’s not that I don’t want to be associated as just this character. But I really feel like I need to be building other parts back up for balance. I so much want to do films right now. And I hope some of them come together in the way I feel like they can. But yeah, that’s something that I need. I just need other characters in my life. There’s no longevity in one character.”
For Olsen, both COVID and “Marvel obligations” threw a wrench into the variety of roles she started to love playing around 2017.
“’Wind River’ and ‘Ingrid Goes West’ were films that I was very proud to have selected and they were so different and you can’t compare them,” Olsen said. “So I just want more of that in my life just because I get satisfaction from the variation.”
During a conversation with “The White Lotus” star Meghann Fahy as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series in June, Olsen got honest about not missing her Scarlet Witch days.
“Do you miss doing Wanda?” Fahy asked.
“No, I don’t,” Olsen responded. “I think it’s been almost 10 years of playing her. And I’ve loved it. And I think the reason why I am not calling Kevin Feige every day with ideas is because I’m really proud of what we were able to do. I think ‘WandaVision’ was a really surprising opportunity.”
Olsen added, “If someone were to tell me that I’m fired from Marvel movies, I will feel proud of what we made. And I really am just trying to figure out how to load up other films and characters so it becomes less about the Marvel of it all.”
Olsen currently has no idea when or if she will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, a character she’s been playing since 2015’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Wanda was last seen in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” where she was crushed under a collapsing building after she sacrificed herself to destroy the Darkhold, the evil book of sorcery that had corrupted her and turned her into a villain.
