Elizabeth Olsen Explains Why She Wants to Move on From the MCU

Elizabeth Olsen is continuing her quest to try and distance herself from Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as she seeks to stretch her skills and play a more wide variety of parts in projects going forward, as she’s been explaining to The Times of London in a recently-published interview (conducted pre-strike).

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Olsen filmed WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness back to back, during the midst of the pandemic, and the time spent in one character’s head space—a combined ten years of her life has been spent with Marvel—made it clear to her that she needed to seek something news, which was a big reason why she took the part of the alleged axe murderer Candy Montgomery in the new Max Original Love and Death, as she explained.

“I’m trying to figure out… Because, specifically in the last four years, my output has been Marvel. 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.”

Elizabeth Olsen Needs Distance from Wanda Maximoff

A combination of contractual obligations to Marvel and COVID meant that expanding into other roles, which she had found creatively and emotionally engaging, were once again restricted and that, in itself, meant a feeling of oppression weighing down on Olsen once more as she felt stagnant.

“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.” This isn’t the first time Olsen has spoken of his dissatisfaction with the conveyor belt of churning out Marvel projects for very little creative pleasure, as she had previously stated in June. “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 is currently out of contract with Marvel, although she has stated that if she were to one day return, she would be keen to go in a new direction and explore the character’s links with the X-Men, which is where the character originated. Olsen is expected to return to the role of Wanda Maximoff in the upcoming, and already-filmed, Disney+ show, Agatha: Coven of Chaos.