Elizabeth Olsen Reignites Marvel Ties, Eyes Scarlet Witch Comeback After Public Critique

Elizabeth Olsen has been living in Wanda Maximoff's brain for 11 years now, and what a ride that has been. She went from Sokovian accent and mind tricks to full-on Scarlet Witch, then swerved hard into multiverse menace and a very final-looking sacrifice. Meanwhile, off screen, Olsen has had her own arc with Marvel: frustration, distance, and now... maybe a soft landing back in the red leather. Let’s unpack it.

Where Wanda left off

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness took Wanda from grieving antihero to relentless villain faster than a sling ring can spark. It ended with her bringing down Mount Wundagore and apparently killing herself to stop the chaos she unleashed. It was a dramatic, controversial swing after WandaVision took such care rebuilding her.

Olsen vs. Marvel: the long contract era

From 2014 to 2025, Olsen has been honest about her push-pull with Marvel. She bristled at the long deals and how they boxed her out of indies, the stuff she came up loving. In 2022, right after Multiverse of Madness, she admitted she was confused by Wanda's sudden turn to outright evil (and plenty of fans were with her), but she still backed the ending. To Hollywood Life at the time, she said she was satisfied with where it landed, basically acknowledging that it needed to end where it did.

The 2025 whiplash

Then came April 2025. On NPR's 'Wild Card with Rachel Martin,' Olsen sounded a little weary of the Marvel label. She said she spends so many years doing Marvel that everything else she chooses has to really reflect her personal taste. She loves being part of it and is proud of her work as Wanda, but Marvel movies are not really the kind of art she personally consumes. That felt, frankly, like a gentle hand wave at the franchise machine.

And now: the door swings back open

Cut to a recent InStyle profile, and her tone is very different. She talks about the MCU like a big, goofy sandbox she genuinely misses. This reads like a pivot from arm's length to 'call me.'

'It is [making MCU movies] ridiculous. We are grown people behaving like children on a playground. We are flying. We are shooting things out of our hands. And it is a character that I have gotten to return to so many times over 10 years. It is good to put her down and then I miss her and I want her back. I would jump at the opportunity to be in her shoes again.'

That is a pretty clear green light to Marvel. It also comes after she once said Wanda's story 'needed to end where it ends' in Multiverse of Madness. So either the death was always meant to be more of a pause, or her thinking has evolved. Given the franchise's next big swing is an X-Men-heavy future beyond Phase 6, there is a very obvious lane for Scarlet Witch to matter again.

What this all says about Wanda's future

If you sense mixed feelings, you are not wrong. Olsen has an Emmy nomination for WandaVision and a strong indie resume, so it tracks that the Marvel grind would feel both rewarding and hollow depending on the day. The InStyle interview plays like she is ready to lace up again. Whether Marvel resurrects Wanda from that Wundagore collapse or drops in a multiverse variant, the appetite on both sides seems back.

Olsen's MCU scorecard

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - Rotten Tomatoes: 90% - IMDb: 7.7 - Box office: $714.4 million
• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - Rotten Tomatoes: 75% - IMDb: 7.3 - Box office: $1.405 billion
• Captain America: Civil War (2016) - Rotten Tomatoes: 90% - IMDb: 7.8 - Box office: $1.155 billion
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - Rotten Tomatoes: 85% - IMDb: 8.4 - Box office: $2.052 billion
• Avengers: Endgame (2019) - Rotten Tomatoes: 94% - IMDb: 8.4 - Box office: $2.799 billion
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) - Rotten Tomatoes: 73% - IMDb: 6.9 - Box office: $955.8 million

So where did Wanda's arc hit the hardest for you: the Sokovia guilt in Civil War, the dusting and reunion in the Avengers movies, the grief spiral and healing in WandaVision, or the full heel turn in Multiverse of Madness? I am curious which one sticks with you.

All MCU films are streaming on Disney+.