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Major Marvel star says that she won’t be appearing in the next two Avengers movies

Elizabeth Olsen has been in the MCU since 2014

Greg Evans
Tuesday 25 March 2025 09:01 GMT
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Elizabeth Olsen has appeared to confirm that she won’t be involved in the next two Avengers movies, which are set to start filming back-to-back in London imminently.

Olsen plays Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was last seen as the prime antagonist in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Given that the conclusion to that film left Wanda’s story open-ended it was assumed that she would be returning in the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, due for release in 2026 and 2027 respectively.

However, Olsen has potentially dashed the hopes of fans longing to see her in those films, after The Hollywood Reporter asked her if the Russo Brothers are going to be extending “[her] stay" in London.

The 36-year-old coyly replied: “No, I’m back [in the States]. I just finished [Panic Carefully]. I’m moving on to filming a pilot for FX [called Seven Sisters].”

Olsen has played Maximoff in six different Marvel films to date, with her first being 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. She was the lead star of 2021’s WandaVision, which has been the most positively received Marvel television series to date.

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in ‘WandaVision’
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in ‘WandaVision’ (Marvel Studios)

Only Robert Downey Jr has been officially announced for Avengers: Doomsday so far. He is controversially returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom.

The Oppenheimer star surprised crowds at Comic-Con in San Diego on Saturday 27 July as he was dramatically unveiled in the new role during a Marvel panel.

Stepping forward from a line of similarly masked figures on stage, Downey Jr pulled off his silver mask to an ecstatic reaction from the crowd.

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“New mask, same task,” he triumphantly declared after it was announced that he would be playing Doctor Doom in the forthcoming Avengers instalment.

Joe and Anthony Russo previously directed some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most popular and highest-grossing films, including Endgame, which made $2.79bn worldwide.

In a new interview, Joe Russo said that it was Marvel CEO Kevin Feige’s idea to bring Downey back as Doctor Doom after his heroic death as Iron Man in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

“That was Kevin,” he told Omelete. “Interestingly enough about that, that conversation was had a while ago. Robert [Downey Jr] tried to talk us into doing it and we said, ‘No.’ We just didn't have a story. We didn't have a way in, right? We were resistant for a while.”

“And then one day [Endgame writer] Steve McFeely, who's one of our key collaborators, said, ‘I have an idea.’ And we went, ‘That’s the story. That story has to be told. It's a really powerful story.’”

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