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WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen shares frank opinion about Marvel

Olsen has starred as Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlett Witch in numerous MCU titles

Inga Parkel
in New York
Saturday 05 April 2025 19:42 BST
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Elizabeth Olsen hopes for Marvel redemption

Elizabeth Olsen has shared how she really feels about Marvel.

Despite having starred as Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlett Witch in Disney+’s Emmy-winning series WandaVision and numerous other MCU movies, Olsen, 36, has admitted that the superhero genre doesn’t necessarily align with her personal taste.

“I think I haven’t always successfully made choices in my work that are aligned with my personal taste, and that is something I feel like I’m still trying to prove when I meet people,” the former child actor said on the latest episode of NPR’s Wild Card With Rachel Martin.

“Especially if it’s a work-type meeting and be able to express my personal taste in films and literature, and so I still think I have that to prove,” Olsen added.

“Because I have spent so many years doing Marvel that I feel like all the other jobs I have to do have to really reflect my personal taste because as much as I love being a part of this world — and I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do with the character — it’s not really the art that I consume. Which I have been very honest about.”

Olsen, who first appeared as Maximoff in a post-credits scene in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, has become a staple of the MCU. She has since portrayed the villain in five additional Marvel films. In 2021, she led her own standalone WandaVision miniseries about her character living an idealized life in suburbia.

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

Explaining her reason for joining the MCU in the first place, Olsen said: “I thought they were such great Greek-type scale stories that reflected politics, culture in a really lovely way.

“And so I felt really proud to jump into it. And then, within the last 10 years, it’s taken on this narrative of like, it’s like a hot take, whether an actor says they want to, they would never do a Marvel movie or not.”

Last month, the actor appeared to confirm that she would not be involved in the next two Avengers movies, which are set to start filming back-to-back in London imminently.

She will, however, reprise her role as Maximoff — albeit in a voice-acting capacity only — in the forthcoming cartoon series Marvel Zombies.

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Olsen’s latest roles have been in independent projects, including Fleur Fortune’s sci-fi thriller, The Assessment, and Azazel Jacobs’s His Three Daughters, alongside Carrie Coon and Natasha Lyonne.

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