Elizabeth Olsen is ready to fly away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and crash land into some hopefully more versatile roles in the future. The actress recently shared that she’s ready to retire the Scarlet Witch character that made her a household name in favor of a more “balanced” career that includes a variety of other characters.
“Specifically in the last four years, my output has been Marvel,” she shared in an interview with The Times of London that dropped this week. “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.”
Olsen first came to play Scarlet Witch (otherwise known as Wanda Maximoff), in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, followed by the 2018 sequel Infinity War and 2019’s Endgame, as well as Captain America: Civil War in 2016, 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and, finally, the acclaimed miniseries WandaVision, which earned Olsen an Emmy Award nomination.
Still, despite the commercial and critical success of these projects, it’s the other, more unique projects that offer different challenges Olsen is drawn to these days.
“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.”
While this news may come as disappointing to some superhero film fanatics, I’m personally excited to see where this new direction takes Olsen’s career. I’ve been intrigued by her ever since her star-making debut turn in the critically loved but under-valued Martha Marcy May Marlene back in 2011. Her spellbinding and mysterious performance in that film made it clear at once to audiences how much of an exciting, generous actress she is with good material.
Most recently, Olsen starred in Love & Death, a miniseries on HBO Max based on the true story of Candy Montgomery.
What would you like to see Olsen take on next?
WandaVision is available to stream on Disney+.
