“We really felt we were Marvel’s weird cousin”: Elizabeth Olsen Was Scared About Her “career curveball” ‘WandaVision’ For 1 Reason That Proves She Took a Huge Risk
- Elizabeth Olsen considered WandaVision a major career risk due to a unique set of reasons, especially after her popularity in Avengers: Endgame.
- The show’s success was unexpected, with Olsen describing it as Marvel’s “weird cousin” that resonated well with both critics and audiences.
- WandaVision unexpectedly mirrored real-life pandemic isolation, making it particularly relevant and impactful during its release.
The power dynamics within the MCU shifted after Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. While the former showcased Wanda Maximoff possessing the strength to destroy the Mind Stone, the latter featured her nearly crushing Marvel’s big-bad Thanos, single-handedly. Thus, in the 2020s, Elizabeth Olsen stood as one of the biggest and most revered actors within the franchise.
Soon enough, the popularity of both Wanda and Olsen skyrocketed, thanks to the former’s transformation into the Scarlet Witch in 2021’s WandaVision. Often cited as one of her best works inside the MCU, the 35-year-old, however, had apprehensions. Rather, so significant was her acceptance and participation in the show that she considered it to be a major career decision, and even a potential risk.
Elizabeth Olsen had reasons to be “scared” for WandaVision
Marvel Studios decided to dive headfirst into the concept of the multiverse to kick-start their ‘phase four’ of storytelling. Even curiously, the Kevin Feige-led team opted to do so with a limited series starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany titled WandaVision. Although it turned out to be quite a success, the lead actress was “scared” for the simple reason that it was never attempted before.
In talks with Harper’s Bazaar, the star revealed the show as her career’s “curveball,” and for good reason. The MCU had always projected Wanda Maximoff and Vision as “larger-than-life characters” with a romantic arc developed over several movies. As such, she had no idea about the reactions the audience may have had to the TV series formula, and its eventual impact on her character.
My career curveball was Wandavision. I was really scared about doing a Marvel project for TV, because these are otherworldly, larger-than-life characters that are seen in films, and I didn’t know if it would still work on a television at home.
However, Olsen also acknowledged the show’s success with,
We really felt we were Marvel’s weird cousin. We didn’t know it was going to have such a response.
Despite being a first-of-a-kind project for the MCU, WandaVision sat well with both critics and the audience. Directed by Matt Shakman, a guessing plot kept the fandom buzzing and eagerly awaiting the weekly drop of each of its nine episodes. Finally, its current distinction as a Primetime Emmy-nominated series further speaks for its sound reception.
Actress thinks Marvel show mirrored real-life situation
WandaVision also held another notable distinction of debuting during the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Relating to this, Elizabeth Olsen, in the same round of talks, believed that her show reflected the real-life situation of the world being trapped in a bubble of its own and forgetting what reality was, similar to its plot where Wanda Maximoff warped a whole town into a reality of her own making.
It came out during the pandemic and it almost had way more relevance to everyone’s lives; [we were all] trying to function in these bubbles that we were put in, and then there was this world outside of a bubble. No-one even knew what reality was at that point!
Accordingly, just as the pandemic had a major impact on the globe, so did the one-season series on the overall MCU. The show’s finale directly led to the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which featured the on-screen death of Olsen’s character, with a possible return soon. Furthermore, it also ties into the plot of the Kathryn Hahn miniseries, Agatha All Along, currently trending in talks.
WandaVision is available to stream on Disney+.
