How Elizabeth Olsen killed an actor oncreen without ever meeting him: “movie magic”
Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff took a villainous turn in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Marvel’s extensive post-production process meant that she never met the actor who played one of her victims.
Olsen may not have made her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe until the end of phase two, but she became an instant fan favourite even within the divisive Avengers: Age of Ultron, as it established Wanda as a new member of the team, dubbed the Scarlet Witch.
The actor was able to flesh out Wanda’s complex relationships with her fellow superheroes thanks to the juicer roles given to her in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, but her character’s potential wasn’t completely unlocked until after the Infinity Saga was over, with WandaVision, the first television series set in the MCU that debuted on Disney+, instantly standing out for its surrealist storytelling and unexpectedly devastating analysis of grief.
Even if WandaVision wasn’t anticipated to the same degree as other MCU shows like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, it easily became the biggest success story of the conglomerate’s streaming venture. By showing the ways in which Wanda attempted to cope with the loss of Paul Bettany’s Vision, the series offered insights on mental health struggles that are rarely touched upon in media, let alone superhero stories.
Thus, on the back of the empathy Wanda earned off the show made it all the more shocking when the character took a dark twist in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which saw her trying to absorb the powers of the superpowered teenager America Chavez, played by Xochitl Gomez. Although Wanda’s intentions are to return to the alternate dimension of WandaVision, where she would be reunited with her children, it didn’t stop her from becoming one of the MCU’s most terrifying antagonists.
This Doctor Strange sequel was notably directed by Sam Raimi, the highly influential horror maestro behind The Evil Dead franchise, and his involvement made it no surprise when the instalment turned out to be one of the franchise’s goriest films, but it was still shocking to see Wanda brutally dismember a group of superheroes from a different universe, including a version of Reed Richard played by John Krasinski.
The film also featured surprise appearances by many legacy Marvel characters, including Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Lashana Lynch as Captain Marvel and Anson Mount as Black Bolt, among which Krasinski’s casting was the most surprising, as Marvel had yet to announce the actor who would be playing the new Mr Fantastic in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The MCU is known for being extremely tight-lipped when it comes to its big reveals, unless Tom Holland has his way of putting his foot in his mouth, but Olsen didn’t even get to meet any of the heroes that Wanda murders, and in an interview with Variety, she revealed that it was “movie magic” that made it appear like they appeared in the same scene.
Krasinski obviously won’t be back in the MCU now that Pedro Pascal is playing Reed Richards, and Olsen has also been sceptical about her return, given that she had to turn down a few projects in order to complete her Marvel obligations. However, the former is also a fairly prolific director, helming films like A Quiet Place and The Hollars, so there’s always the possibility that he might cast Elizabeth in an upcoming project and tangibly appear in her vicinity.
