From her first appearance in a post-credit Captain America: The Winter Soldier scene, Elizabeth Olsen has spent close to a decade with the character of Wanda Maximoff. Directly following the success of WandaVision, Olsen continues her performance as the Scarlet Witch in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.
“Before WandaVision, I took up a lane for storytelling that was more grounded in sincerity, love, loss, and grief,” Olsen discusses during the recent global press conference for The Multiverse of Madness. “With WandaVision, I got to become anything and everything, and really grow her into a woman.”
Part of that growth was learning to accept her mythic power, something Olsen hopes the audience can appreciate. “That is her destiny. And I hope that in this film people see that continuation of her acceptance of who she is and the journey that she has taken to get to this moment. I feel like she has way more clarity now than ever in this film.”
The evolving Scarlet Witch also enters her latest film with new confidence according to Olsen. “She has learned so much, and has a sense of confidence that we haven’t seen in her yet.”
Olsen is prepared for strong fan reactions to her character in The Multiverse Of Madness. “My biggest goal for everything is to play the lawyer to my character, and to defend, defend, defend,” says Olsen. “Wherever they’re coming from, or whatever they’re processing, my goal is to just defend their perspective.”
To that end, Olsen has found the consistent throughline for Scarlet Witch has been that she is always working through past traumas. “She’s constantly straddling this line, and usually in her biggest emotions – losses or grief – is when something’s born.”
Scarlet Witch’s experiences from the series are what take audiences directly into this latest film. “I think through her processing of what happened in WandaVision, and through her processing of her destiny, we find her in a place of strength and a set of belief systems that she can rely on,” says Olsen. “And it’s all connected from WandaVision.”
Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters on May 6, 2022.
About Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
In Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, with Michael Stühlbarg, and Rachel McAdams.
The film is directed by Sam Raimi, and Kevin Feige is the producer. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Eric Hauserman Carroll and Jamie Christopher serve as executive producers. The screenplay was written by Michael Waldron.