Elizabeth Olsen stands by the Scarlet Witch’s MCU evolution

Image: Marvel

It's likely that a lot of people will show up for Wanda Maximoff, even though the Sorcerer Supreme may have top billing in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It has been years since Wanda was first introduced in the movie, and her path from Sokovia to the multiverse has been long and winding. Her character's journey has been a powerful one.

Before WandaVision, Wanda Maximoff was still a supporting character in the MCU and a far cry from her comic book counterpart: a powerful witch who first joined the Avengers just months after being introduced as an X-Men villain. Wanda's sitcom revealed the magical origins of her chaotic powers with a story about how grief can warp a person's relationship with reality, and it was fascinating to wonder how the Scarlet Witch would factor in to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse.

During a recent Multiverse of Madness press event, Olsen talked about how WandaVision and the Doctor Strange sequel began with her magically enslaving a town. Wanda's actions as of late haven't been heroic, but she was standing by her and she thinks of the character as a consistent one.

My biggest goal is to play the lawyer to my character and to defend, defend, defend.

WandaVision's finale saw her finally come to grips with what she had done to Westview, New Jersey, and her perspective was one of the more questionable things left. Setting Westview's residents free meant undoing the curse that gave birth to Wanda's twin sons and the facsimile of Vision she had been living with. Wanda was turned into the Scarlet Witch by WandaVision because it put her through the same editorial hell that Wanda faced in the comics after depowering the world.

Wanda's return in Multiverse of Madness might seem premature because of the traumas of losing her husband and sons and being tricked into believing that her dead brother had been resurrected. She explained that Wanda has been in a constant state of processing larger-than-life emotions since joining the MCU. She portrays it in the new movie as a key part of the Wandas.

I have gotten to do all of the films she has done in WandaVision, and her biggest emotional losses are when something happens.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters now.