Marvel Fans Spot Old Elizabeth Olsen Interview Where She Said Doctor Strange 2's Scarlet Witch Storyline Would Be 'Unbelievable'

Doctor Strange 2 took Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff into the darkest version of Scarlet Witch persona – the one that lays waste to the Marvel Universe and threatens reality itself. Many fans were hoping that Multiverse of Madness would turn Wanda into an ally of Doctor Strange, rather than following Marvel Comics history by painting her as a dangerous and unstable villain, and so backlash to Doctor Strange 2 is understandable. However, the debate about Scarlet Witch's murderous turn and/or Wanda's future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has hit an interesting new bump, as Marvel fans have unearthed an old interview where Elizabeth Olsen seemed to wish (or hex?) this into existence! 

Screen Rant sat down with Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, way back during their MCU debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). At that time, Wanda Maximoff's story was just getting started in the franchise – and naturally, the question of where Olsen would like to take the character came up. That's when Lizzy dropped this gem, which very well may have shaped her future: 

"I mean, my favorite is "House of M" but that would never happen. But if she could have two fake babies and everyone tell her that they don't exist and her just go nuts, that would be unbelievable – but I don't think they're going to do that [laughs]. It might be a little too dark for the Marvel [Cinematic] Universe. When she loses her mind, it's my favorite thing in the comics." 

Be careful what you wish for, Elizabeth. 

It's actually ironic and funny to see Elizabeth Olsen express such excitement for the far-flung possibility of getting to act out a storyline that is now causing so much backlash within the Marvel fandom. To be clear: just because Olsen expressed this sentiment early on, it in no way invalidates all the criticisms that fans have about what happened in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Olsen's Wanda has come such a long way in development since Avengers 2 – and arguably been given more depth than she ever got in Marvel Comics. After Olsen's deep, complex, and nuanced Emmy-nominated performance in WandaVision, fans expected more than a full-evil turn they saw in Doctor Strange 2. 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron made his own case for why Scarlet Witch was made the villain (again): 

"I mean, it's always been in the cards because it's who the character is in the comics, building to 'House of M' and all that stuff, there's Wanda descending into madness," Waldron explained. "We were excited about the idea of making her the primary antagonist in the film because it felt like there was no stronger antagonist...There's the feeling that the door had been open for us. She opened the Darkhold at the end of 'WandaVision' and that's the Book of the Damned. So it was there for the taking. My feeling was that 'WandaVision' pushed her to the place where she reckoned with this grief, but maybe what she hadn't reckoned with was her anger over all of it, and that was something that I discussed with [Elizabeth Olsen], and I think that that's what the Darkhold seized on, was that anger and that really clouds Wanda's decision-making."

How do you feel about what Doctor Strange 2 did to Wanda? Let us know in the comments!