WandaVision stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany say the persevering romance between Wanda Maximoff and the Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe wasn’t “part of a long plan” at Marvel Studios, but was put forth by director Joss Whedon in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The 2015 sequel to The Avengers introduces the future Scarlet Witch (Olsen) and the synthetic android (Bettany) when Earth’s mightiest heroes assemble against Ultron (James Spader), a recurring menace for the eventually married couple in the pages of the Marvel comic books. A romance would ultimately flourish between Olsen and Bettany’s characters by the time of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, inspired in part by the groundwork laid in Age of Ultron:
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“No,” Olsen answered during a WandaVision Q&A with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation when asked if the two actors knew their Ultron pairing would turn into a long-lasting relationship between Wanda and Vision. “Joss Whedon wanted to suggest it in Ultron, not knowing if Marvel would pick up what he was throwing down. And they did, luckily, but it wasn’t really part of a long plan other than Joss’s, I think, personal desire.”
“So we sprinkled in stolen glances and then [Vision] obviously was the person to rescue me when I kind of give up at the end,” Olsen added about Vision swooping in to save Wanda from a collapsing Sokovia in the climax of Ultron.
“Yeah, no, we didn’t know that,” Bettany said about a coupling that would ultimately be at the heart of WandaVision. “But I think pretty quickly we recognized that it was a pretty great lane to swim in because the Avengers really needed a different tone somewhere in all of the fast-talking, wisecracking stuff that’s going on.”
The “really quite sweet, earnest relationship between a robot and a nascent witch is kind of a fun thing,” added Bettany, a veteran of the MCU since 2008’s Iron Man as the voice of the J.A.R.V.I.S. artificial intelligence. “It was surprising. I was wondering whether people were going to accept an entire show that was about love and grief, and it was fantastic to see that people really, really did, much down to our brilliant [head writer] Jac Schaeffer and her amazing writers room. And [director] Matt Shakman who — it can’t be forgotten — has been on this project for over two years, and of course [Marvel Studios president and producer] Kevin Feige, who endlessly had faith in this and really loved the show.”
All episodes of Marvel’s WandaVision are now streaming on Disney+.
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Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
