Not Even Elizabeth Olsen Knows the Fate of the Scarlet Witch

It’s been a minute since we last saw Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Elizabeth Olsen has confirmed she’d “jump” at the chance to play the Scarlet Witch again. There’s just one small problem: Her portrayer isn’t entirely sure whether she’s technically alive, dead, or some mysterious in-between third thing. 

Olsen last appeared as the Scarlet Witch in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And while your mileage may (and almost definitely will) vary on whether the film’s story did right by Wanda Maximoff’s story, it did seem to rather definitively end it, leaving our former heroine turned villain buried under a pile of rubble and presumed dead. Now, this is the MCU after all, a franchise that has no qualms whatsoever about resurrecting presumed dead characters or bringing back former actors, even when it doesn’t entirely make any sense for them to do so (looking at you, Robert Downey, Jr., in Avengers: Doomsday). We all know there’s no way that the Scarlet Witch — one of the most powerful figures in all of Marvel — is gone for real. But at the moment, even the woman who plays her really doesn’t know for sure.

Speaking with InStyle, Olsen admitted that she has “no idea” about Wanda’s true fate, noting that her recent return as a Scarlet Witch variant in Marvel Zombies was actually recorded several years ago. “I recorded that so long ago, I’m sorry. It’s so crazy that… I feel terrible that I don’t… I can’t speak more to it,” she said

But that doesn’t mean she’s not eager to put on Wanda’s signature red crown once more. 

“It’s ridiculous,” she said of making MCU movies. “We’re grown people behaving like children on a playground. We’re flying. We’re shooting things out of our hands. And it’s a character that I’ve gotten to return to so many times over 10 years. It’s good to put her down, and then I miss her and I want her back. I’d jump at the opportunity to be in her shoes again.”

Fans, of course, have been busy speculating about all the ways the Scarlet Witch could return, virtually since the credits rolled on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And although her participation has yet to be confirmed in either Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars —- Olsen herself has denied it — the rumored introduction of the X-Men and more multiverse shenanigans certainly provide perfect access points for the show to resurrect the character. (Plus, given how eager people are to see Wanda again, it’s not like they’d up and tell us about her involvement right out of the gate.) 

But hope also springs eternal elsewhere: Terry Matalas’ forthcoming VisionQuest series is being billed as the third installment of the WandaVision trilogy, and will introduce an older version of Wanda’s other son, Tommy. (An aged-up Billy Maximoff was introduced on Agatha All Along.) Suddenly, the Scarlet Witch is the only member of this family that’s MIA, which feels… a bit intentional to say the least. Could the series be setting up her return?