Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, wants to see a version of the MCU composed of raw footage, without any VFX. Since her first appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron, depicting Scarlet Witch’s powers on-screen has required a large amount of CGI to turn Olsen’s wiggling fingers into actual magic. But, later MCU movies have become far more reliant on CGI, and Olsen now finds the filmmaking process frustrating and surprisingly difficult.
Speaking to THR, Olsen didn’t hold back her frustration about constantly shooting on green screens, knowing that CGI would fill in over 60% of the details. Of course, a universe as magical as the MCU will always require some level of CGI, but, for Olsen, working almost entirely on green screens partially ruins the filmmaking process. Commenting on what it’s like to act around green screens, Olsen said:
“You really have to embrace this dumb point of view, where you feel like a 7-year-old playing make-believe.”
To highlight her frustrations, the actress wants to see an MCU movie released in the same format as Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes‘s special features. Director Wes Ball recently released a raw cut version of the new movie, without any CGI. The cut of the film showed the actors wearing motion capture suits, pretending to be their ape characters. The cut has given fans a new appreciation towards the work that goes into motion capture, and Olsen wants to see a similar style of movie released by Marvel Studios, saying:
“I do believe that at some point they should release a full version of one of the movies, without any of the special effects so people can see how hard it is.”
Will The Scarlet Witch Return to the MCU?
The last time audiences saw Wanda Maximoff in the MCU, she had fully transformed into the Scarlet Witch, desperate to search for her “boys,” with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness suggesting it could be the end of the character. In the film’s finale, Wanda was crushed under a collapsing temple, and hasn’t been seen since. Nor has Olsen herself been confirmed to appear in any future Marvel Studios’ projects. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean her Marvel tenure is finished…
Death has become somewhat meaningless in the MCU since the franchise introduced the idea of multiverse travel and variants from other timelines. And, as Loki has proven on numerous occasions, some characters can just survive mortal wounds. Fans are speculating that Wanda could appear in Avengers: Secret Wars. After all, the movie is rumored to contain over 60 Marvel heroes, making Avengers: Infinity War feel like a small group get together.
However Wanda Maximoff is brought back (if she’s brought back at all), fans are hoping that Marvel Studios will come up with a better plan on how to best utilize the character in the future. Following WandaVision, it felt like Marvel Studios had been somewhat unsure about how to include the character, given how ridiculously powerful she is. For now, we will just have to wait and see whether the current Disney+ Marvel series Agatha All Along has any hints as to the fate of The Scarlet Witch.
Agatha All Along
is now streaming on Disney+.
