Any long-running franchise needs to shuffle the deck every now and again to avoid going stale, whether that means sending some old faces riding off into the sunset and bringing new ones into the fray, or allowing supporting players to step into the limelight having spent years biding their time in the background. Avengers: Endgame looks to have done just that for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch could now be positioned as perhaps the single most important figure in Phase Four.
After all, the architect of the entire franchise wouldn’t have changed his mind and called Wanda Maximoff the strongest superhero in the MCU at the expense of Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel if he didn’t have major plans in store, and when WandaVision arrives on Disney Plus in what will hopefully be a matter of weeks, we should get a much better indication of just how Scarlet Witch breaks out from the pack.
Not only that, but Olsen takes second billing in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and it’s no coincidence that she’s at the forefront of the two projects set to establish alternate realities as the MCU’s next major storytelling device. In fact, in a recent interview, the actress admitted that she’s planning on sticking around for a while yet, saying:
“Because of this show, I feel like there’s such a strong sense of ownership of Wanda, and I’m so excited now that we’ve cracked open this other part of her so that there hopefully could be more stories to tell, and it’s been a such an incredible gift. I really loved doing this show.”
Having been a part of the shared universe since Avengers: Age of Ultron, Scarlet Witch hasn’t been given a whole lot to do in terms of substance, but that’s all about to change when WandaVision debuts. Phase Four promises to shake the MCU to its core, and Wanda’s mind and reality-altering powers will have a huge part to play in the next several years of movies and TV shows.
