Despite the fact that he’s one of the most legendary Avengers team members in the comics, Quicksilver has only made a single appearance in the MCU to date. While X-Men fans fell in love with Evan Peters’ version in the Fox movies, Scarlet Witch’s brother Pietro Maximoff only appeared the once way back in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. When it came to his sitcom-like cameo in WandaVision, Peters was even brought aboard ahead of original performer Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Thanks to some illuminating comments from the Kick-Ass star on his career trajectory, however, we can maybe finally begin to understand why Pietro has been a no-show in the franchise for the past eight years. Speaking to Esquire, Taylor-Johnson revealed why Sony’s Kraven the Hunter is his first leading role in a major blockbuster for a long while: because those that he made back in the early-to-mid-2010s weren’t really his cup of tea. He explained:
“There was Kick-Ass, and then there was Godzilla and Avengers, and all those things lined up for me. But I didn’t really care for them.”
Taylor-Johnson teased that these roles were followed up by other big offers for even more money. In his words, he was up for parts “that nobody knows about—big, huge franchises that were in play.” Nevertheless, the actor walked away from these opportunities in order to spend more time with his family, wife Sam Taylor-Johnson (director of Fifty Shades of Grey) and their two daughters.
“I wanted, purely, to be with my babies, I didn’t want to be taken away from them. I battled with what that would be like. I would say I was probably not ready to be in that position anyway—it was too early. But yeah, I also slightly didn’t give a f**k.”
Although Taylor-Johnson clearly has nothing against the MCU, it’s fair to say he was probably relieved when Pietro was killed off in only his first outing and likely doesn’t envy his on-screen sister (and, um, also on-screen wife) Elizabeth Olsen her long and fruitful Marvel career. A career that, ironically, involves playing a character obsessed with getting back to her two children.
Kraven the Hunter was once set to arrive this October, but is now scheduled to stampede into cinemas on Aug. 30, 2024.