Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch Could Return Sooner Than Marvel Fans Think

The arc of the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) has been pretty wild since she was first introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2014. At the end of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," she was seen as an aspiring villainess, kept at bay in a mysterious prison. In 2015's "Avengers: Age of Ultron" she fell under the thrall of the evil super-robot of the film's title, using her magical powers to fight the film's superhero characters. The character would eventually decide that being a hero is preferable to being a villain, and would fight alongside the good guys in "Captain America: Civil War," "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Avengers: Endgame." Like her comic book counterpart, the Witch would also begin a tentative romance with the Vision (Paul Bettany), a more ethical super-robot. 

After the events of her own therapeutic TV series "WandaVision" however, the Scarlet Witch would turn back to dark magic to fulfill her dream of living in a suburban home with two sons. She became a demonic, murdering villain in 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." That wasn't the last anyone saw of her, as Olsen reprised the role for the animated series "What If...?" in 2023. The character, many might have assumed, may have been retired after that. 

As reported in the pages of /Film, however, Bettany's Vision character will return in his own series, set to be overseen by Terry Matalas and to be released in 2026. The last we saw of Vision, he had been rebuilt by S.W.O.R.D. as a milk-white ghost-like android, sent to destroy an artificial doppelgänger. A more recent report announced that the destroyed Ultron (James Spader) may return as the show's villain. The title may be "Vision Quest," although that is not official. 

Deadline has also seemingly heard a rumor that the Scarlet Witch will also return. Although no details have yet been given.

Deadline, it should be noted, is also just logically extrapolating the Scarlet Witch's presence because of her longstanding romance with Vision. In the original Marvel Comics, the two have been romantically intertwined for years, and the Witch/android romance became a notable detail in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Indeed, when the power-mad space alien Thanos (Josh Brolin) killed Vision in 2018's "Infinity War," the Scarlet Witch was thrown into a fugue of grief. While despondent, she unwittingly uses her magical powers to resurrect Vision and create their ideal, sitcom-like suburban fantasy inside a reality-warped bubble dropped over a small town in America. 

The adventures inside that bubble and the Witch's journey out of her grief was the subject of "WandaVision." Although Vision was dead, he did play a major role in that series. After he had been rebuilt, he flew away to find himself and become more human. The upcoming Vision-centered TV series will follow his journey. 

The Scarlet Witch, meanwhile, is presumed dead after the events of "Multiverse of Madness." At the end of that film, she had found a way to leap into a parallel universe — via a human near-sacrifice — where the sons she created in "WandaVision" were actually real. When they were frightened of her, however, Wanda realized that she had become evil, and destroyed the black temple where she nearly killed a young woman. She might have crushed herself in the process.

Should Wanda appear in "Vision," the writers have their work cut out for them. Or perhaps not. Thanks to the machinations of the multiverse, it would be easy to reach into a parallel universe and retrieve however many Wandas Terry Matalas may need.