Olsen first appeared as Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015 before going into films like Captain America: Civil War and “Avengers: Endgame.”
In-between she worked on indies, Ingrid Goes West and TV series “Sorry for Your Loss” for Facebook Watch. This past television season, she brought her big-screen superhero to Disney Plus, headlining WandaVision alongside Paul Bettany.
The ability to move between platforms is cherished by all actors, but to do so with the same character indicates the power of the MCU.
Olsen and Bettany were only the first to move from film to TV under the Marvel Studios banner. Soon they were followed by others.
Despite the long travels these performers take on with their Marvel roles, they are usually kept in the dark about their characters’ fate.
After 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, Sebastian Stan was not sure if he would be in another Marvel movie–until he got a call at San Diego Comic-Con, who told him his character was in the title of the next film.
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Sebastian Stan
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Stan at 2019 San Diego Comic-Con
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Stan and Anthony Mackie found out about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in similarly surprising way. They were separately called to Los Angeles for meetings and ended up crossing paths in the hotel.
“I had an idea of what was cooking, but I didn’t think it was going to be TV show,” Mackie says. Initially, he was “horrified” by the idea of taking his character to Disney Plus.
“I was afraid and disappointed when I heard it was going to be a TV show because I didn’t think we could take the scope of what we had just done in all these movies and then put it on TV and it would work,” he says. “I didn’t want to be the first failed entity of Marvel. You have all this amazing stuff and then this one thing sucks and it just happens to be me. I thought it was going to be like Batman and Robin — the original one — where it was like, ‘Pow! Bing!’”
It wasn’t until the production on the show started that Mackie understood they were maintaining the cinematic scope–and that he would be able to reconnect with all his MCU compatriots.
“When you become part of the Marvel franchise, it’s almost like summer camp,” he says. “So when you show up to set, it’s everybody and you never miss a beat. Some people have kids, some people bought a car, so it’s like you going back to seeing all your same friends over and over.”
