Elizabeth Olsen Talks Scarlet Witch's Origin in AGE OF ULTRON, Possible Romance with Vision, and More

If you aren't familiar with the work of Elizabeth Olsen, I'd highly recommend checking out Martha Marcy May Marlene. The young actress wasn't really given much to do in last year's Godzilla, but she's immensely talented, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what Joss Whedon - a writer known for crafting solid female roles - does with her Scarlet Witch character in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Olsen was recently interviewed by Empire (via CBM), and she spoke a bit about her character and what we can expect to see in the highly-anticipated blockbuster.

"The coolest thing about Scarlet Witch is, because you've never seen her, we got to create how she moves. Joss was really inspired by dancers, and so he knew that he wanted to change visually how she moves, to be more like a dancer than a fighter. I didn't really have to do much stunt training. Instead I trained with a dancer, Jenny White, which was its own kid of soreness, but it wasn't what I thought it would be."

Not too surprising, especially considering the work Summer Glau did as the lithe, dangerous River Tam in Whedon's Firefly and Serenity. Sounds like we could be dealing with another character who's a bit mentally shaken, but who can handle herself just fine in battle. Olsen continued:

"Age of Ultron is almost [Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's] origin story, so we don't have one of those montages where heroes learn all of their powers in five minutes. We are still discovering the things we can and cannot do. The extent of her powers isn't fully explored in Ultron. But she can manipulate objects. And she has visions, and she has the ability to share them."

Whedon certainly has a lot of ground to cover and a ton of characters that factor into Age of Ultron, so it's probably best that we don't have long stretches of exposition explaining who these new characters are and what we can do. Having the audience learn alongside them definitely seems like a more economical way to tell the story. But what about Scarlet Witch's motivations? Why is she fighting alongside Ultron in the trailers?

"Obviously there are plenty of countries in the world that hate America, for whatever history and pain they believe it has caused their own country and their own lives. That is the world we have created for Wanda and Pietro to have been brought up in. What you're told a lot of times growing up is that, that country, those people, their way of living is the reason why we have been bombed. [The Avengers] are the worst evil in Wanda and Pietro's mind, not this guy who hasn't done anything yet."

That's an interesting outlook, and I wonder how much of that was created just for backstory purposes and how much of it will actually shine through in the movie. The story is definitely taking on more of a global slant by bringing Wakanda into the fold, and we already know that the scope of this film is absolutely huge. Should be fun to see what Whedon does with a larger palette to work with.

And finally, in the comics, Scarlet Witch and Vision have a romantic relationship. When asked whether or not that relationship would come to fruition in the movie, Olsen responded:

"[Laughs] I don't know what you're talking about..."

She's playing coy here, but I think it'll likely turn out to be true, if only to add higher stakes and more drama to the narrative. If the characters are well-written, then we'll only become even more interested if there's a romance angle introduced between two characters, and given Whedon's propensity for killing off characters, it could add even more tension to what's shaping up to be a hell of a movie.

Avengers: Age of Ultron arrives in theaters on May 1st.