Elizabeth Olsen confirms she won’t appear in upcoming ‘Avengers’ movies as she looks to ‘make choices outside of Marvel’

Elizabeth Olsen has confirmed that she won’t be appearing in the upcoming Avengers installments, Doomsday and Secret Wars, as she looks to make career “choices outside of Marvel.” 

The actress — whose portrayal of the Scarlet Witch was put on ice after the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — made the revelation in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. While Wanda Maximoff has been a fixture of the MCU for over a decade, with appearances in Captain America, Avengers, What If..? and the Emmy-winning WandaVision, Olsen said the focus of her career moving forward won’t necessarily be defined by Marvel. 

“I didn’t realize this until about six years ago, but because Marvel and its influence takes up so much physical time and space in the world, it’s really important for me to make choices outside of Marvel that reflect my own taste,” Olsen said. She went on to add that an actor’s choice of which movies to work on is a reflection of their “taste,” which “does create the artist that you are.” Olsen, who earlier this month appeared to leave the door open for a Marvel return, said her moves to work outside of the MCU are indicative of where she’s at in her career. 

“The opportunity to return to [non-Marvel] films is a reflection of the people I want to work with and my own personal taste,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. As for the specific projects that have replaced her Marvel roles, Olsen is currently promoting the science fiction thriller film The Assessment, while her upcoming role in an FX series is what took her away from filming Doomsday and Secret Wars. Those Russo Brothers-directed movies are set to begin back-to-back filming in London soon, and Olsen just left that city to shoot the TV show. 

Elizabeth Olsen says she will not return as Scarlet Witch in ‘AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY’ and ‘AVENGERS: SECRET WARS’

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“I’m moving on to filming a pilot for FX [called Seven Sisters],” Olsen revealed, with the competing filming schedule confirming that she won’t be appearing in the forthcoming Avengers installments. Elsewhere in the interview, Olsen reflected on a non-Marvel role that she was forced to relinquish due to her being cast in Avengers: Age of Ultron. For those unfamiliar, Olsen was in talks to star in Yorgos Lanthimos’ film The Lobster back in 2015, but had to pull out of the project to work on the Avengers sequel. 

“I was intrigued by [The Assessment] in the same way I was intrigued by reading The Lobster,” the actress reflected. Of course, Olsen’s absence from Doomsday and Secret Wars and openness to roles outside of Marvel does not mean she ruled out of the MCU forever. A few weeks ago, the actress said she felt “lucky” to have played Wanda for a decade and teased that she’d “love to do more” movies as the character, but her recent revelation means those movies won’t be the upcoming Avengers installments. 

While Olsen is out, we do know for sure that Robert Downey Jr. is on board for Doomsday (who could forget that Comic Con reveal?), while Anthony Mackie, Chris Evans and Charlie Cox are also reportedly attached. Will have to wait and see how the film fares (especially in the wake of the Russo Brothers’ recent flop The Electric State) when Doomsday hits cinemas in 2026.