Wanda Maximoff is a character portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise. Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, she is depicted as a Sokovian orphan who, alongside her twin brother Pietro Maximoff, volunteers to undergo Hydra's experiments with the Mind Stone, which awaken Wanda's latent mythical ability to harness chaos magic and imbue her with psionic and telekinetic powers. Wanda and Pietro join Ultron to seek revenge against Tony Stark for the death of their parents, but defect to the Avengers upon learning of Ultron's plan to cause human extinction, during which Pietro is killed.
Wanda becomes one of the Avengers' most powerful members during Avengers: Age of Ultron and develops a deep romantic relationship with team member Vision until he is killed by Thanos and she falls victim to the Blip. Despite being restored to life five years later, Wanda grows mentally unstable due to Vision's death and, in her grief, uses her abilities to trap the town of Westview, New Jersey, in an idyllic suburban false reality in which she marries Vision, bears twins Billy and Tommy Maximoff, and comes into conflict with S.W.O.R.D. and Agatha Harkness, culminating in the manifestation of her ancient prophesied identity as the Scarlet Witch. After collapsing the "Hex" reality, Wanda is corrupted by the Darkhold and attempts to take teenager America Chavez's multiverse-traveling abilities to reunite with alternate versions of her children. Wanda defeats Stephen Strange and the Earth-838 Illuminati, but becomes overwhelmed with guilt when confronted by that reality's Billy and Tommy, causing her to sacrifice herself to destroy all copies of the Darkhold across the multiverse.
Wanda has appeared in seven MCU films, beginning with a cameo in the mid-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and starred in the Disney+ television series WandaVision (2021). Alternate versions of the character have appeared in the animated series What If...? (2021-2023). Olsen's performance has been well-received and garnered several accolades, earning her nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Fictional character biography
Childhood and origin
Wanda Maximoff was born in 1989 in Sokovia, Eastern Europe, unaware that she was born a witch and unknowingly engaging in basic hex magic. While growing up with her twin brother Pietro and her parents Oleg and Iryna in a small apartment during a war, she enjoyed watching American sitcoms, which her father sold DVD box sets of so their family could practice speaking English in the hopes of emigrating to America. However, Oleg and Iryna were killed when a missile struck their apartment while Wanda and Pietro were trapped in the debris for two days. While a second Stark Industries missile flew in, it never went off as Wanda unknowingly cast a probability hex that turned it into a dud, though the twins lived in fear of it going off until they were rescued. The trauma of that experience found a focus in the prominence of the Stark Industries logo printed on the missile. This left the twins with the fervent belief that Stark himself was ultimately responsible for their parents' deaths as it occurred via sales of his company's weapons which he had intentionally profited from.
Years later, as young adults, Wanda and Pietro participated in political protests in their city, before eventually volunteering for Hydra's enhancement program overseen by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. The organization exposed the twins and numerous other test subjects to the Mind Stone, with Wanda and Pietro being the only survivors and the former gaining psychic abilities while her magic was greatly amplified. During the experiments, Wanda gained a glimpse of herself as the Scarlet Witch.
Becoming an Avenger
In 2015, Wanda is called by Strucker to assist in fighting Steve Rogers upon his arrival to Strucker's base. She then finds Tony Stark and plants a nightmarish vision in his mind. Shortly after, Ultron secures an alliance with Wanda and Pietro, using their hatred of Tony Stark as leverage. In Johannesburg, Wanda subdues Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, and Bruce Banner with visions, however, is unable to subdue Clint Barton, as he briefly incapacitates her. Following this, Ultron, Wanda, and Pietro travel to Seoul, where Ultron uses the Mind Stone to enslave Dr. Helen Cho so he can use her synthetic-tissue technology, vibranium, and the Mind Stone to craft a new body. As Ultron uploads himself into it, Wanda reads his mind and discovers his plan to cause human extinction. She and Pietro turn against Ultron and join forces with Steve Rogers to stop him. Upon learning of Tony Stark's plan to give the body life and fearing what he will do with it, Steve Rogers takes Wanda and Pietro to Avengers Tower to stop him. While Steve Rogers and Tony Stark fight, Wanda fights Banner, but Thor suddenly arrives and turns the body into the "Vision". Wanda and Pietro tell them of Ultron's plot and they decide to travel to Sokovia, where Ultron has used his remaining vibranium to build a machine capable of lifting a large section of the capital city Skyward, intending to crash it into the Earth and cause global extinction. Wanda becomes overwhelmed by her role in Ultron's scheme until Clint Barton befriends and encourages her to join them in stopping Ultron. Wanda volunteers to protect the machine's core from Ultron, but abandons her post to destroy Ultron's primary body after sensing Pietro's death, which allows one of his drones to activate the machine. Vision rescues Wanda from the collapsing city. Afterwards, Wanda goes to the Avengers Compound, where she, along with Sam Wilson, James Rhodes, and Vision, join the Avengers.
Sometime later, Wanda is watching sitcoms in her bedroom, when she is visited by Vision, who comforts her over Pietro's death, assuring her that the grief she feels over losing her family meant that she still loved them.
Avengers Civil War
In 2016, Wanda joins Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson in a mission to stop Brock Rumlow from stealing a biological weapon in a lab in Lagos. Rumlow detonates his suicide vest in an attempt to kill Rogers, but Wanda telekinetically contains the explosion and throws it upward, accidentally killing several Wakandan humanitarian workers, to her horror. As a result, United States Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross, informs the Avengers that the United Nations (UN) is preparing to pass the Sokovia Accords, which will establish a UN panel to oversee and control the team. Stark has Wanda confined to the Compound, where Vision watches over her and they begin to develop romantic feelings for each other. Wanda is picked up by Barton, who was sent by Rogers and Wilson, and they get Scott Lang before regrouping with Rogers, Wilson, and Bucky Barnes at the Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany. Wanda significantly helps her team through the battle, protecting them from Stark's team. After Rogers and Barnes escape, Wanda, Barton, Wilson, and Lang are captured and detained at the Raft. Eventually, they are rescued when Rogers breaks them out.
Infinity War and resurrection
In 2018, Wanda and Vision have begun a romantic relationship and gone into hiding in Edinburgh. However, they are ambushed by Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, members of the Children of Thanos sent to retrieve the Mind Stone. Rogers, Wilson, and Romanoff rescue them and take them back to the Compound, where they reunite with Rhodes and Banner. While there, Vision asks Wanda to destroy the Stone, but she refuses as it would kill him. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the Stone without killing Vision. As Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision, Wanda is tasked with staying behind and watching over the operation until the Stone is removed. Nevertheless, she leaves to aid the Avengers in their fight against the Outriders, killing Midnight in the process. When Thanos arrives to retrieve the Mind Stone himself, Wanda reluctantly kills Vision and destroys the Stone, but Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse the action and rip the repaired Mind Stone from Vision's forehead, before knocking out a horrified Wanda and activating the completed Infinity Gauntlet. Wanda, along with half of all life in the universe, disintegrates in an event that would later be called the Blip.
Five years later, Wanda is resurrected and joins the Avengers and their allies' to fight an alternate Thanos and his army from a 2014 timeline. In the ensuing climactic battle, Wanda nearly defeats Thanos before she is blown away by his forces, with Stark later sacrificing himself to eliminate Thanos for good. A week later, Wanda attends Stark's funeral, where she reunites with Barton.
Life in Westview
The Hex and the WandaVision program
The next day, Wanda goes to S.W.O.R.D.'s headquarters to retrieve Vision's body. However, after meeting with S.W.O.R.D.'s acting director Tyler Hayward, she witnesses Vision being dismantled and realizes she can no longer sense him. She leaves and drives to the suburban town of Westview, New Jersey, to view a vacant lot that Vision had purchased in 2018 for the two "to grow old in". Overcome with grief, Wanda accidentally unleashes waves of chaos magic that transforms Westview into a sitcom-themed false reality and isolates it from the outside world via a hexagonal barrier, later known as the "Hex". She materializes a new version of Vision that lacks any prior memories and starts living with him in the Hex as a newly married couple living their ideal suburban life.
While attempting to befriend her neighbors (painfully forced to role-play as sitcom stereotypes, and kept from their children) and concealing her and Vision's powers, Wanda becomes visibly pregnant. As it progresses at an accelerated rate, she encounters Monica Rambeau, who had been absorbed into the Hex and took on the alias of "Geraldine", and receives her help in giving birth to twin boys Tommy and Billy. However, Rambeau mentions Pietro and his death at Ultron's hands, inciting Wanda to telekinetically cast her out of Westview. When Vision returns moments later, he briefly appears as a corpse before Wanda resets him.
Hunted by S.W.O.R.D.
As Wanda's children age rapidly, S.W.O.R.D. sends an armed drone into Westview in an attempt to kill Wanda. Enraged, she exits the Hex, warns Hayward to leave her alone, and emphasizes her point by hypnotizing his agents into turning their guns on him. Rambeau, who empathizes with Wanda, tries to offer help, but is rebuffed. Back in Westview, Wanda gets into a heated argument with Vision when he finds out the truth after briefly freeing one of Wanda's victims and reading a S.W.O.R.D. communique at work. The argument is interrupted when a man claiming to be Pietro appears and Wanda briefly accepts him into her life. During the town's Halloween festival, Wanda reveals to "Pietro" that she does not remember what happened to her other than feeling alone and empty, which seemingly made her create the Hex. When Wanda learns that Vision has breached the barrier and is dying, she expands the Hex to save his life, in the process also absorbing the nearby S.W.O.R.D. outpost and Darcy Lewis.
Battle of Westview