Five Elizabeth Olsen Performances You Need To See Before 'WandaVision'

Sometime in December 2020, the MCU television series WandaVision, starring Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch, and Paul Bettany as Vision, will hit Disney +.

After being a supporting player in the films, WandaVision will mark Olsen's first step into the lead of an MCU project, and as readers of the comics will know, the Scarlet Witch is a complicated character. However, fans of the actress's non-MCU work are confident she has the chops to pull it off.

Here's five Elizabeth Olsen performances you need to see before WandaVision.

1. Martha, in 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' (2011)

In Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elizabeth Olsen plays Martha, a young women escaping from a cult. She seeks refuge in the home of her estranged older sister, Lucy. Unfortunately, Martha struggles to adjust to life outside the cult. Flashbacks throughout the film show snippets of Martha's life with the cult, explaining some of her odd behaviours in the present timeline. As the film goes on, Martha inadvertently causes tension in her sister's marriage when Lucy and her Husband, Ted, disagree on the best way to deal with Martha's issues.

The film was a big winner on the festival circuit, and Olsen, in her first film role, earned rave reviews for her performance as the troubled Martha. In fact, her performance in this film is what originally put the actress on Joss Whedon's radar when casting Wanda Maximoff for Avengers: Age of Ultron.

2. Sarah in 'A Silent House' (2011)

A Silent House is a psychological horror film presented as if events are occurring in real-time, edited as though it had been filmed in a single continuous shot. Olsen plays Sarah Murphy, a young woman returning to her childhood home for the first time in years to help her Father and Uncle clean it out ready for sale. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the terrifying when Sarah's Father disappears, and she comes to believe that she is alone in the house with a dangerous intruder. Sarah's psychological state deteriorates over the course of the film, leading to a twist ending regarding the identity of the intruder.

Olsen won the role of Sarah both because her audition impressed the directors, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, and because she had Theatre experience after training with the Atlantic Theater Company. Lau believed a Theatre trained actress would be better able to handle the long, 15 minute takes used to create the 'single take' style of the film. Olsen's acting was the most critically praised aspect of A Silent House, and her portrayal of Sarah's deteriorating mental state could prove good practice for some aspects of the Scarlet Witch's story.

3. Audrey Williams, 'I Saw The Light', 2015

In the Hank Williams biopic I Saw The Light, Elizabeth Olsen plays Audrey Williams, the first wife of the doomed country music star, alongside fellow MCU actor Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams. While the musical performances in the film let it down in the eyes of surviving Williams family members, both Olsen and Hiddleston were praised for their portrayal of the ups and downs in Hank and Audrey's rocky marriage.

I Saw The Light is one of a few bio-pic/period films Olsen has appeared in, following Kill Your Darlings and In Secret in 2013. All three set the actress up well for portraying Wanda through the different eras in WandaVision.

4. Agent Jane Banner, 'Wind River', 2017

In 2017's Wind River, Olsen plays Jane Banner, a rookie FBI Agent sent to the Wind River Indian Reservation to investigate the death of young Native American woman Natalie Hanson. Fish-And-Wildlife Officer Cory Lambert (played by another fellow MCU actor, Jeremy Renner), who knew Natalie, helps Jane find her way around the Reservation. While both Cory and Jane suspect foul play, the coroner is unable to confirm Natalie's death as a homicide, so it becomes a race against time to find Natalie's killer before Jane is forced to leave for a new assignment.

Wind River is a tough film to watch, because while it is not directly based on a true story, it is inspired by real life facts on missing persons in Reservations. Despite the difficult subject matter, it is worth seeing at least once.

5. Leigh Shaw, 'Sorry For Your Loss', 2018-2019

From 2018-2019, between her work on the Avengers films, Elizabeth Olsen both starred in and executive produced the Facebook Watch series Sorry For Your Loss. Olsen played Leigh Shaw, a young widow grieving the death of her Husband, Matt, four months before the series begins. The show was praised for its realistic portrayal of topics such as long-term grief, anxiety, and depression.

For her portrayal of Leigh Shaw, Olsen was nominated for Best TV Actress in the 2018 Critic's Choice Awards.

We can't wait to see what she accomplishes in WandaVision.