Scarlet Witch (Marvel Cinematic Universe)


 *  NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Scarlet Witch from the Marvel Cinematic film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Scarlet Witch. 

"Sometimes it takes a while, but sooner or later every man shows himself."

- The Scarlet Witch speaking with Ultron.

Wanda Maximoff, known also by her alias Scarlet Witch, is a major character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She is first introduced as a minor character in Captain America: The Winter Soldier before becoming a supporting protagonist (alongside Quicksilver) of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and a major protagonist in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

She is an anti-villain, merely driven by revenge against Stark Industries for tearing her family apart as a child, but eventually becomes a hero and joins the Avengers after realizing they are preventing Ultron's destruction of humanity.

She was portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
She made a cameo appearance in the mid-credit of the film. She is the twin sister of Quicksilver and has been captured by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker to help him and his army HYDRA destroy the Avengers and aid Ultron.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Wanda Maximoff and her brother Pietro are, at first, located in a HYDRA base that the Avengers are taking out. Together, they decide to engage them in combat, and Wanda, realizing that Tony Stark (Iron Man) is here to take Loki's scepter, uses her mind powers on him, making him realize that his actions will eventually doom the entire team of Avengers, and that the images of his allies dying are the future of his legacy. Wanda smiles mischievously as Stark rips the scepter free, now feeling the need to complete his Ultron project to better defend humanity. She and Pietro escape the HYDRA base.

After Ultron is activated, he escapes and begins upgrading his body into a powerful new threat, also finding out about the twins. He calls Wanda and her brother forth, and she states that she is unable to read him. Ultron reveals his new body and invites them to join him in creating the evolution of humanity by destroying the Avengers. Ultron reads into their backstory, and Pietro and Wanda explain that they lost their family when they were children to a missile attack in which Stark Industries weapons were used, revealing why they want revenge on Tony. Ultron states that Wanda has the ability to tear the Avengers apart from the inside with her mind abilities.

When the Avengers locate the three, Wanda battles and uses her mind powers on Black Widow, Captain America, and Thor, but before she can do the same to Hawkeye, he stuns her with an electric arrow to the forehead. Quicksilver rushes in, grabs her, and escapes. After she recovers, Wanda says she wants to "finish the job" and invades the mind of Bruce Banner, causing him to transform into the Hulk and rampage through the city.

When Ultron begins uploading his mind through a tube into a newer, more organic body that he wants to use, Wanda realizes that she can read him - and is horrified to discover that Ultron believes genocide and destruction is the only way to evolve. Upon Ultron next attacking Captain America before the uploading of his brain into the new body is complete, Wanda and Pietro turn on him, realizing that he was wrong, and side with the Avengers. Ultron asks Wanda not to do this, but Wanda replies, "What choice do we have?"

After Ultron leaves and the Avengers have secured the organic body, Wanda explains that she doesn't like the idea of getting the body anywhere near Stark, as she still feels that Stark is to blame for the situation, that Ultron cannot tell the difference between protecting and destroying the world, and that he gets it from Stark.

Captain America leads Wanda and Pietro against Tony and Bruce's plan to upload J.A.R.V.I.S. into the body. Bruce grabs Wanda in a chokehold, but she blasts him out of the way in self-defense. Thor steps in and completes the upload with his hammer, thus creating the Vision out of J.A.R.V.I.S. and the body. The new creation is able to convince the reluctant heroes that he is on their side. With the help of the Vision, they set out to find Ultron, Wanda gaining a new and curious interest in the Vision.

It turns out Ultron's plan is to propel the city into the sky and crash it like a meteor into Earth, causing mass extinction and resetting life once again. As the city rises and the Ultron Sentinels take over the city, Wanda undergoes a breakdown and shamefully tells Hawkeye the whole thing is her fault, and that if she hadn't invaded Stark's mind, he would never feel the need to complete Ultron. Hawkeye says it doesn't matter anymore, and what matters now is the present and future, saying that if Wanda steps outside to fight, she will be an Avenger. After a minute, she becomes determined to rectify her mistake and joins the fight, using her telekinetic might to destroy the Sentinels. Joining the heroes to defend the mechanical core that keeps the city in flight so that every last living being can leave the island via SHIELD helicarriers, Wanda fastly destroys Ultron's army alongside her allies. One by one, the heroes split up to accomplish different tasks. Wanda tells Pietro that she will defend the core alone, and he leaves to help escort people onto the helicarriers while she continues to take on the drones single-handedly.

Ultimately, Pietro is shot down by Ultron, who had previously hijacked a Quinjet, causing Wanda to feel that her brother has been killed and break down screaming, her rage and grief destroying the remaining Sentinels in a powerful burst. After Hulk punches Ultron out and hijacks the Quinjet, Wanda confronts Ultron personally. He tells her that she'll die if she stays here, and she responds by saying she just did, meaning that she died on the inside, thanks to what Ultron did to Pietro, causing her to feel his pain. With that, she rips out Ultron's core with her hex ability, destroying his main body, saying that the pain she just gave him was how it felt for her upon her brother's demise.

Wanda isn't afraid to die, but the Vision flies in and saves her as the island explodes with everyone successfully off of it. After, Captain America, along with Black Widow, starts a training initiative for Wanda, James Rhodes (War Machine), Sam Wilson (Falcon), and the Vision, hoping to create the best defense possible for the Earth, and Wanda begins her training as a new Avenger.

Captain America: Civil War
Scarlet Witch is the major supporting protagonist in this film, fighting for the anti-registration side, along with Captain America.

Wanda begins the film being trained by Captain America and Black Widow on an observation mission to locate Crossbones. She assists the rest of the team in taking out Crossbones' soldiers and clears out the toxic smoke easily with her powers, as well as launching Cap through the building. When Crossbones threatens to explode in front of Cap, killing both of them as well as a large amount of citizens, Wanda saves Cap's life by restraining Crossbones in place; however, her energy falters and she is forced to throw him into a building which causes a floor to explode and unintentionally killing civilians.

Because of this incident, Wanda is declared a dangerous threat to society. Steve comforts her, saying it's on him for listening to Crossbones' words about Bucky Barnes. Vision enters the room through the wall (which she chastises him for) and lets them know that Secretary Ross wants to show them the Registration for the Sokovia Accords, confining the team to the government. Tony Stark decides to confine Wanda to the Avengers facility for her protection (at least to his claims) as well as the protection of others from her powers. After the Registration is presented to the team, Wanda eventually settles on Anti-Registration and chooses not to sign (siding with Steve).

Hawkeye arrives to free Wanda from the facility to join Team Cap, but is stopped by Vision, who easily restrains him. This compels Wanda into conjuring her magic, telling Vision to let him go and that she's leaving with him. When Vision responds that he cannot allow it, Wanda apologizes before using her power to take control of the Mind Stone in his head, stating, "I cannot control their fear, only my own", and blasting him with such force that he crashes through several floors and goes through the ground at least tens of feet.

Wanda joins Team Cap against Team Iron Man at the airport as Tony attempts to convince Steve to give up and bring Bucky back into custody. During the airport fight, Wanda easily drops several cars on Iron Man, heavily damaging his armor, as well as blocking attacks from Iron Man's group and saving her other teammates, as well as tossing more cars at both War Machine and Spiderman. Vision shoots down an airport control tower to stop Steve and Bucky escaping in a jet, and Wanda responds by using her magic to hold it up for them, until War Machine uses a sonic device to stop her, at which she holds her ears in pain.

Vision comes to her rescue, and they share an apology for fighting each other, with Vision noting the catastrophe he'd predicted earlier. With Sam on Rhodey's tail as he tries to stop Steve and Bucky escaping in the jet, Rhodey orders Vision to shoot Sam's pack and turn him into a glider. Being distracted with caring for Wanda, Vision fires and misses, instead hitting Rhodey, the resulting fall nearly killing him and destroying his ability to walk without help.

With the battle over and Steve and Bucky escaped, Wanda and the rest of Team Cap is confined to the Raft (an undersea military prison) by Ross, and Wanda is put in a movement-limiting straightjacket, shock collar, and even appears to be drugged and barely conscious out of Ross' fear for what she might do if angered. At the end, Steve returns and breaks Sam out first. They both proceed to free Wanda and the rest of their teammates (offscreen), thus letting her escape the confinement and drugging, and she escapes the Raft with the rest of Team Cap, after which they decide to stay undercover as the government (Ross in particular) views them as war criminals and especially sees Wanda as an incredibly dangerous Enhanced individual.

Avengers: Infinity War
Wanda return as a major protagonist in the film, where she had hidden herself away in safety Scotland following her escape; plus she has patched things up with Vision, who has come by for a visit. As it turns out, both Wanda and Vision are in a romantic relationship together as Vision agrees to keep her safe from harm.

However, things took a turn for the worst when Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian of the Black Order arrived to ambush the two, intending to take the Mind Stone (which is currently located on Vision's forehead). Fortunately, Rogers, Romanoff and Falcon arrived to the rescue, allowing them to evacuate Wanda and Vision back to Avengers HQ. Wanda and Vision then soon learned that Midnight and Obsidian's adoptive father, the notorious warlord Thanos, intends to collect all six Infinity Stones (including the Mind Stone) to wipe out half of the universe's populace, and that he has obtained the Power Stone (the Orb), the Space Stone (the Tesseract), and the Reality Stone (the Aether). Wanda also learned that Thanos was the one who sent Loki Laufeyson to invade New York and provided him with the Mind Stone that brought Ultron to life in the first place.

Realizing now that the Mind Stone is too much of a burden to be kept, Vision suggests that he can sacrifice himself by having Wanda to destroy the Stone, but Wanda is hesitant to do so. However, Rogers suggested that they go to Wakanda, where they can use its advanced technology to destroy the Stone without killing Vision.

As the Avengers head over to Wakanda, Thanos (having acquired the Time Stone and the Soul Stone) orders the Black Order and their army of Outriders to attack Wakanda, forcing the Avengers and the Wakandan warriors to fight back. As the Avengers managed to defeat the Black Order and the Outriders, Wanda forced herself to remove the Mind Stone and destroy it with her powers (per Vision's orders), just as Thanos arrives after obtaining the Time Stone (the Eye of Agamotto). Wanda then taunts Thanos that he has lost, but Thanos proves this wrong by using the Eye of Agamotto to reverse the event, allowing himself to take the Mind Stone while killing Vision, much to Wanda’s distraught.

With all six Infinity Stones in place, Thanos uses them to wipe out half of the universe’s populace, and Wanda suffers Vision's fate as she is disintegrated to her death along with several other Avengers and Guardians.

Personality
Wanda prefers to fight directly for what she believes in, this passion has led her to the mistake of siding with Ultron, which deeply influences much of her actions thereafter.

Her doubt and guilt over the mistakes she made and her desire to fight for her beliefs have led her to inaction, once during the Battle of Sokovia, and another during her house arrest at the Avengers Compound. Both times, Hawkeye was able to talk her into action, affirming her desire to fight for what she feels is right, despite what others think.

In contrast with her brother, Scarlet Witch displays a more serious attitude and direct anger, against anyone she perceives as her enemy. Her anger can be very hostile, powerful, resentful, formidable, unforgiving, retaliatory and unpleasant, not only leading her to volunteer for experiments, but also to personally seek out Ultron's last form in order to destroy him as well as herself after he murdered her brother. She also had a very close relationship with her brother who in return was very protective over her making his death far more hard on her.

In general she has a deeply caring nature, as her greatest motivations and feats have mostly arisen from her devotion to others.

Powers and Abilities

 * Probabilitys Field Manipulation
 * Telekineses: Wanda has the ability to throw objects and enemies, as well as tear apart non-organic enemies such as the Ultron Sentinels. When she loses control of her emotions, her powers become greatly amplified and even more dangerous. This is demonstrated when she destroys dozens of Sentinels in one blast of rage and grief after her brother's death. In Civil War, she overpowers Vision and sends him through the ground, drops several cars on Iron Man, and holds up a massive falling Airport Control Tower to let Steve and Bucky escape.
 * Mind Manipulation: She is able to probe the minds of opponents and force them to experience hallucinations or turn them against each other, seen when she manipulated the Hulk into attacking a city.
 * Energy Shields Generation: She can conjure shields of energy.

Trivia

 * She is played by Elizabeth Olsen who already starred in Godzilla (2014) alongside with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as wife and husband, while in the MCU they are twin siblings.
 * She is based on Scarlet Witch of the Ultimate Marvel Universe rather than the mainstream one.
 * Wanda is younger than Pietro by 12 minutes and is, in fact, the youngest Avenger by a significant margin (she is implied to be around college student age and is most likely only in her early twenties).
 * It was implied that Wanda has feelings for Vision, as she normally stares at him every time he's around, and she looks at him in amazement when he rescues her. It's confirmed by the writers that this is a nod to her relationship with him in the original comics, possibly hinting at it happening in future films. This is further expanded in Civil War, where they have developed a strong interest in each other.
 * It is strongly implied that Ultron had feelings for her, as he was completely aware that she was going to destroy him, yet was still concerned that she would die if she stayed here. This is because he considered her the ideal "evolved human", which is what Ultron had been striving to create in the first place.
 * Just like Pietro, her alias "Scarlet Witch" was never mentioned in the film, however she is called a "witch" by Tony Stark.
 * Elizabeth Olsen and Joe Russo have stated that Scarlet Witch is the most powerful of the Avengers, bar none, and has only barely scratched the surface of her potential. Even Paul Bettany (Vision's actor) admits that she is probably the only one who can defeat Vision. This is further demonstrated in the Infinity War trailer which shows her taking on a Black Order member and presumably protecting Vision as a reversal of their roles from previous films.
 * It is also implied that Doctor Strange will take an interest in her and begin to mentor her in mastering the magic arts.