The casting of Elizabeth Olsen in Avengers: Age Of Ultron as the Scarlet Witch (though she wouldn’t receive that title until much later) faced criticism for effectively erasing Wanda’s backstory as a Jewish-Romani witch driven by the injustice she faced. But after seeing Wanda’s first MCU appearance, I couldn’t help but resonate with her quest for justice after repeated trauma. In the midst of figuring out who I was in the aftermath of surviving violence myself, Wanda Maximoff became my problematic fave.
WandaVision subverts the “Emotionally Unstable Woman Of Mass Destruction Who Must Die” trope by confronting, rather than ignoring, the complex and debilitating effects of severe, repeated trauma. As a TV series, the show affords Wanda the opportunity to move through the entire reality of her trauma, ultimately transmuting her loss to further her personal growth and sense of self.