Elizabeth Olsen clears up confusion over Wanda’s missing Sokovian accent
By Ashley Hurst
Elizabeth Olsen has weighed in on why Wanda’s Sokovian accent has slipped into an American one throughout her time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When Elizabeth Olsen made her MCU debut as Wanda Maximoff in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, you might remember that her character had a strong Eastern European accent, having been born in the fictional nation of Sokovia. In subsequent movies and in the new Disney+ streaming series WandaVision, Wanda’s accent has changed completely. What happened? Speaking to Collider, star Elizabeth Olson cleared it all up.
In Age of Ultron, Olsen took on a strong accent inspired by her character’s comic book origins. This means they had to create a fictional accent that would sound similar to those of Eastern Europe. Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver) had a dialect coach help them figure out where to begin developing a fake accent. “We wanted to make sure it didn’t sound Russian because Black Widow speaks Russian, and so we just needed to sound more like Slovakian,” Olsen said. “So we created these sound changes that worked for Aaron’s British accent going to Slovakia, basically, and my American accent so that we sounded related.”
Gradually, as the movies went on, her Sokavian accent began to slip into an American one. And WandaVision pushes things even further. “There have been reasons for everything,” Olsen said. “It lightened up when she started living in the States, and in WandaVision she is playing the role of being in an American sitcom and so it’s not gone. It is absolutely still there.”
The Russo Brothers, who directed Olsen as Wanda in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, have their own way to explain her accent, and I think it’s much more interesting. “We have intentionally tried to strip that accent away for a couple of reason,” they said on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast.” “One is you’ll notice at the beginning of Civil War that Black Widow is training her to be a spy, and two is she’s been on the run, and one of the most distinguishing characteristics that she has is her accent. So if you’re gonna try to disguise yourself or hide yourself or not be caught, you’re going to try to limit those trigger warnings that would make it easy for someone to identify you, which would be inclusive of her accent.”
Her role in WandaVision marks yet another milestone in Elizabeth Olsen’s fantastic career. And oddly, it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for her deep love of the Star Wars franchise, another Disney property. “I was obsessed with Star Wars,” she said. “You couldn’t peel me away from Star Wars as a child. And so I was trying to figure out, how do I start putting that out there because I feel like all I’m getting are these really disturbed women in independent films…[Now] it’s just a disturbed woman in a big franchise!”
WandaVision, which according to cast member Teyonah Parris (Geraldine) “picks up right after” Endgame, is currently streaming on Disney+ with new episodes arriving weekly!
Avengers: Endgame was going to have a post-credits scene that set up WandaVision. dark. Next
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