Elizabeth Olsen Shared Her Thoughts About White Vision’s Memories; ‘It Just Doesn’t Matter’
The finale for WandaVision did a good job of giving closure to this portion of Wanda Maximoff’s story while also leading right into the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whether that’s Scarlet Witch’s future, Monica Rambeau’s, or White Vision’s. But with the latter, things were a little less clear. And Elizabeth Olsen did share that, at least for her, there are certain things that don’t change with his revelations. At least, not right now. [Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for WandaVision].
White Vision gaining back Vision’s memories doesn’t change much for Elizabeth Olsen
Hayward brought back Vision as a new synthezoid that didn’t have any of the old Vision’s memories, empathy, or AI system. He’s White Vision like in the comics, although he’s not called that in the show.
He and Vision have a fight and Wanda’s version of Vision talks White Vision into realizing that fighting this Hex Vision is pointless. He’s not the actual Vision and can’t even leave the Hex. And then he gives White Vision back all the memories that are stored away in his memory bank.
This is the original Vision’s body, and now he has the original Vision’s memories. However, in an interview with Variety on March 10, Olsen shared that that doesn’t change anything.
“There’s this Vision out there with all of his memories… It just doesn’t matter,” Olsen said about the situation. “‘Cause he’s a stranger.”
This came when Olsen was talking about Wanda’s newfound agency in her story of grief near the end. With this new Vision and moving forward, she’ll get to choose how she handles things, and won’t just have things thrust upon her like the death of every single one of her loved ones.
And that is interesting to note; just because Vision downloaded those memories, he didn’t download a personality nor a soul into this new being. That’s who Wanda fell in love with, so she wouldn’t be able to just pick up where she left off with White Vision, so to speak. Nor would she want to, it seems like Olsen is alluding to. That is… unless there’s a way to put his soul back in that body.
The showrunner emphasized why Wanda’s third time saying goodbye to Vision was different
Speaking of agency, showrunner Jac Schaeffer told Variety that the core part of this show was Wanda’s grief, which came together quite well at the end. And as Wanda went through the stages of grief and got to the acceptance part in the finale, it was Wanda that had to choose to do so.
“It was very tricky, the balance of, this is ultimately a story about acceptance, but also paying attention to the fact that this is the MCU and stories spiral outwards,” Schaeffer said. “It was hard. We wanted Wanda to say goodbye on her own terms. That’s what was most important.”
Again, Olsen said that things were constantly happening to Wanda in the MCU, instead of her choosing her own path. So even though her trauma, unfortunately, bleeds into the town of Westview, she chooses to end it.
“The thing that I love so much about the end of this journey for Wanda is a sense of accountability,” Olsen said. “And she really takes full accountability for what she has done and who she is and has become and that other Vision that’s existing isn’t a part of it anymore.”
With all of this acceptance and accountability that Wanda goes through in this season and this finale, specifically, Wanda has to say a new goodbye to Vision, to “fully process her grief” Schaeffer said.
Even though it was technically the third time he died, it was different than the other two times, because it was on her terms and of her — and his — own volition. This story also led to her acceptance of her role as Scarlet Witch, which is highly important as well.
Olsen’s next appearance in the ‘Doctor Strange’ sequel didn’t change her performance in ‘WandaVision’
So, now fans know that going forward, Olsen doesn’t think White Vision having those memories will change anything. At least not right away, and that makes a lot of sense. But does Wanda Maximoff’s upcoming role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness change anything? Or did it impact Olsen?
While speaking with Variety, she said that it didn’t. She didn’t know that she would be a part of the Doctor Strange sequel until after they were nearly done with WandaVision. They had about two months left of filming, and so she went with a different approach.
“I tried as much as I could, almost less so to have it affect WandaVision as have WandaVision affect it,” she said. “It’s almost like I’m here and we’re trying to make sure that everything is honoring what we did.”
While appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she said that the WandaVision finale was a “complete tee-up for my character,” setting her up for whatever was to come in Doctor Strange 2. Now we know she became her full Scarlet Witch self and is furiously studying the Darkhold. It probably has dark implications for that movie, so it’ll be an excruciating year to wait for it.
