With the enormous success of the Iron Man, Thor and Captain America film series, it is easy to forget that we will be treated to new Avengers characters in the sequel. Quicksilver and his sister Scarlet Witch have both joined the cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The characters will be played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla, Kick-Ass) and Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla, Oldboy) respectively.
Moviegoers may be experiencing a little deja vu when the name Quicksilver comes up. That is because we just saw the same character appear in X-Men: Days of Future Past played memorably by Evan Peters. His portrayal will be in a different continuity and their personal histories will vary greatly in the two films however. Due to complex rights issues, Fox and Marvel/Disney both own the rights to “the twins”, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. However Fox’s ownership is through the X-Men license, so Marvel cannot define them as “mutant,” or directly mention their father Magneto.
Much like the comic book origins for the trio, they will not begin as heroic. They begin as enemies of the Avengers, which is true to their comic book origins. Those who saw the mid-credits sequence in Captain America: The Winter Solider, saw the introduction of the twins, Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch. They were incarcerated in a Hydra cell under the watch and study of Baron Von Strucker. So it appears that they will be either be under some sort of brainwashing or mind control. In any case, they are harboring a huge grudge against the Avengers specifically. Director Joss Whedon and Taylor-Johnson had this to say:
“They’re on Team Ultron, which makes things really hard for the Avengers because all of sudden they’re dealing with powers that they’re not used to,,,With the [first] Avengers, everybody pretty much had the power of being able to punch somebody…And now we have a woman who can get inside your head and move objects, and a boy that can move faster than anything, and a robot [Ultron] who can self-replicate and is out of his mind. So all of sudden, it’s a darker, weirder, tougher world that they’re living in…I’m interested because there’s familial issues with that kind of resentment. You can sort of go deeper and I can play with their (the twins’) relationships and I can play with attitudes. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver hate them with a fiery hate…”
The Marvel cinematic universe is becoming more cosmic, magical and a lot more fantastical. When the the MCU began with Iron Man, the adventure was technologically based, which is easier to explain to mainstream audiences. However with Guardians of the Galaxy around the corner and Dr. Strange getting the greenlight, the Avengers themselves will face these more unexplainable phenomenon. Starting with a man with super-speed in Quicksilver. His twin sister wields the power of hypnosis, telekinesis and possibly magic. All signs are leading to this being a more fantastic adventure. It has yet to be uncovered exactly the nature of the twins’ obsessive hatred towards the Avengers, but as any reader of the comic knows… the superhero team will certainly have their hands full with only those two characters.
Regardless of the twins allegiance to Ultron, the villain of the movie, it is clear that they are loyal to each other first. They will be abandoned children who have been fending for themselves for some time. Taylor-Johnson explains:
“He’s like the father figure and she’s like the mother figure. Emotionally, she can stabilize him, and he protects her physically, vice-versa. So they have this beautiful connection and it’s kind of them against the world.”
They are each others family and support system. Together they embody the physical and mental nature that their own powers manifest. In the comics, the exact nature of Scarlet Witch’s powers has always been pliable. So they really have the liberty to take her abilities where ever the story dictates. Olsen explains the scope of her superpowers to EW:
“The reason she’s so special is because she has such a vast amount of knowledge that she’s unable to learn how to control it…No one taught her how to control it properly. So it gets the best of her. It’s not that she’s mentally insane, it’s just that she’s just overly stimulated. And she can connect to this world and parallel worlds at the same time, and parallel times.”
It really seems that they are staying true to the source material and keeping Scarlet Witch’s god-like power intact. In the comics she has been used to “reset” or turn back time. She has often been used as a cheat for writers to start over fresh, in stories such as House of M. If Olsen’s character reoccurs in the franchise, it will be interesting to see how they handle her abilities and how she will possibly affect the entire Marvel cinematic universe in the future.
Whedon and Marvel are staying extremely close to the source material. An uncanny ability of Marvel studios the past few years has been to respect the story lines, history, and origins of their characters (the Mandarin aside.) While yet, still keeping the audience off balance with surprising twists, that keep their viewers second guessing what’s next. There are a lot of moving parts in The Avengers: Age of Ultron and the twins are only two of them. However they look to be a dynamic addition to the universe.
Are you happy with the approach to Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch? Or do you think they will come off as too powerful and corny? Let us know in the comments!