Elizabeth Olsen has recommended that actors joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe consider signing a contract just to start one project.
The star, who plays Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, told Josh Horowitz on a podcast: Happy Sad Confused that some people have reached out to her for advice about signing with Marvel and that she encourages those people to avoid agreeing to multi-year deals from the start.
“Just give them one movie,” she said. Before you continue: “I think that this way you have more control… If you feel that you will enjoy the role and that you liked the character so much that you want to embody him again or not, then now you will have more creative control in the next project.”
She then jokingly added, “Don’t tell (David) Galluzzi that. (He’s) in charge of business affairs at Marvel.”
Marvel has been accustomed to offering stars deals for multiple projects since the very beginning. But the studio adopted a new strategy of recruiting and retaining actors two years ago when Kevin Feige expressed his desire for actors to return to the MCU only if they were enthusiastic about it.
“It’s going to differ from project to project, and from actor to actor,” explained Feige in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter At the time, he added: “What we really want is for the people who join us to feel excited about being in the universe, excited about the opportunity to do more things, rather than being prisoners of contract obligations.”
Iron Man was the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Robert Downey Jr. played an important role in the success of the series’ expansion. Feige and Joe Favreau recently talked about casting the iconic star for the role and how it attracted more big names starting to join the universe.
Favreau later also directed Iron Man 2 before handing over the solo adventures of Iron Man to Shane Black. The Iron Man movies are available along with most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to stream on Disney+, including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which joined the library on May 17.
