The MCU Failed Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver

The Big Picture

• Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver was underutilized in the MCU, missing the chance to fully explore this iconic character.
• Quicksilver’s brief appearance was a catalyst for Wanda’s journey, highlighting the theme of grief in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• The missed opportunity to bring back Quicksilver in
  Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
  leaves fans wanting more from this character.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the form of Quicksilver. Then, he promptly left. If you don’t count the brief end-credits tag after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it was a one-and-done stint for one of Marvel’s most famous players, and what a shame that is. In Marvel Comics, Pietro Maximoff (aka Quicksilver) is a regular member of the Avengers and a staple of Marvel’s pantheon of heroes. He’s the twin brother of Wanda Maximoff (played by Elizabeth Olsen), better known as The Scarlet Witch, and they’re both most often depicted as Mutants, the son and daughter of Magneto. He wields superhuman speed and stamina, the ability to rapidly heal, and, using his speed, manipulate the forces of nature and time itself.

In the MCU, we only saw his speed, and much like Quicksilver, if you blinked, you would have missed his contribution to the MCU. It’s not that a character has to last through multiple sequels or build to a solo venture to receive due justice. The list of short-lived, yet highly impactful, appearances is vast. You can’t do that to Quicksilver, though, at least not like this. He deserved to be more than a catalyst for another character’s journey. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is now taking on Kraven the Hunter in Sony’s universe, was more than equipped to have fleshed out Marvel’s most iconic speedster. Rumors are circulating, hinting at Taylor-Johnson as the next James Bond, and his latest film, The Fall Guy, is already garnering positive reception. Every day, it becomes more difficult to evade mourning the loss of Taylor-Johnson’s potential as a mainstay of the MCU.

To Marvel’s credit, the dropping of the Quicksilver ball serviced an excellently executed arc for Wanda, a character who is centered on grief. The Mutant twins were born in Sokovia, a fictional country bordering the Czech Republic. In their early childhood, their parents were killed in a bombing barrage that utilized projectiles created by Stark Industries, sparking their animosity towards the Avengers that we see in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The twins eventually join HYDRA, submitting to Baron Strucker’s (Thomas Kretschmann) experimentation using Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) Scepter (containing the Mind Stone), unleashing their dormant powers within. Wanda, whom we later learn has always held the means to wield Chaos Magic, continues to discover the true extent of her power as the grief piles higher.

After the death of their parents and the trauma of HYDRA’s experimentation at the hands of Strucker, the twins work with Ultron (James Spader), blinded by their hatred for Stark. When they learned of Ultron’s actual intentions to wipe out humankind, they join forces with the Avengers to defeat him. Sokovia was essentially decimated in the process, only adding to their list of losses. Toward the end of the battle, Pietro was killed in an act of self-sacrificial heroism, thus continuing the journey of grief for Wanda.

Beyond enriching Wanda’s story, however, Quicksilver’s underutilization feels a bit like a cop-out. Frankly, these movies just don’t know what to do with speedsters. They’re either so overpowered that they have to exit the story quickly (if not largely ignored) or their powers are neglected until it’s convenient. In Fox’s X-Men universe, Evan Peters portrays a slightly more canonic version of Quicksilver, lending himself to some of that franchise’s best moments, but in a limited capacity. In X-Men: Days of Future Past, he’s written out before he can render the remainder of the plot moot, in X-Men: Apocalypse his powers are significantly scaled back, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix injures him into uselessness. Eternals features Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, inching toward one of the best speedster depictions we’ve seen on screen, but we’ll have to stay tuned to see how that pans out.

Evan Peters’ Quicksilver Shouldn’t Have Been in ‘WandaVision’

To be fair, the cliffhanger revealing Evan Peters at the end of WandaVision‘s Episode 5 was a delight. Its out-of-place nature fits snugly into the show’s tone, and the week-to-week speculation between episodes was a major highlight of 2021. Social media lit ablaze with fan theories and Easter egg hunts, attempting to solve the mysteries of Matt Shakman‘s genre-bending series. When Evan Peters’ Quicksilver showed up at Wanda’s door, arriving straight from the Fox X-Men franchise, we needed to know: are they about to openly acknowledge the X-Men? Is this really even Wanda’s brother? If so, how is he alive again? As Kat Dennings‘ Darcy Lewis asked, did Wanda (and the MCU) re-cast Pietro? Is that Mephisto?

Through the power of her reality-warping hex, born by accident from her overwhelming grief, Wanda was able to conjure a convincing recreation of Vision (Paul Bettany), her recently deceased love. In the escapades that follow, all of Wanda’s desires began to materialize. Anything that could serve the idyllic facade of a perfect life found its way into Westview: a pleasant town, friendly neighbors, no memory of the past, Vision, and two lovely children. Eventually, Wanda and her chaos magic bring her brother back. Or so we think.

It all turns out to be a ruse by Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), culminating in a joke about his name actually being Ralph Bohner. It’s not the Quicksilver from the X-Men, and it’s not Wanda’s brother. It’s…some guy! There was a chance at redemption. The narrative veered toward a path that could have fittingly brought Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver back, but the moment was squandered.

‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Was a Missed Opportunity

Perhaps the most egregious slight of all, the MCU had not one, but two, glaringly blatant chances to repair the misuse of Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver. They didn’t bring him into the fold with WandaVision. Okay, fine. Immediately following the series, however, Wanda finds herself once again in the throes of altered reality with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Directed by Sam Raimi, the film followed Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) barreling through parallel universes to evade The Scarlet Witch who had been influenced into villainy by the treacherous Darkhold. The film left us wondering many things, including if Wanda really died in the multiverse of madness.

Throughout the film, we encounter multiple alternate versions of characters from the MCU, the Fox Marvel movies, and beyond. Wanda is on a mission to reach a universe in which her children are real, and her misguided intent aims to eliminate the Wanda of that reality, replacing her as the mother of those kids. Oddly, Vision isn’t a part of the picture, nor is her brother, Pietro. With the limitless potential of the infinite multiverse, Wanda could have chosen to pursue a world in which her children were real, Vision and Pietro were alive, and the mishaps of the MCU’s past could be rewritten. As with WandaVision, the opportunity went overlooked. The Disney+ series shows how we’re going to get Mutants into the MCU. Maybe, as the Mutants work their way into the upcoming phases, the silver-haired speedster will somehow see another day, but the MCU failed Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver.

Following Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the MCU has been leaning much more heavily into its upcoming Mutant-centric opportunities. By now, you know that The Marvels used its end-credits teaser to feature the return of Kelsey Grammer‘s Beast, albeit likely a different Multiversal version of his character from X-Men: The Last Stand. Moreover, Ms. Marvel and Deadpool & Wolverine have been laying a clear path for Mutants to enter the MCU, with the latter taking the timeline-crossing course of the TVA to merge the separate universes.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson Is on a Hot Streak

From immediately following Avengers: Age of Ultron with Tom Ford‘s Nocturnal Animals, a role which should have secured him an Oscar nomination, to now having his name floated as the potential next James Bond, Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been killing it post-MCU. Sony’s Marvel universe of Spider-Man characters is about to see Taylor-Johnson as the iconic Kraven the Hunter. Christopher Nolan‘s undeniably confusing, yet arguably underrated, Tenet featured Taylor-Johnson at his usual best, and his turns in The King’s Man, Bullet Train, and The Fall Guy prove that he belongs in the upper-echelon of Hollywood’s latest action ventures. All we can hope for, ultimately, is for the MCU to work the original live-action Quicksilver into the fold — and considering how willingly they’ve overlapped timelines throughout their Multiverse saga, we can only hope Aaron Taylor-Johnson is next on the list.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is available to watch on Disney+ in the U.S.

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