
Warning: Spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness below.
I would like to pull a “Jon Favreau tells Gwyneth Paltrow she was in Spider-Man: Homecoming” by informing Elizabeth Olsen she was just in a movie with John Krasinski.
In a Vanity Fair interview on Friday, Olsen was asked a series of questions as part of a lie detector test, the most noteworthy having to do with one of her co-stars in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. After being shown a photo of John Krasinski, the actress was asked, “Do you think this man is the smartest man alive?” It was, of course, a reference to the fact that Krasinski played Reed Richards in Multiverse of Madness and was introduced that way. Olsen shares a key scene with Krasinski in the film, in which she ends up brutally murdering his character.
Olsen literally laughed out loud at the idea of Krasinski being the smartest man alive. But what I’m most fascinated about was what came next.
“No,” she said. “I don’t know him, though.”
“You don’t know him at all?” the interviewer asked.
“I don’t think so,” she responded. “No, I’ve never met him.”
Clearly, the fact that Olsen and Krasinski have not met indicates they filmed their scene completely separately. Early leaks for the film suggest Krasinski was seemingly a somewhat late addition, so he likely was never on set with her or maybe anyone else. We also know that Olsen chose not to watch Multiverse of Madness at its premiere and had not seen it as of her interview on The Tonight Show on May 4. “I didn’t watch it,” she said. “I haven’t seen it.”
This leads me to my theory: not only did Elizabeth Olsen never meet John Krasinski, but she’s not even aware he’s in Multiverse of Madness at all.
Looking at the Vanity Fair interview, Olsen seems completely confused when questioned about the fact that she hasn’t met Krasinski. When the interviewer sounds surprised that she doesn’t know him, she responds, “I don’t think so,” as if to say, “Wait, should I? Why would anyone associated me with John Krasinski? I don’t understand.”
Even when told she was in a movie with Krasinski, she still seems kind of bewildered and just repeats that she’s never met him. This would have been the perfect time for Olsen to chime in with something like, “Ah well, yes, we were both in Doctor Strange, but we actually filmed our scenes separately, so I never had a chance to meet him.” But she doesn’t. She never connects this with Doctor Strange whatsoever.
I’d venture a guess that Olsen filmed her scene with Krasinski on a green screen knowing she was killing a character but perhaps with no idea of who it was, or at the very least no idea that Krasinski would be playing him. Maybe that’s because Marvel was being quite secretive about the whole thing, or maybe it’s because she was originally killing someone else before Krasinski was swapped in via reshoots. Either way, I’m not convinced she has any idea about Krasinski’s surprise cameo.
What’s especially funny to me about this is that although the interviewer tells Olsen that she was “in the same movie” with Krasinski, she never mentions what it was — meaning there’s a non-zero chance Olsen still isn’t aware to this very moment. Please, for the sake of comedy, nobody tell her. And if Krasinski truly doesn’t return as Reed Richards in the main MCU timeline, perhaps she’ll never know.