Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were firm about not reprising Michelle in Fuller House, so why didn’t Netflix just hire Elizabeth Olsen for the role?
With Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen refusing to reprise their role as Michelle in Fuller House, it’s curious why Elizabeth Olsen wasn’t properly asked to play the part instead. In 2016, the Full House sequel series debuted on Netflix featuring all main characters from the original show except the youngest Tanner sister. Instead of letting the mystery of her absence loom over the show, Fuller House immediately provided an answer — Michelle was now based in New York running her fashion empire (like the Olsens’ real-life job) and was unfortunately unable to come home to join her family.
It’s an odd explanation considering that the reason why the Tanners gathered back in San Francisco for Fuller House was to provide support to DJ who had just lost her husband and the franchise is known for putting family first. But, it was generally accepted as it was better than nothing, and it kept the door open for a potential appearance. Behind-the-scenes, however, there was very slim to no chance that Ashley and Mary-Kate were reprising the role having retired from acting for years. There were rumors that the producers reached out to their sister Elizabeth for the part, but the actress’ camp denied that there was ever any offer about the job.
Considering that the younger Olsen was and still is an active actress, it’s a wonder why Fuller House just didn’t put a formal offer to ask her to appear in the show. The actress has always been great in everything she did and given her physical resemblance to the twins, she could pass up as Michelle. Apparently, there were actual internal discussions about casting Elizabeth, but according to show creator Jeff Franklin in an interview with Business Insider, that’s all they were. They were never open to recasting the role of Michelle even if that’s with Mary-Kate and Ashley’s sister. “It was just an idea that was out there in the wind. We were never going to recast the role,” he revealed. This comment came on the heels of Fuller House season 1, and the producer maintained this stance all throughout. Instead, they continued to try their luck attempting to convince the twins to return, but obviously, that didn’t go anywhere.
Around this time, Elizabeth had just debuted as Wanda Maximoff in the MCU through Avengers: Age of Ultron. During filming for Fuller House’s debut year, she was busy working on Captain America: Civil War, which also came out in 2016. Even without the potential scheduling conflict, the spin-off sitcom was never for the idea of bringing her in for the role which admittedly was a bit of an odd stance considering the clamor for Michelle in the show. Granted that asking Elizabeth doesn’t guarantee that she’s accepting the offer to reprise her sisters’ break-out role for Netflix, it’s still worth a shot. Doing so would’ve indicated that Franklin and his team were willing to do anything to feature the fan-favorite Michelle in Fuller House.
Time and again, Elizabeth has proven that she’s a talented actress, but seeing her in a sitcom setting in WandaVision emphasized how big of a missed opportunity that they didn’t attempt getting her for Fuller House. Michelle didn’t need to be in the show full-time like DJ, Stephanie, and Kimmy, but some sort of cameo would’ve made it so much better. This was especially important in the finale where both her sisters got married and she didn’t even seem to have anything to do with their big day.
