So, you’re watching a Marvel movie and you’re confused. One minute, Pietro Maximoff is a broody guy with a thick Sokovian accent who doesn't survive his first outing. The next, he’s a quirky teenager in a silver jacket listening to "Time in a Bottle" while moving so fast the world literally stops.
Honestly, the question of who plays Pietro Maximoff is one of the messiest bits of Hollywood trivia. For a solid few years, two different actors were playing the exact same character in two different cinematic universes at the same time. It’s a legal headache that ended up giving us two very different, very iconic versions of the silver-haired speedster.
The Two Faces of the Silver Speedster
Basically, the role is split between Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Evan Peters.
If you’re a die-hard MCU fan, you know Aaron Taylor-Johnson from Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). He played the "official" Pietro of Earth-199999. He was intense, protective of his sister Wanda, and—spoiler alert—didn't see that coming when he sacrificed himself to save Hawkeye. His version was grounded in the trauma of war-torn Sokovia. He felt like a soldier.
Then there’s Evan Peters. He played "Peter" Maximoff in the Fox X-Men movies, starting with X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). He was the fun one. While Taylor-Johnson’s Pietro was a tragic hero, Peters’ version was a kleptomaniac teenager living in his mom’s basement who just happened to be the son of Magneto.
Why were there two?
It’s all about the lawyers. Back in the day, Marvel sold the film rights for "mutants" to 20th Century Fox. However, because Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were also longtime members of the Avengers, Marvel Studios (Disney) kept a shared stake in them.
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The deal was weird:
- Disney could use them but couldn't call them "mutants" or mention Magneto.
- Fox could use them but couldn't mention the Avengers.
This resulted in a race to see who could put the character on screen first. Fox won by a hair, debuting Evan Peters just weeks after Aaron Taylor-Johnson made a tiny, wordless cameo in the post-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson: The MCU’s Fallen Hero
Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s take on who plays Pietro Maximoff is often the one people feel most protective of because it ended so abruptly. He spent months training to get that "runner’s physique"—lean and wiry rather than bulky like Thor or Cap. He also worked extensively with Elizabeth Olsen (who plays Wanda) to develop a specific Sokovian accent. Fun fact: the two of them had actually just played husband and wife in the Godzilla reboot right before playing twins in the MCU. Talk about awkward.
Taylor-Johnson brought a certain "tough guy" energy to the role. He wasn't just fast; he was impatient. He saw the world as if it were moving in slow motion, which made him perpetually annoyed with everyone else.
Unfortunately, his time was short. Director Joss Whedon wanted stakes in Age of Ultron, and Pietro was the chosen sacrifice. For years, fans begged for a resurrection, especially as Wanda’s power grew. But aside from some archival footage and mentions in WandaVision, Taylor-Johnson hasn’t suited up again. He’s moved on to other massive roles, like the title character in Kraven the Hunter.
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Evan Peters: The Fan Favorite
If you ask a casual fan who plays Pietro Maximoff, they’re probably going to picture Evan Peters. His version was a total scene-stealer. The "Pentagon Kitchen" sequence in Days of Future Past changed how speedsters were portrayed on film. Instead of just being a blur, we saw the world from his perspective. Everything was frozen, and he was just casually moving bullets and tasting soup.
Peters played the character in:
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
- Dark Phoenix (2019)
- Deadpool 2 (2018) – A tiny, hilarious cameo.
He brought a levity that the X-Men movies desperately needed. He was charming, slightly obnoxious, and undeniably cool. Even when the movies around him got mixed reviews, Peters was always cited as a highlight.
The WandaVision Fake-Out
Things got really meta in 2021. In the middle of the Disney+ series WandaVision, a "Pietro" showed up at Wanda’s door. But it wasn't Aaron Taylor-Johnson. It was Evan Peters.
The internet absolutely lost its mind. People thought this was the moment the X-Men finally joined the MCU via the Multiverse. It was a brilliant bit of meta-casting. For a few episodes, we were led to believe he was the "recast" brother from another dimension.
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As it turns out, he was just a guy named Ralph Bohner, a local Westview resident under the control of the witch Agatha Harkness. Some fans were annoyed by the "Boner" joke, but you have to admit, using the other guy who plays Pietro Maximoff to mess with the audience's heads was a pro-level troll move by Marvel.
Will we ever see Pietro again?
It’s 2026, and the Multiverse is still the name of the game in the MCU. With Avengers: Doomsday on the horizon and the X-Men officially coming home to Disney, the door isn't exactly closed.
Evan Peters has gone on record recently saying he’d "absolutely love" to return. He specifically mentioned wanting to finally explore the father-son relationship with Magneto, something the Fox movies teased but never really sat down and dealt with. Meanwhile, Aaron Taylor-Johnson seems pretty busy with his own franchise over at Sony, but in the world of comic book movies, "dead" is rarely permanent.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the history of the character, here is what you should do next:
- Watch the Pentagon scene: If you haven't seen it in a while, go find the kitchen sequence from X-Men: Days of Future Past. It’s still the gold standard for speedster VFX.
- Compare the Accents: Watch the opening of Age of Ultron and then jump to WandaVision Episode 5. The way the show pokes fun at the "recasting" is much funnier once you realize how much work Taylor-Johnson put into his Sokovian dialect.
- Check out Kraven: If you want to see what the MCU's original Pietro is up to now, Aaron Taylor-Johnson's turn as Kraven the Hunter shows off a much more brutal side of his acting range.
Whether you prefer the broody Sokovian or the silver-jacketed prankster, both actors left a massive mark on the character. It’s a rare case where a "recast" didn't actually replace the original—it just gave us more to love.