We Finally Know How Vision Is Alive in 'WandaVision'
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The following story contains spoilers through WandaVision episode 8.
Disney+'s new Marvel Studios limited series, WandaVision, is part superhero drama, but initially plays on tropes and styles of a number of classic American sitcoms.
WandaVision focuses on two Marvel heroes of the last half decade: Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, and Vision.
Marvel fans may be wondering: Wait a minute. Didn't Vision die?
Update, 2/26: Episode 8 of WandaVision made it 100% what happened to Vision after the events of Avengers: Infinity War, and how he's still alive at the beginning of WandaVision.
While SWORD Acting Director Tyler Hayward previously suggested that Wanda Maximoff broke into SWORD headquarters to steal and eventually reanimated Vision's deceased body, Episode 8 proved this to be a lie.
What really happened is that Wanda, dealing with her grief following the death of both Vision and Tony Stark, went to attempt to retrieve Vision's body in order to give him a funeral. She went to Hayward's office, who wouldn't allow her to take his body; she went up to his corpse, being torn apart and attempted to used as a weapon, and suggested that she felt none of the usual warmth that she previously felt. She left with only herself—Hayward's story was a lie.
However, when Wanda got to Westview, NJ, she drove through the small town and was able to picture a life for her and Vision in the small town. When she got to the site of a house Vision envisioned the two of them growing old in (she had a note) her combination of rage and trauma let a wicked wave of her red chaos magic flow out.
As her magic built a house around her and transformed the entire town into one modeled after the sitcoms she grew up loving, she was also able to entirely create a new, living Vision. This is why Vision remembered nothing from before Westview: Wanda literally created him from nothing, using chaos magic. We should have known that Wanda was able to create Vision just how she created Tommy and Billy, but it never came over us.
The episode's post-credits scene also revealed the fate of real Vision's body, and it's not good: Hayward used some of Wanda's magic from the retro drone that SWORD sent in, and has completely revived Vision's body. Except now he's got a white tint, and will probably be used as an evil weapon. Dark stuff.
This is what the show has revealed so far through episode 8; the original story, including theories on how Vision survived Infinity War appears below.
You're sitting down to watch WandaVision. You haven't watched the MCU from start to finish in a while because, let's be real—who has time to watch 23 movies? But you're sitting down and trying to remember where things left off. WandaVision...Wanda is the witch, right? And Vision is the robot? That's correct. Yup. But then you start thinking a little more—Vision...died? Didn't he? Yes—you're remembering correctly. Vision died. And how he returns to WandaVision is anyone's guess—but it happened.
But when WandaVision picks up, things aren't just normal—they're positively dandy! Vision is alive and well! Wanda is living her best life! The pair are galavanting through sitcoms and getting into all sort of wacky hijinx along the way, complete with a nosy neighbor, new friends, and some classic comic pratfalls. The first episode is done in the style of The Dick Van Dyke Show, and the second is Bewitched. Both feature Wanda and Vision in classic roles—but with just enough of a hint that something isn't quite right. We're not looking at reality, and both of our heroes seem to be just on the cusp of figuring that out.
But before they figure that all out, you probably want to figure out how we got here.
It's starting to become clear how Vision is back in WandaVision.
By the time we reach Episode 5 of WandaVision, we're starting to really get an idea of what's happening—and how the hell Vision is alive in Westview.
Security footage of 9 days prior to the show's events depicts Wanda storming the SWORD headquarters, where it's said that she stole Vision's corpse. Episode 4, accordingly, showed a petrified Wanda talking to Vision, only to see dead Vision—Mind Stone plucked out of his head by Thanos—talking to her, rather than the lively, funny Paul Bettany Vision shown in the rest of the series.
It really does seem like Wanda has stolen Vision's body, and reanimated him; she didn't accept his death at Thanos' hands, and wants to have her life the way she wants it. We'll see how this plays out—we could still be somewhat off—but things are definitely trending this way.
And, oh yeah—Vision is still a sentient being in his own right. If he doesn't want to be alive in this way, he isn't going to be. Vision becoming aware of what's really happening is going to be one of the climax points of WandaVision.
You're not misremembering—Vision definitiely died in Avengers: Infinity War.
If you're wondering how Vision wound up alive and embarking upon wacky superhero sitcom hijinx in WandaVision—one example: a stick of gum jams his android gears in Episode 2, leading him to be appear drunk during a magic act—you're perfectly within your right. Not only did Vision die in Avengers: Infinity War, but he died twice.
In fact, the majority of the movie surrounded Vision and whether he would live or die. As Thanos—the overarching villain of the MCU's first 22 films—sought the infinity stones, and needed to own all five in order to complete his goal of destroying half of life on earth, a stone was implanted in Vision's head. The stone was one of Tony Stark's key ingredients in creating Vision in the first place.
But as Thanos' plan became clear, Vision suggested to Scarlet Witch—whom he had become romantically involved with—that she kill him in order to destroy the stone in his head. She refused, and Captain America suggested they try to get the stone removed and destroyed in Wakanda. This failed; eventually, the only option to stop Thanos was for Scarlet Witch to kill Vision and destroy the stone. Regretfully, she followed through and did this for the good of the world.
But Thanos still had other plans. He used the Time Stone to turn the clock back, and plucked the stone out of a once-again-alive Vision's head, killing him for a second time. Thanos snapped half of the world out of existence, Scarlet Witch one of the many heroes erased. Vision's body, lacking the mind stone, laid to the side, dead and discolored.
A couple quick theories as to how he's alive in WandaVision:
While we are starting to think we know how Vision is alive again in the show, we could still be ever-so-slightly off (or off in a major way, who's to say). Clearly, something is happening. Vision wasn't just going to be suddenly back alive with no explanation (and Darcy's episode 4 revelation that Vision, is, indeed, dead, confirmed this). The show, eventually, is going to tell us exactly what's going on—as good as WandaVision is, this isn't content made to be hard to comprehend. It's the MCU, not Twin Peaks. Eventually, we will have answers. But in the meantime, here are a few more ideas for what could've happened. The following theories, of course, contain some minor spoilers from the first couple WandaVision episodes.
1) Everything in WandaVision is in Scarlet Witch's head
Scarlet Witch/Wanda has proven to be one of the most powerful Avengers of all, and there's really no limit to what she can do with her telekinetic abilities. Could that include creating a reality where she and her long lost love go through sitcom world as a way for her to deal with trauma? Why not!
The WandaVision episodes so far have features a commercial in each—the first, for a Stark Industries toaster, which of course Wanda has a connection to through Tony. The second had a commercial for a watch by Strucker, which was the name of the Hydra official who was holding Wanda and her brother, Pietro, prisoner when they first showed up in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. These are clear signs that these shows we're seeing is something going on in Wanda's head.
There's also the fact that there are little hiccups in the WandaVision world that keep sneaking through. Obviously, seeing the beekeeper and rewinding is a big one. But there's the "who's doing this to you, Wanda?" soundbite, and theres also the weird glitch that seemed to be happening with Visi0n's boss choking. Something isn't right, and it seems like Wanda is the one who's got the most power here.
2) Someone fixed Vision. He's a robot, after all.
So this one isn't the most likely. But in an interview with Men's Health, Bettany dropped a fairly subtle—and fairly obvious—hint about Vision. When asked whether he ever thought Vision would be returning after Infinity War, he gave an interesting answer.
At that time, no. I think there’s always..he is an android, after all. There’s always ways to revive an android. But at that time, no.
Now, that most likely was an off-the-cuff, light-hearted answer. But you never know! We're going to leave our options on the table at this point.
Stream WandaVision Now on Disney+
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