Vision still has a future in the MCU after Avengers: Endgame - but how? Back in 1968, Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee and writer Roy Thomas wanted to add a new member to the Avengers. Thomas wanted to bring back a classic character from Timely Comics, a superhero called the Vision; Lee disagreed, wanting an android member instead. In the end, the two reached a compromise, and Thomas created a brand new superhero called Vision, described as a "synthezoid."
Vision has been a core member of the Avengers ever since, with writers enjoying exploring the synthezoid's quest to become truly human. In 1980, Thomas added Scarlet Witch to the Avengers line-up as well, and he developed a budding - if unlikely - romance between the two. This was driven by practical needs as much as story purposes, with Thomas wanting to write in a touch of romance and feeling they were the only characters who he could safely develop in this way; all the other Avengers members had their own books, with their own writers wanting to be in charge of important character arcs of that kind. The relationship between Vision and Scarlet Witch has become the cornerstone of their characters ever since, and has been faithfully reproduced in the MCU.
In the MCU, Vision is played by Paul Bettany, and he was introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He's a strange amalgamation of Ultron tech, the Mind Stone, and even Tony Stark's old AI JARVIS. Vision won the Avengers' trust when he proved worthy to wield Mjolnir, and over the years the films have focused on his quest for self-discovery. By Captain America: Civil War, there were hints that he and Scarlet Witch were coming to care for one another; those blossomed into true love by Avengers: Infinity War. And then, tragically, Thanos came to Earth, and Vision was killed so the Mad Titan could acquire the Mind Stone. Since he wasn't brough back by Hulk's snap like many of the other Avengers: Infinity War deaths, how can Vision still have a future in the MCU?
Vision Is Still Dead At The End Of Avengers: Endgame
A handful of Thanos' victims are still dead at the end of Avengers: Endgame - and Vision is one of them. Vision wasn't killed as part of the snap; his death came immediately before it, with Thanos brutally tearing the Mind Stone from his head and crushing his positronic brain. The Hulk successfully reversed the snap, bringing back half the life in the universe, but Vision didn't number among the resurrected. Avengers: Endgame stressed this fact when they had Scarlet Witch confront Thanos, telling him that he took everything from her; ironically, of course, she was facing 2014 Thanos from the time of Guardians of the Galaxy, who had no idea who Scarlet Witch was or what she was talking about. All this means that, in the MCU, Vision has been dead for five years - definitively dead, his body perhaps stored or buried in Wakanda, or perhaps at the Avengers Compound.
Vision Is Getting A Disney + Series With Scarlet Witch
But Vision definitely has a future in the MCU after Avengers: Endgame. Paul Bettany is reprising the role alongside Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, in a Disney + TV series that bears the unlikely title of WandaVision. These Disney + shows are confirmed to be canon, and in fact Avengers: Endgame goes to great lengths to set up some of them, most notably with Steve Rogers passing on the shield to Sam Wilson for a series starring Sam and Bucky.
Details about the various Disney + TV series are as sparse as anything else post-Endgame, but according to Olsen WandaVision will be about six hours long (or eight forty-five minute episodes) overall, and is due to start filming in fall. There have been recurring rumors that WandaVision will draw from Tom King's award-winning Vision run in the comics. This explored the question of Vision's humanity, with the synthezoid's emotional circuits malfunctioning to the extent he chose to have them turned off. Vision then decided it was the right time to settle down and start a family, and he constructed a new synthezoid "wife" and "children." One of those children, Viv Vision, is still around and serves as a member of the young legacy super-team called the Champions; given Marvel seem to be setting up various Young Avengers characters for the future, it wouldn't be a surprise to see WandaVision add Viv into the mix.
How Can Vision Return In Phase 4
All this means that Vision may still be dead at the end of Avengers: Endgame, but he's sure to return, and appropriately enough Avengers: Infinity War prepared the way for that. The film carefully stressed that Vision could survive without the Mind Stone, which was why the Avengers attempted to remove it before Thanos arrived. What's more, attentive comic book readers will have noted that Vision's death scene actually hinted at a future resurrection; the key fact was that his body turned white when the Mind Stone was torn from his forehead. This is lifted straight from John Byrne's Avengers West Coast run, where one arc saw Vision destroyed and put back together by Hank Pym. In the comics, Vision's computer matrix is just as complex as in the movies, albeit with different constituent parts; his brain patterns were based on those of another superhero, Wonder Man, who was never entirely comfortable with the fact the Vision was essentially his copy. Although Hank Pym was able to rebuild Vision, Wonder Man was unwilling to donate his mental patterns, in part because he realized it would reveal his own hidden love for Wanda. The result was a new version of Vision, one largely bereft of any real humanity at all; as the comics put it, it was as though Vision's very soul had been ripped out of him. Visually, Marvel signified this dramatic change in Vision's character by turning him ghost-white.
So it isn't a matter of whether Vision will return, but how. It's reasonable to assume that the MCU's version of Vision will be rebuilt by one of the snap victims, explaining why nobody had done it until after the snap was reversed. The number one possibility is Shuri. The Avengers: Infinity War Prelude comic confirmed that she's one of Wakanda's foremost experts in artificial intelligence, and in Avengers: Infinity War she created a map of Vision's positronic brain - and even had suggestions for how it could have been improved. Given Vision's body was last seen in Wakanda, it could well be that Shuri will choose to rebuild the synthezoid.
Another interesting possibility, though, is Scarlet Witch herself. Like Vision, Scarlet Witch's power is tied somehow to the Mind Stone, operating on a similar enough frequency to be able to destroy it. Given the Mind Stone was a part of Vision's personality matrix, it's quite possible that her powers could be the key to restoring him. Interestingly, Tom King's Vision run began with a short anthology story in which Vision and Scarlet Witch met up, and Vision asked Wanda to use her powers to help him restore some of his damaged functions. If WandaVision is indeed drawing from the King run, this would most certainly be a comic-book-accurate approach, and notice the similarities between this and Byrne's already-hinted-at Avengers West Coast series. One thing seems certain; Vision's experience of death will transform him into a very different character.
