It’s easy to film a death scene if you know that your character is going to be coming back. Especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where characters we’ve seen lay down their lives on screen find a way to return, including Paul Bettany’s Vision, currently the star of the Disney+ series WandaVision. Bettany, however, didn’t know that he was going to get a chance to come back for a television series when he had to film that brutal death scene at the hands of the Mad Titan, Thanos (Josh Brolin), in Avengers: Infinity War. He mistakenly believed that Marvel would bring him back in Avengers: Endgame, until Kevin Feige laid out his grand plan. Listen to the story in our exclusive clip above.
Even before Paul Bettany expressed a hope that Marvel Studios somehow would figure out how to “reanimate” him, he tells a very funny story about his contract being up, and him thinking that he was going to get fired. You can’t fire Paul Bettany. He literally is one of the longest-tenured actors in the MCU at the moment, having started way back in 2008 as the voice of Tony Stark’s JARVIS in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man.
I, too, assumed that Vision would get a chance to fight alongside all of the other Avengers in the final battle staged against Thanos in Joe and Anthony Russo’s Avengers: Endgame. There was a moment back in Infinity War when Shuri (Letitia Wright) was racing to remove the Mind Stone from Vision’s forehead, and I assumed that key information regarding the android had been stored in Wakanda’s databases, allowing the Avengers to somehow resurrect their teammate.
Alas, that was not “on the cards,” as Paul Bettany explained, and then he went on to say that as he learned, it is just smart to trust in the guiding hand of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. Bettany said:
Kevin’s right. Kevin is right. Kevin is nearly always right. And he said, ‘You know, it’s going to be more powerful if we hold this back.’ And he was right.
As I joke in the clip above, “Kevin is right” is an excellent tattoo to get if you are a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or even just a fan. Feige has succeeded in shepherding the MCU through 23 films that made up The Infinity Saga, and is transitioning the world into an exciting new Phase that begins with Marvel’s first foray into sitcom television. There’s no telling what else Marvel Studios could try under Feige’s leadership, and there are 11 movies and 12 TV shows on the docket including WandaVision, so MCU fans will be stocked with content.
Do we find it strange that none of us are questioning how and why Vision is just “back” at the start of WandaVision? That should be weird, right? Unless this story somehow takes place before the events of Avengers: Infinity War? The hardest part about WandaVision is going to be waiting week to week to see the juicy mystery play out, but we are off to a great start.
