Paul Bettany on Vision’s MCU Future

This article contains spoilers for WandaVision

Paul Bettany has outlasted Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr’s tenure in the MCU, and as unlikely as it seemed before Marvel’s Vision and Scarlet Witch spinoff WandaVision started streaming, it looks like he’s here to stay.

The cast and crew of WandaVision were on hand last week to answer questions about the series’ highly anticipated finale. When Bettany was asked if he’d be up for playing Vision forever, he answered with an enthusiastic “I love Vision. Yes, I’m in.”

Having already played the voice of Tony’s Stark’s AI JARVIS, newborn synthezoid Vision, and a cherished memory of Wanda Maximoff’s deceased loved one, Bettany has a fresh role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward – that of White Vision, a being rebuilt from Vision’s old body. Minus the Mind Stone but with added Chaos Magic and tragic memories bestowed upon him from Wanda’s Westview creation, this version of Vision must now figure out where exactly he fits into the world.

But what will White Vision’s story entail?

“Well, fuck. How do I do this without spoilers?” Bettany pondered with Esquire. “I guess we’ve seen what happens to Wanda when love is taken away from her. And I wonder what that would look like with Vision.”

The Avengers: Infinity War actor added “I mean, that’s the thing, right? I’ve never had a loved one to lose… I don’t know what grief is because I’ve never had a loved one to lose. There is so much to get into with him because it’s been ten minutes here, ten minutes there, in the movies. Now we’re sort of just starting to sort of peel back some stuff.”

It turns out that playing two different Visions ended up being more complicated than Bettany first imagined, so he’ll no doubt be pleased to focus his attention on one copy of himself in the future.

“I was super intimidated by myself,” Bettany joked of the show’s double vision (sorry) scenario. “I would come in one day and I would be Vision or The Vision. Then Adam [Lytle], my stunt guy, would play Vision. And he learned all of the dialogue and for both parts — he was brilliant. We would play the scene like that. And then the next day, he would come in. And he would get The Vision. Then I would get Vision. And then we would play the scene like that and the same to the fights so that they could always have my bella faccia on camera, at some point. It was more confusing than I had sort of allotted. It used up all of my brain.”

Bettany also had to go on a bit of a tongue-in-cheek apology tour ahead of the WandaVision finale after accidentally setting fans up for a major cameo that never actually transpired, which he still maintains was “very funny.” Indeed, whomst amongst us has not accidentally started an internet-breaking rumor when casually referring to ourselves?

“I was like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s going to be this cameo from this actor that I can’t wait to work with. I’ve admired him for years!'” Bettany recalled. “And then people started coming up with their own ideas… Then I was like, “Oh my God, people are going to find out that I’ve teased Paul Bettany and he’s already in it. I wish it was Patrick Stewart now.’”

It’s not clear when we might see Bettany’s new White Vision persona pop up again in the MCU, but he’s certainly out there somewhere.