Death is only semi-permanent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the franchise coming under constant fire for using so many fake-outs, often having a character meet their demise before revealing they’re actually alive and well in the space of the same movie. Loki has been killed so many times that it’s become a running gag at this point, and yet he’s still alive, well and set to return for a second season of his own TV show.
However, he’s got nothing on Paul Bettany’s Vision, after the latest episode of Marvel’s What If…? shuffled the Synthezoid off his mortal coil for the third time this year, and we’re only in the second week of September. Having initially been murdered by Thanos twice at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, the former artificial intelligence returned as the physical manifestation of his love’s grief in WandaVision.
When Wanda decided to leave WestView behind, she tearfully bode farewell to Vision for a second time in the space of a couple of weeks, having earlier resurrected him after he broke through to contact SWORD, and audiences cried right along with her. Today’s installment of What If…? saw him get caught up in the MCU’s zombie apocalypse, and you can guess how that turned out in the end.
Bettany recently admitted that he’s got ideas for how and where White Vision could return in the future, and having been bumped off no less than five times, let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.