Though many heroes returned to life at the end of Avengers: Endgame, those that were killed by other means than the Snap weren’t brougt back. Vision was among them, as Thanos had murdered the heroic android in order to get the Mind Stone in the first place. That said, we know Paul Bettany will be reprising his role in Disney Plus’ upcoming WandaVision TV series. But how will Scarlet Witch’s lover be resurrected?
Well, ScreenRant has put forward an intriguing theory, arguing that the key to his revival is a forgotten easter egg from way back in Captain America: The First Avenger. First of all, as Vision is an artificial intelligence, it’s totally possible that his mind survived and it will be downloaded into another android body. Presumably S.W.O.R.D. will be the ones behind this, as the organization is set to be introduced in the show.
But where could another advanced robotic body be found? Well, in The First Avenger, the original Golden Age Human Torch was featured on display at the Stark Expo in 1941. No, not Johnny Storm – the first Human Torch was a contemporary of Captain America’s, a robot hero named Jim Hammond. It’s unclear if he was actually sentient in the MCU, but he clearly exists.
And it just so happens that, in the comics, the initial explanation for Vision’s origins was that he was housed in an updated version of the Human Torch’s form. This origin was obviously ignored for his MCU entrance in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but it seems the door is open for them to revisit this concept, with a twist, in WV. It’s possible S.W.O.R.D. has inherited the Torch following Tony Stark’s death and has got to work on it to make it a match for Vision’s first body.
This would be a really neat tie-in to both the comics and the wider MCU, but it’s difficult to say whether Marvel would reference such a minor moment in a movie that’s a decade old in WandaVision.