Before You Jump Into WandaVision This Week, Here’s a Complete Rundown of The Couple’s History Throughout The MCU
With WandaVision’s premiere on the horizon, I wanted to take a moment to look back at the long history of Wanda Maximoff and The Vision in the MCU. Despite both characters making their live-action debut in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron which in hindsight really isn’t that long ago. Both characters have served critical roles in the MCU’s biggest events. And have a long history with some of the biggest McGuffins of the MCU thus providing them with a deep sense of history, lore, and character development throughout the years.
Whether it was fighting off Ultron and his robotic army or nearly bringing Thanos to his knees, Wanda Maximoff has been through a lot and those traumatic events she’s endured by her, alongside her now-deceased brother, her fellow Avengers members, and Vision. WandaVision is looking to bring all of those traumatic experiences to a head and unravel all that has been cooped up inside Wanda’s head as she’s had to learn how to cope and overcome her losses rather quickly. And as with anything else in the world, once it’s been too much, things tend to explode.
Wanda and Vision’s Live-Action Debut – Avengers: Age of Ultron:
As mentioned above, Wanda Maximoff and her twin brother Pietro Maximoff had a brief cameo in a post-credit stinger for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Here we meet the twins cooped up in glass cages being studied and experimented on in Sokovia by Baron Von Strucker. Who used Loki’s scepter which housed the Mind Stone to conduct said experiments. While many of their subjects died due to the extremities of these experiments, Wanda and Pietro were the only surviving subjects.
Given their comic book history, the majority of the audience knew that the only reason they really survived these experiments was probably due to their X-gene. Therefore awakening their respective latent powers. When fully introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Avengers came into contact with Wanda and Pietro, in an attempt to defend Baron Von Strucker. Here we learn that two individuals are known as ‘enhanced’ rather than Mutants. That’s all due to rights and ownership of the term and a whole bunch of mumbo jumbo that we aren’t going to get into right now.
There’s a lot of character development for both Wanda and Pietro as we get their origin stories and the reason behind their hate for Tony Stark. Ultron uses this to his advantage and uses both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to infiltrate The Avengers and break them up from the inside. In the process, they join up with Ultron until Ultron shows them how much of a monster he truly is and that his version of hitting the reset button was not as pretty as he sold it to them. During this revelation, we learn about Loki’s scepter housing the Mind Stone and we also see Ultron using the Mind Stone to create a new version of himself. His Vision.
The Creation and Birth of Vision:
At the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the AI known as Ultron which was created by Tony Stark with the help of Bruce Banner becomes sentient and attacks Tony Stark’s personal AI system/assistant known as Jarvis. Once The Avengers get their hands on Vision’s cocoon, it is brought back to Avengers Tower with the intention of bringing Jarvis to live in this synthetic body.
To their dismay, they are interrupted by Captain America and he heeds them that they should not bring Vision to life. Their right is interrupted by Thor as he aids in bringing Vision to life. He informs the rest of The Avengers about his vision and the Infinity Stones and how the Infinity Stones, including the one in the middle of Vision’s forehead, together, will bring complete destruction.
Something that is confirmed by Wanda. With the Mind Stone and Vision on their side, Thor believes they have a better chance at defeating Ultron. In a moment of reflecting who and what he truly is and how he can prove to the Avengers that he is on their side, or rather, the side of life, Vision does the unimaginable by lifting Thor’s hammer and handing it to him.
After an excruciating battle with Ultron and his robotic army. Ultron learns about his vision joining forces with The Avengers, Wanda contemplates fully joining The Avengers and later learns about the death of her twin brother Pietro at the hands of Ultron. Setting in motion a chain reaction for what’s to come for Wanda later on in the MCU. We also get the first glimpse of a potential love spark between Vision and Wanda.
Captain America: Civil War – Enter the Sokovia Accords:
Captain America: Civil War further sends Wanda in another downward spiral as she accidentally kills innocents while trying to save Captain America from Crossbones who was looking to kill Captain America in an attempted suicide bombing. Both the government and the media begin to label Wanda as a monster for killing innocents. Due to this bombing and events that have happened prior (The Battle of New York, Sokovia), General Thunderbolt Ross introduces the Sokovia Accords on the behalf of the U.S. government and the United Nations.
All the following events aside, and a love tussle between Team Iron Man and Team Captain America. We begin to see the love spark between Wanda and Vision further develop. Unfortunately, that development takes a wrong turn when Vision nearly kills Rhodey on purpose but on accident.
Avengers: Infinity War – The Double Death of Vision:
After the events of Captain America: Civil War we spend quite some time not knowing too much about Wanda and Vision’s whereabouts until we see them again in Avengers: Infinity War. Now part of Captain America’s Secret Avengers team and in a full-blown relationship with Vision, which was developed further off-screen. The sneaky couple finds themselves being hunted by Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, minions of Thanos known as The Black Order.
Unfortunately in the MCU, they’re made to be Thanos’ children as opposed to being loyal servants of Thanos and formidable foes on their own but that’s beside the point. Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive nearly kill Vision and momentarily fend off Wanda until Captain America shows up with the rest of the Secret Avengers.
The overall story arc for these characters and this film was for one to serve as both a McGuffin (Vision) and also an emotional character development point for Wanda. Vision has had the Mind Stone in his forehead ever since his creation in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thanos has been on the hunt for it and the Mind Stone is the final stone he needs in order to fully assemble his Infinity Gauntlet and balance the universe.
After their encounter with Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, The Avengers feel that it’s time to get Vision more protection and bring him to Wakanda. There Shuri tries to download Vision’s schematics “just in case”, all while trying to fend off Thanos and the rest of The Black Order.
Unfortunately, for them, Shuri is attacked by Corvus and Vision ends up joining the fray along with the rest of The Avengers. Thanos finally gets his hands on The Avengers and defeats them rather easily and makes his way to Vision who has begged Wanda to destroy the Mind Stone before Thanos gets to him.
Though she manages to succeed in destroying the Mind Stone, Thanos quickly uses the Time Stone to reverse the events in order to bring Vision back to life and successfully get his hands on the Mind Stone and in the process killing Vision for a second time while Wanda watches defenselessly in the background. Thanos successfully manages to assemble his gauntlet and successfully snaps half the universe out of existence including Wanda. Giving her absolutely no time to mourn the loss of her lover.
Avengers: Endgame – Thanos vs Scarlet Witch:
Five years later in the year 2023, The Avengers travel to different points in time in the MCU timeline in order to get their hand on the Infinity Stones and put their own Infinity Gauntlet together in an effort to bring everyone who died five years prior, back to the current timeline. After successfully doing so, The Avengers are attacked by 2014 Thanos and a massive battle ensues.
On the battlefield, Wanda Maximoff comes face to face with her lover’s killer. Unfortunately for her, Thanos doesn’t recognize her but she makes sure to leave a last impression on Thanos, enough for him to remember her even in the afterlife.
By the time the film wraps up, it seems like Wanda has come to terms and has accepted that Vision has passed on and is no longer part of her life. The intriguing part of it all is how this all implodes during the events of WandaVision. As we see Vision “alive” and well and living the perfect suburban life Wanda has envisioned for them.
WandaVision picks up sometime after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Not only will WandaVision kick off Phase 4 of the MCU it will also further expand on the concept of the multiverse. The events of the series causing a ripple effect throughout the MCU tieing in films like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man 3 together to tell one rich epic story about Wanda’s mental breakdown.
As I mentioned at the start of this piece, Wanda and Vision have a rich arc in terms of character development in the MCU despite their short run in the MCU thus far. Looking forward to WandaVision, although we do not know if Vision will indeed return after the series’ events, it’s going to be good to see Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen pair up once again in a series that focuses solely on them.
I think I managed to cover everything for Wanda and Vision up to this point of the MCU since their introduction but I did miss anything, feel free to let me know what I missed and forgot to include.
WandaVision premieres January 15 on Disney+
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