Paul Bettany has been part of the MCU since the very start, initially lending his voice to J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Iron Man franchise. When Avengers: Age of Ultron rolled around, Joss Whedon decided to take Tony Stark's A.I. and make him the basis for The Vision, the Ultron-created android who gained sentience in the 2015 movie.
The hero's story appeared to reach a tragic end in Avengers: Infinity War when Thanos tore the Mind Stone from his head. The greyed-out Vision fell to the floor dead and it wasn't until WandaVision that we learned S.W.O.R.D. had managed to "resurrect" him.
However, this new White Vision had no emotions or memories, only for that to seemingly change when he came into contact with the Hex Vision created by the Scarlet Witch. While we've not seen the android since, Bettany recently confirmed he will return to the MCU (likely in the long-rumoured Vision Quest).
Talking to Collider at MegaCon Orlando, Bettany shared the surprising reason his big death scene in Avengers: Infinity War needed to be improvised.
"It was hilarious. None of us knew who was gonna die until like the day before or something like that," he explained. "They showed us a sort of pre-visualization of that and everybody was like, well, I guess I gotta take the kids out of private school."
However, when it became clear the scene wasn't working in its original form, "The Russo Brothers came up to us [Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen] and said, 'Hey, listen, can you just improvise this scene?' And I go, 'What? Improvise being a robot getting killed'” I've got no frame of reference!"
"And Lizzie was just laughing at it, and we’re so relaxed with each other that...I don’t know how it would’ve worked other than that, because we both really trust each other and, somehow, we got to something that worked."
Later during this convention appearance, Bettany revealed that while he believed his time as The Vision was over, the prospect of sharing the screen with Elizabeth Olsen in WandaVision is what brought him back into the fold.
"I think it was fantastic fun for Lizzie and I," he says of the Disney+ series. "We both love working together, you know. She’s a great, great scene partner, work partner. She’s fastidious, and she is always prepared and bold. I really love working with her, we really enjoyed the large canvas."
"It’s always been fun because we very much have our own lane versus in the movies. And it was just so much fun to be able to really spread out and play and there were so many different dynamic styles."
There's no word on when Vision Quest will reach Disney+ but that cliffhanger will need to be addressed at some point. In the comics, the White Vision had his memories but no emotion and, if that's the case in the MCU as well, it will give Bettany a very different version of the character to sink his teeth into.