VisionQuest: Marvel Studios Confirms The 4 MCU Projects You Need To Watch Beforehand
VisionQuest is on its way to Disney+, and ahead of its October 14 premiere, Marvel has revealed the four MCU films and shows you need to watch before the final installment of the WandaVision trilogy. The series continues Vision’s tumultuous journey in the MCU as he tries to reconcile the memories he inherited from the original Vision. The synthezoid’s story is complex, and to fully understand where he currently stands in VisionQuest, it pays to take a look back at the movies and shows pivotal to his development as a character.
In a new promo video, Marvel Studios revealed the movies and shows it considers essential viewing for VisionQuest. The footage is a compilation of emotional scenes from those four titles, interwoven with clips from VisionQuest itself. Over the footage, Paul Bettany’s Vision delivers a monologue detailing who he is, how he was created, his loving relationship with Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, and how he was ultimately killed. The promo functions as a summary of Vision’s journey ahead of the show’s release and highlights which Marvel titles are most connected to VisionQuest.
Marvel Reveals Movies and Shows That Are Essential Viewing for VisionQuest
Avengers: Age of Ultron
The promo features several important scenes from Avengers: Age of Ultron, which isn’t the biggest surprise since that movie first introduced Vision and Ultron, who is VisionQuest‘s main antagonist. Among the excerpts is Ultron creating Vision’s body with Dr. Helen Cho’s Regeneration Cradle. In the movie, he intended it as his ultimate form, but his plans were foiled by the Avengers before he could upload his consciousness into it. That body eventually became Vision once Bruce Banner and Tony Stark uploaded JARVIS into it, with Thor’s lightning bringing him to life.
Over the promo footage, Vision can be heard reflecting on this moment. That makes Age of Ultron both Vision and Ultron’s origin story and the foundation on which the father-son dynamic in VisionQuest is built. To properly understand the complex relationship between the two synthezoids, it pays to begin where it all began, and Marvel is encouraging viewers to do just that.
Captain America: Civil War
The promo footage then cuts to scenes from Captain America: Civil War, including a shot of Wanda smiling at Vision from across a table. This movie was when Vision and Wanda’s relationship truly formed. The film famously drove a wedge between the Avengers, who failed to reach a uniform agreement on the Sokovia Accords. Two factions were formed out of this conflict: Team Captain America and Team Tony Stark. Vision sided with Tony Stark’s team while Wanda went with Captain America’s faction. Although the couple was on opposite sides of the conflict, their affection for each other grew, especially when Vision was assigned to watch over Wanda at the Avengers Compound after the tragedy in Lagos.
Civil War also shows Vision wrestling with emotions for the first time, coming to terms with his feelings for Wanda. He even accidentally shoots down James “Rhodey” Rhodes mid-battle, distracted by her, an unusual lapse for a synthezoid who typically calculates everything with precision. In VisionQuest, Vision similarly wrestles with coming to terms with who he is. He’s inherited all these memories but has no connection to them. He needs to find that emotional connection as he did in Civil War.
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War covers another crucial chapter of Vision’s existence, arguably the darkest part of his synthetic life. Marvel’s promo spotlights the film heavily. It includes the Edinburgh scene where Vision, in pain as the Mind Stone reacts to Thanos’ approach, asks Wanda to read it. “Tell me what you feel,” he says, and as Wanda uses her magic on the stone, she answers, “I just feel you.” By this point, the two had been secretly stealing moments together for two years, their relationship far stronger than when viewers last saw them. The promo also features the heart-wrenching moment Thanos rips the Mind Stone from Vision’s forehead.
Vision essentially died twice in this movie. Before Thanos ripped the stone away and killed him, Wanda destroyed it, and Vision along with it, at his own request. Thanos, however, used the Time Stone to undo the sacrifice and took the Mind Stone anyway. Wanda is stricken with immense grief from Vision’s death, and it’s from that pain that the WandaVision trilogy was born. These events give Infinity War and VisionQuest an essential connection.
WandaVision
WandaVision is, of course, spotlighted by Marvel. The promo features footage of Wanda casting her infamous Hex over Westview, creating a fake black-and-white sitcom reality, one where Vision is still alive. The video also includes White Vision’s introduction in the series, the reason Vision still exists at all. In the show, SWORD, under acting director Tyler Hayward, rebuilt Vision’s original body as a sentient weapon without his memories.
In the finale, Wanda’s Vision and White Vision face off in a debate over the Ship of Theseus, a thought experiment about identity and whether something replaced piece by piece remains the same. That scene, also featured in the promo, ends with Wanda’s Vision restoring White Vision’s memories. White Vision then flies away from Westview, his future unresolved. VisionQuest picks up that thread and expands on it, making WandaVision crucial viewing before the new series.
Bonus: Agatha All Along
The promo didn’t list Agatha All Along as essential viewing, which is surprising given it’s the second installment in the trilogy. That series followed Agatha Harkness on the Witches’ Road alongside a mysterious teenager, played by Joe Locke, who turns out to be Billy Maximoff, the reincarnated son of Wanda and Vision.
In the show’s finale, Billy helps the soul of his twin brother Tommy find a new body, setting up Tommy’s return in the MCU. VisionQuest pays that off, introducing Ruaridh Mollica as Thomas Shepherd, the reborn son of Vision. The series’ trailers show father and son trying to reconnect and understand both their origins. Agatha All Along is essential to Tommy’s journey, making it a key part of the VisionQuest puzzle.
