We Now Know Why Scarlet Witch And Vision Were Defeated So Easily

The Battle of Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War was a seismic event that will reverberate throughout the MCU for years, and in one of its climactic moments, two of the Avengers' biggest guns failed to come through. Vision and Scarlet Witch weren't the only ones who blew it during the fateful skirmish — we're looking at you, Thor — but fans have wondered ever since: how did Thanos defeat two of the most powerful characters in the MCU so easily?

The question was answered by Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo during a Twitter Q&A they conducted for Wired's Tech Support podcast. Essentially, they and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely knew that the pair would have to be hobbled if Thanos were to achieve his victory — and Vision's injury early on in the film was the circumstance which allowed the Mad Titan to narrowly avoid a whipping at the hands of the two heroes.

"Vision gets... uh, skewered right at the very beginning of [Infinity War], so he's really not functioning at full power," Joe Russo explained. "He then becomes... a liability in the fight, because now, Scarlet Witch has to protect a crippled Vision, and it puts her at a disadvantage."

"And as Vision mentions," Anthony Russo added, "[Corvus Glaive's sword] had an effect on him that he didn't expect."

Joe then continued, "So, once Vision and Wanda are cornered — because Vision can't function at that point — Cap and Natasha and Falcon have been functioning as a unit for three years since Civil War, a very tight unit... they surprise attack Proxima [Midnight] and Corvus, get the jump on them, and help Vision and Wanda escape."

Of course, we all remember how the duo's fate played out during the Battle of Wakanda: Wanda was forced to tearfully destroy the Mind Stone mounted in Vision's forehead, killing him but thwarting Thanos... but only for a moment. The Mad Titan promptly used the Time Stone to undo her action, and ripped the Mind Stone from Vision's head himself, killing him yet again. With the final piece of the Infinity Gauntlet in place — and thanks to Thor's failure to go for the head — Thanos unleashed the snap heard 'round the universe, reducing Wanda and a slew of other heroes to dust.

The Russo brothers had previously clarifed during a presser shortly after Infinity War's release that, since they knew that the Mind Stone-powered Vision would be a primary target of Thanos and his Black Order, it was necessary to render him vulnerable — which not only essentially removed him from the climactic fight, but provided a distraction for the Avengers in general, and Wanda in particular, that Thanos could use to his advantage. Hey, when you're taking on Earth's mightiest heroes and all of their allies including the entirety of the Wakandan army, you're going to need every edge you can get — it just so happened that Glaive's skewering of Vision (to use Joe Russo's delicate terminology) may very well have been the deciding factor in the Mad Titan's ultimate victory.

Fortunately, as we all know, this victory was eventually reversed during the events of Endgame by a Stark Gauntlet-wielding Bruce Banner after the Avengers' successful mission to travel back to various points in time to claim the stones before Thanos could get his grimy purple mitts on them. Scarlet Witch, along with all of the other dusted heroes, was revived — but not Vision, since his death didn't result from the snap.

This raises the question of how the character will return for the upcoming Disney+ limited series Wandavision, and while we don't know for sure, we can hazard a pretty good guess. It's been speculated that Wanda will use her growing reality-warping powers to create a nice little alternate universe, one in which Vision is still alive — and that this action might lead to some serious trouble. We learned from the events of Avengers: Endgame that alternate timelines and realities are not things which one should tamper with lightly — and if Wanda's abilities evolve to be consistent with her powers in the comics (in which she is one of the most insanely powerful magic users in existence), her meddling might end up causing serious problems... ones which will require some assistance.

It's been announced that the events of WandaVision will tie directly into the Doctor Strange sequel, which will feature Wanda in a prominent role, and which carries the subtitle In the Multiverse of Madness. All of these things considered, we appear to be looking at one heck of a double-edged sword, and not one wielded by any android-skewering member of the Black Order. On the one hand, everyone loves Vision, and he's coming back. On the other, his return will almost certainly precipitate a massive threat to all of existence. We suppose you've got to take the bad with the good.

WandaVision is expected to debut on Disney+ in the spring of 2021; Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits the big screen on May 7, 2021.