Why the ‘WandaVision’ Finale Doesn’t Reveal White Vision’s Fate

The following post contains SPOILERS for the WandaVision finale:

One of the most intriguing parts of the WandaVision finale was sitcom reality Vision (Paul Bettany) coming face-to-face with a new, all-white Vision. After a rousing philosophical discussion drawing from the Ship of Theseus, Vision uses his powers to unlock his own memory from White Vision’s database. We see White Vision gain a sense of his old self, and we hear him utter the words “I am Vision,” before flying off ... and then he isn’t seen again for the rest of the episode.

As we learned earlier in the series, White Vision is a reconstruction of the real Vision, made up of his old parts with no retention of his memories. According to WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer (via CinemaBlend), that’s the very reason the creative team decided not to follow up with him again. “That's not the man that she had children with. That's not the one who’s been in the sitcom world with him. That’s not the one that she said goodbye to on a hill in Wakanda,” Schaeffer explained. “That's the body and the data. So for the purposes of me and my job on the show, and what I focus on, where he ends up is an afterthought to the story proper.”

Not only does the filmmaker defend her choice, but she feels like it perfectly captures the characterization of Vision. Said Schaeffer: “Vision's whole thing is identity; his whole thing is, ‘I was a voice and then I was a body. And now I’m a memory.’ There’s a constant sort of self-analysis of ‘What am I?’ So to me it doesn’t feel like a Marvel cheat of like, ‘Now there’s another one out there.’ It actually feels very, very right.”

The disappearance of the white Vision, however, also teases his involvement in future Marvel projects. If you don’t actually see a character dying on screen, there’s no proof they're gone for good, right? While his next MCU appearance hasn’t been confirmed, there’s a possibility he could pop up in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or an upcoming series such as Armor Wars. Only time will tell when our next vision of Vision will be.

Gallery — Every WandaVision Commercial, Explained: