Why The MCU Officially Changed Vision’s Name

Vision’s (Paul Bettany) name has always canonically been The Vision in the Marvel comics, but the MCU changed that. During his introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron, his creator Tony Stark initially referred to him as The Vision, but the MCU eventually shortened his name to just Vision. WandaVision episode 6, however, officially brought back the synthezoid’s official name.

In keeping with its sitcom motif, every episode of WandaVision includes an era-appropriate opening credits sequence to kick off the Westview portion of the story. Episodes 1-5 credit Vision as “Vision” in each opening, but episode 6 changes course and refers to him as “The Vision” in the Malcolm in the Middle-inspired opening credits. This comes on the heels of S.W.O.R.D. Director Hayward referring to him as “The Vision” in a briefing meeting.

That’s because the name change is likely directly related to intelligence agency S.W.O.R.D. The Avengers dropped the word “the” when referring to Vision because it humanized him — but Hayward doesn’t care about that. The way that the S.W.O.R.D. Director views Vision will likely set WandaVision down a dark path for the final episodes of season 1.

Although the Avengers initially distrusted the synthetic android, who was created by Ultron (and Helen Cho) out of vibranium and brought to life with the Mind Stone, Vision quickly proved he was a trustworthy figure. The Avengers treated him like a human rather than a tool, and the character had a fully realized arc in the MCU. He even fell in love with fellow Avenger Wanda, which is just about the most human thing one can do. The other Avengers fought for him just like they would any other human. They brought Wakanda to its knees trying to protect him in Avengers: Infinity War. The stakes aren’t quite as high in WandaVision, but they’re still unpredictable. Wanda somehow managed to bring Vision back to life and will stop at anything to keep him that way. But S.W.O.R.D. is running the operation on the outside of Westview. S.W.O.R.D. took custody of Vision’s body sometime after his death, and while it’s never confirmed, the situation suggests the organization had been conducting experiments on it. WandaVision suggests that S.W.O.R.D. may not see Vision as human — and are unlikely to have his best interests in mind.

Bits of the outside world have made it into Westview — the email at Vision’s office and the S.W.O.R.D. drone (turned toy helicopter) are both proof of that. So it’s possible that Hayward’s use of “The Vision” slipped into Wanda’s reality — but that has dangerous implications. Referring to another being as “the” implies that Hayward sees Vision as an object that S.W.O.R.D. owns. He’s proven that he will stop at nothing to recover what he believes is his, even risking doing physical harm to Wanda. That will likely come to blows by the end of WandaVision season 1.

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