Vision has had a complex and heartbreaking journey through the MCU. From trusted ally to loving partner, the Synthezoid Avenger’s story isn’t done.

Though the MCU’s Avengers are full of diverse and interesting characters, Vision‘s backstory and timeline are among the most interesting. Thor is a god and Tony Stark is a genius, but Vision is a unique hybrid of organics and metals imbued with the mind of an AI and brought to life with an Infinity Stone. A phasing robot who waxes poetic and can shoot a laser from his forehead may have seemed like a tall task for the MCU, but there’s little doubt that he’s become a fan-favorite.

While this is partly due to Vision’s striking visual design and costume, most of the credit goes to actor Paul Bettany. After voicing Stark’s AI JARVIS, Bettany embodied Vision in the flesh brilliantly. Vision has gone through an exciting birth and more than one heartbreaking MCU death, yet he still remains in the franchise with an uncertain but promised future. Here is the Avenger’s complete timeline as it currently stands.

Vision Is Created To Be Ultron’s Final Host Body

Spring 2015

When Tony Stark creates Ultron, the intention isn’t for him to have a single body but instead to guide the legions of Iron Man-like drones that could protect the planet better than any individuals. Of course, Ultron goes rogue, and he upgrades his physical form a few times. Fortunately for the Avengers, his final transformation is stopped short.

Ultron uses Loki’s mind-control scepter to compel Doctor Helen Cho to build him a body missing artificial organic matter with stolen Vibranium. As a final touch, he breaks the Mind Stone out of the scepter and uses it to power the body. The Avengers seize it before Ultron can transfer his mind into the body, instead filling it with a mixture of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and the JARVIS AI, making up its personality. The result is Vision, a metal/organic hybrid given true consciousness by an Infinity Stone.

Vision Helps Defeat UItron And Joins The Avengers

Spring 2015

Given Thor offers the final element of Vision’s creation by hitting the synthezoid Avenger with a bolt of lightning, Vision adopts part of his look, donning the cape and some flourishes that he sports for the rest of his time in the MCU. Vision quickly understands that Ultron is a massive threat and, even though it takes the Avengers a bit of time to trust him, welcome him to their ranks after he shows his purity by lifting Mjolnir.

In fact, after the Avengers clash with Ultron and his legions of drones in Sokovia, it’s Vision who ultimately lands the final blow on his would-be bodily inhabitor. The meeting provides an interesting dichotomy between what Ultron is and what he could have been as both ponder their roles in the world and the flaws of humanity. For his work, Vision is officially welcomed onto the Avengers as a new team line-up forms at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Vision Sides With Stark On The Sokovia Accords Debate

Spring 2016

After Avengers: Age of Ultron, Vision next appears with most of the other Avengers in Captain America: Civil War. Unfortunately, the team finds itself divided as the United Nations proposes the Sokovia Accords, a document set to ensure that all superpowered individuals register themselves and only act with UN approval and under their regulation. Tony Stark supports the accords, and Steve Rogers opposes them. The Avengers’ allegiances are split down the middle.

Vision sides with Stark, claiming that “Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict, and conflict breeds catastrophe. Oversight… oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand.” Team Stark inhabits the Avengers Compound in upstate New York, where they also hold Wanda Maximoff against her will for her own and others’ safety. Despite being on opposite sides of the Sokovia Accords issue, Vision and Wanda bond at the compound and later fall fully in love.

The Sokovia are indeed passed, making Captain America and his allies global fugitives. However, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law reveals that they are repealed years later.

Thanos Kills Vision

Spring 2018

Despite finding themselves at odds in Civil War, Vision and Wanda spend time growing closer and eventually decide to try and live something as close to a normal life as they can. However, the arrival of Thanos makes that impossible. While in Germany together (Vision adopting a more traditional human appearance), Thanos’ Black Order members Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight ambush the pair. Corvus significantly injures Vision, rendering him helpless in the fights with Thanos to come.

After acquiring the other Infinity Stones, Thanos sets sight on the final one – the Mind Stone embedded in Vision’s head. Many of the Avengers take Vision to Wakanda to make a final stand and attempt to separate Vision from the Stone, but they’re too slow. First, Vision convinces Wanda to destroy the stone and kill him to save the universe. She does, but Thanos simply rewinds time with the Time Stone and rips it out of Vision’s forehead.

S.W.O.R.D. Rebuilds A New Vision

Fall 2023

After Vision dies in Wakanda, S.W.O.R.D., a government agency filling the void left behind by the disbanding of S.H.I.E.L.D., acquires his synthezoid body and begins attempts to revive him for their own use. Not expecting as devastating of a response from her as they get, the agency allows Wanda to see his directed parts as she’s deep in grief. However, SWORD does succeed, reviving vision in the body but not in the mind. The new “White Vision” is similar in power, but the lack of the Mind Stone means he’s lost Vision’s memories and personality.

Vision Is Revived As Part Of The Westview Incident

Fall 2023

Despite his death, Vision mysteriously returns to live a decade-hopping suburban life with Wanda in WandaVision. Of course, as the facade is peeled back and reality shows itself, a tragic reality sets in. Broken with grief from losing Vision (and her brother years earlier), Wanda traveled to Westview, a town in which she and Vision had purchased land to build a house and lead a more normal life. She creates a massive hex, turning the entire town into a living sitcom, creating a new Vision with magic, and also giving them two children – Billy and Tommy.

As time progresses, Vision himself (in addition to Monica Rambeau and others) convinces Wanda that she has to let the illusion, and this VIsion with it, go. However, before she does, her new Vision and the rebuilt White Vision cross paths. The former is able to transfer his memories to White Vision, bringing him close to the original—and real—version of the character who died. Wanda is once again left alone and succumbs to the corruption of the Darkhold in her deepened grief.

What’s Next For Vision In The MCU?

Vision will return to the MCU, but it’s hitherto unclear when or where. White Vision was last scene flying away from Westview to places unknown, and he’s been MIA in the MCU for years since. It’s possible that he won’t show up again until Avengers: The Kang Dynasty or Secret Wars, but explaining who this Vision of the team is and what he’s been up to may take up too many valuable minutes. Fortunately, one movie makes sense before that.

Perhaps more likely is Armor Wars, the upcoming War Machine-focused film. Details are unknown about the movie, but if it adapts the comic story of the same name, it will likely see Rhodey deal with the fallout of Stark Tech falling into he wrong hands after Tony’s death. Given that the original Vision was created in part from Tony’s own mind and his JARVIS AI, it could be the perfect opportunity for Vision‘s long-awaited return.