What to Watch Before VisionQuest

This guide doesn't reveal the outcomes of VisionQuest Episodes 1 and 2. It discusses the earlier stories, including parts of their endings. For an unspoiled viewing order, use the first section and stop before the individual explanations.

Start with WandaVision. Add Avengers: Age of Ultron if you need the origins of Vision (Paul Bettany) and Ultron (James Spader), and Agatha All Along if you want the background to Tommy Maximoff (Jett Klyne). Avengers: Infinity War explains the loss behind WandaVision and Vision's attachment to Edinburgh.

You don't need to rewatch every film featuring Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), or complete the MCU in release order. VisionQuest introduces its immediate situation. The earlier stories make that situation more affecting, particularly when Vision talks about a life he remembers but no longer feels belongs to him.

The watchlist, without the plot explanations

• If you want one title to prepare with: WandaVision, all nine episodes.
• If you don't know Vision or Ultron: Avengers: Age of Ultron, then WandaVision.
• If you want the central family story: Age of Ultron, Infinity War, WandaVision and Agatha All Along.
• If you've seen WandaVision but forgotten the ending: revisit Episodes 8 and 9, including their credits scenes.
• If you only want to start VisionQuest: its opening narration supplies enough to follow the immediate plot.

WandaVision is the strongest recommendation, not an admission requirement. There is a difference between understanding who is chasing someone and understanding why that person has chosen to disappear. VisionQuest can explain the former as it goes. WandaVision gives the latter its weight.

WandaVision explains which Vision this is

WandaVision begins with Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision living inside television sitcoms. The changing formats are part of the story, not a collection of unrelated comedy sketches. Watching only the final episodes loses the experience of gradually realising what is wrong with their home.

The series also gives the couple twin sons, Billy Maximoff (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy, and establishes the family that VisionQuest keeps returning to. Tommy's speed and Billy's mental abilities appear during that short childhood.

Most importantly, WandaVision distinguishes Wanda's conjured Vision from the original body recovered after his death. S.W.O.R.D. rebuilds that body and activates a colourless version, commonly called White Vision. The finale brings the two Visions together for the Ship of Theseus discussion, after which the rebuilt one regains access to his memories and leaves.

VisionQuest follows that rebuilt Vision. It isn't simply continuing the domestic life of the man inside Wanda's sitcom.

Episodes 8 and 9 are useful as a refresher for returning viewers. They contain the reconstruction, the restored memories and the end of the Westview family. For a newcomer, however, they are a summary route through the answers, not a substitute for the series that makes those answers matter.

Age of Ultron explains the voices and the body

Avengers: Age of Ultron is the most useful film before VisionQuest. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) attempt to build a peacekeeping intelligence using the power within the sceptre recovered from Hydra. The result, Ultron, decides humanity is the problem he needs to solve.

Ultron has a synthetic body made for himself. The Avengers recover it, and Stark and Banner upload J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Bettany) into it. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) supplies the lightning that helps bring Vision to life.

That origin matters when VisionQuest makes J.A.R.V.I.S. and Ultron separate personalities inside Vision's mind. One was part of the process that created him; the other intended to inhabit his body.

The film also introduces F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Kerry Condon) as Stark's replacement assistant. By its end, you understand why Vision's internal household has so many connections to the same workshop.

The earlier Avengers films add history for Stark and the team, but you don't need them to follow Vision's origin.

Infinity War supplies the emotional context

Avengers: Infinity War shows Wanda and Vision together in Edinburgh, trying to maintain a private relationship while the larger world closes in. VisionQuest's return to that city is therefore a return to somewhere associated with an ordinary life they briefly attempted to have.

The film also explains why there was a body for S.W.O.R.D. to rebuild. Vision dies when the Mind Stone is destroyed, and Thanos (Josh Brolin) reverses that death only to tear the stone out himself.

That sequence is the immediate background to Wanda's grief in WandaVision.

Endgame does not bring Vision back. Reversing Thanos's snap restores people erased by the snap; Vision had already been killed. Wanda returns without him. If you remember that distinction, you don't need another three-hour film solely to prepare for VisionQuest.

Agatha All Along explains the route towards Tommy

Agatha All Along follows Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and the young man initially known as Teen (Joe Locke). His identity and his search for family are substantial parts of that series, so watching it is more rewarding than being handed its final answer.

For viewers who already know the reveal and want a refresher, Episode 6 explains Billy Maximoff's return in William Kaplan's body. Episode 8 follows his attempt to find somewhere for Tommy's soul to go. Episode 9 establishes the search that follows.

Those episodes explain why a child lost at Westview could be connected to a young man with another name and another life. VisionQuest's advertised premise about Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica) is easier to approach with that background.

Agatha All Along remains helpful rather than compulsory for following the premiere. VisionQuest hasn't yet explicitly explained Thomas through Billy and Agatha. The earlier show gives the viewer information that Vision himself doesn't necessarily possess.

The optional films and shows answer smaller questions

Iron Man introduces J.A.R.V.I.S. as Stark's disembodied assistant and the robot arms in his workshop. It is a good place to meet these personalities, but VisionQuest doesn't require you to recognise every old joke about malfunctioning equipment.

Spider-Man: Far From Home introduces E.D.I.T.H. (voiced by Dawn Michelle King), the defence system accessed through the glasses Stark leaves to Peter Parker (Tom Holland). That's the only link you need; the other Spider-Man films add little here.

Agent Carter introduces Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy), the butler of Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper). James D'Arcy now playing J.A.R.V.I.S. gives that history a neat casting link, but it's no reason to add two seasons of television before starting VisionQuest.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness follows Wanda's search for versions of her sons in another universe. It explains the mountain Vision mentions early in VisionQuest's first episode. Those boys aren't simply the Westview twins continuing their lives elsewhere; they belong to another Wanda's family.

Captain America: Civil War adds scenes from Wanda and Vision's developing relationship. Captain America: Brave New World supplies background on adamantium in the main MCU storyline. Both are optional here.

The sensible catch-up order

For a fuller watch, use release order: Age of Ultron, Infinity War, WandaVision, then Agatha All Along. Put Multiverse of Madness between the last two only if you want Wanda's intervening story.

For a shorter evening, refresh WandaVision's ending and start VisionQuest. Its first episode explains who its protagonist believes himself to be. You can return to the other titles if a character catches your interest.

There is no reward for turning the preparation into a larger task than the show. Once you understand the difference between Vision's body, his memories and his family, you have the background that matters most. Our review of Episodes 1 and 2 considers how well the premiere works with that history.