Marvel star Paul Bettany has said the cast of Avengers: Infinity War only discovered the movie's heart-breaking ending as it was shot, and their beloved MCU characters were turned to dust.
Infinity War features one of the most iconic sequences in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Thanos gets his wish to snap half of all life from existence. The resulting effect kills some of the MCU's most beloved characters — and was kept so secret, that their actors were only shown that they were dying on the day it was filmed.
Speaking on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Bettany was first asked if he would return as Vision in the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars — to which he replied that he believed he would be, though Marvel is so secretive he couldn't be sure.
"I think so," he said, when asked about his Secret Wars call-up. "As much as you know anything going on at Marvel, or they change they mind. You really do never know.
"It's true that you never know, by the way. When we all died [on Infinity War], we found out that day. They took us into a trailer with pre-vis and everyone was watching the screen going 'oh I die'. No one knew. They really do keep this stuff very secret."
Pre-vis here likely refers to early visual effect composition (such as via Unreal Engine) that gives the film's crew a sense of how a polished CGI sequence might look. The suggestion, then, is that each actor saw themselves fading away into ash right then and there — though presumably they knew they were still booked to return for the film's sequel.
Bettany went on to reveal that his final lines in the movie with Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda — where she has to bid him a heart-breaking goodbye, before Thanos undoes her sacrifice — were also not in the film's script.
"I can't remember what was on the page now but… the Russos were like: 'just improvise this bit'," he recalled. "We were both really terrified. 'Improvise being a robot and having a stone removed from your head?'" he said. "I think there were lines, or maybe one line, but I don't think all of that stuff like 'We're out of time', was on the page."
Of course, Before Secret Wars, Bettany will return as Vision in the upcoming VisionQuest — the upcoming Disney+ series dubbed as the final chapter in the WandaVision trilogy. Asked about the show, Bettany was effusive — describing it as another "huge" swing for Marvel.
"It manages to feel very much like it's somehow a part of that world, an end to a trilogy of sorts, while very much being its own thing," Bettany said. "And it is just really good, I'm really proud of it. We've been in [the editing process] a while now and I've been seeing cuts that are getting better and better, and the effects are coming in.
"It's fun, its moving and its super exciting. [Ultron actor James Spader] is delicious, he's so funny in this."
Earlier this week, Disney finally set a launch date for VisionQuest and revealed a few further details about the series, which will debut later this year on October 14.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
