Joss Whedon Wanted Vision To Bare It All In His Avengers: Age Of Ultron Debut
With his old-school clothing and uber cool hairstyle, Paul Bettany's Vision oozed serious hot dad energy (despite being a confused synthezoid most of the time) in "WandaVision." The character's evolution in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been worth watching; he went from being a voice in Tony Stark's armor to becoming a real-life synthezoid and a fully formed superhero that was born in "Avengers: Age of Ultron."
Like with any other MCU character, bringing Vision to life took time and effort from the creative team at Marvel Studios, who are known to create hundreds of different versions of a character before narrowing down on one. A lot of discussions transpired about how Vision would be developed and how his first appearance in "Age of Ultron" could be conceived. Joss Whedon, who was at the helm for the film, decided he wanted to see more of Vision ... and not in the best way possible.
'We're going to see him ... naked'
In an interview with Conan O'Brien, Bettany shared that the creative team worked hard to create Vision, and that Joss Whedon, renowned "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" creator, had some feedback he wanted to be implemented — despite Kevin Feige saying no.
Bettany revealed Whedon was convinced Vision needed to have a penis. He didn't necessarily have a reason — just that it would make more sense narrative-wise, seeing Vision being born in a crypt ... with a penis. Here's what Bettany said during the interview:
"Joss Whedon was manning the ship at that point. Right in the beginning, he was wondering, Vision's going to be born, we're going to see him born, ostensibly naked, he has to have a penis. Because he's naked and he's being born. And everybody there, Louis D'Esposito, Kevin Feige, everybody was like, 'Uh, I'm not sure that's such a great idea for Vision, for him to rise up out of the crypt as it were with a penis.' And he said, 'I need him, I need to see his penis.'"
Whedon changed his mind ... eventually
Joss Whedon somehow persuaded his colleagues. Paul Bettany continued, sharing that artists were sent away to work on multiple renditions of Vision's character with a penis. When their sketches were ready, they were drawn up on a massive wall at the film studio ... and it's safe to say Whedon was horrified at first sight. He then knew it wasn't a good idea.
"Never have I been more sure that I don't need to see Vision with a penis," Bettany shared, revealing Whedon's exact words. It was a sound decision — and we all know Whedon didn't make many.
I don't know about you, but I am pretty relieved we didn't have to see too much of Vision during his "Avengers: Age of Ultron" debut. It wouldn't have been the family-friendly superhero movie it was then, would it?