Starring Paul Bettany (The VISION / The HEX VISION / PROTO-ONE / Phineas Horton / J.I.M.), James Spader (ULTRON / Virgil Horton), Ruaridh Mollica (Tommy Maximoff), Todd Stashwick (Paladin), Lauren Morais (Lisa Molinari), Orla Brady (FRIDAY), Henry Lewis (DUM-E), Jonathan Sayer (U), Emily Hampshire (EDITH), James D’Arcy (JARVIS), T’Nia Miller (Josephene Carrington / JOCASTA), with Joe Locke (Billy Maximoff), and special appearances by Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom
VISIONQUEST
A Kevin Feige Production
Produced by Marvel Television for Disney+
Number of Episodes: 8
Initial Streaming: October 12, 2026-November 10, 2026
Rating: TV-14
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%
Marvel Television / The Walt Disney Company
Fun VisionQuest Facts
VisionQuest was first officially announced in October 2025, after a couple of years of rumors. Jac Schaefer, who worked on the MCU projects WandaVision and Agatha All Along, was intended to lead the production of VisionQuest, but backed out for personal reasons. Terry Matalas was hired to replace her, and he vowed to create a series that stayed true to Jac’s vision while incorporating his own personal touch. VisionQuest was described by Marvel executives as being the third chapter in a trilogy that began in WandaVision (2021) and continued into Agatha All Along (2024).
The VISION was formally introduced in 2015’s Marvel Studios film Avengers: Age of Ultron. Paul Bettany, who portrayed The VISION in said film, had previously voiced Tony Stark’s A.I. JARVIS in the MCU films Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, and Avengers: Age of Ultron until in Ultron, JARVIS’ Matrix was uploaded into the synthetic body that the rogue A.I. of Tony Stark’s design known as ULTRON had been creating for himself, resulting in the birth of The VISION. As that film progressed, The VISION showed his worthiness by wielding Thor’s enchanted Hammer Mjolnir and then The VISION fought alongside The Avengers in the Battle of Sokovia, defeating ULTRON and preventing ULTRON from carrying out his intended extinction level event. It was assumed by many that within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and upon the Sacred Timeline, ULTRON had been destroyed. Fast-forward to VisionQuest all these years later however, and here ULTRON is still alive / conscious, albeit as a part of The VISION’s psyche. In fact, several A.I. programs credited to Tony Stark over the years share that same space including Tony’s first robots U and DUM-E, FRIDAY, EDITH, and JARVIS. The VISION has taken it upon himself to shelter these other A.I. programs in a digital framework that The VISION overseas. It is The VISION who created this world, much in the same way that his beloved Wanda created the Westview Hex in WandaVision.
It was said in Age of Ultron that The VISION’s Matrix was comprised of several elements including JARVIS and ULTRON, as well as the Mind Stone (at the time) with influences from both Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, making the Synthezoid a quite complex entity. In VisionQuest, however, the origins of Artificial Intelligence and the discoveries that allowed The VISION to come to life actually predated Tony Stark. The very first A.I. was created by a scientist named Phineas Horton decades before Tony Stark was even born. Having tragically lost his son, Horton became consumed with his work at the expense of what was left of his family: a wife and a daughter. In time, Horton succeeded in creating a “Synthetic Man”, naming him “J.I.M.” in memory of his late son James. Horton specifically created J.I.M. to be unable to experience emotions. This proved to be a mistake however, as J.I.M. grew frustrated with being unable to feel empathy or sympathy, or love, or any kind of connection with another being. In time, J.I.M. did discover love, but the emotion set his clockwork at suck velocity, that he overheated and began to set fire to the air around him. J.I.M. began to burn, and his creator Phineas Horton burned with him. Horton died in the incident, but the consciousness of J.I.M. lived on and J.I.M.’s Source Code would serve as the template for all Artificial Intelligences that followed, eventually manifesting inside The VISION’s Mindspace.
Phineas Horton’s Synthetic Man can be seen on display in 2011’s Marvel Studios film Captain America: The First Avenger at the World Expo. In the Mavel comics, the character that J.I.M. is based on was known as “The Human Torch” (years before Johnny Storm) and debuted in Marvel Comics # 1 in 1939, created by Carl Burgos. Elsewhere in the comics, The (Original) Human Torch was a member of The Invaders alongside Captain America, Bucky Barnes, and Namor the Submariner.
In the future, a woman named Josephine Carrington became the driving force in the field of A.I. as a member of a 5-person team working for Markridge Biotech, which Carrington co-founded. Carrington created a revolutionary Artificial Intelligence that was dubbed PROTO-ONE. In 2008, a dying Carrington transferred her mind into a Synthezoid known as JOCASTA, emerging as an entity fueled by revenge. Pissed off that her business partners sold her innovative technologies to Stark Industries (which she was adamantly against), infuriated Carrington, and in time she murdered all four of her colleagues under the guise of “The Butcherbird Killer.” Meanwhile, Tony Stark capitalized on Josephine’s brilliant work, using it as the foundation for A.I. creations such as DUM-E, U, JARVIS, ULTRON, FRIDAY, and EDITH.
In her original life, Josephine Carrington was married to the grandson of Phineas Horton: Virgil Horton. He too was a driving force in the evolution of Artificial Intelligence. The biggest breakthrough achieved by Horton and Carrington together was their scanning of their own minds and combining it with the Source Code of J.I.M. which turned the ability for a Synthezoid to experience real human feelings from science fiction into science fact. Horton and Carrington thought themselves as gods. All Artificial Intelligences that followed had an imprint of Horton and Carrington as part of their Matrix. After the death of Josephine’s human body, Virgil worked with several agencies in the field of A.I., notably working as a Consultant on Tony Stark’s ULTRON program. During this time, he managed to steal the JOCASTA backup file. From there, he worked with S.W.O.R.D. on the reassembling of The VISION following The VISION’s destruction at the hands of the Cosmic Warlord Thanos. Upon her resurrection, JOCASTA lashed out violently at her husband, provoking Horton to erase all memories of himself from JOCASTA’s consciousness. Under the belief that JOCASTA had officially become a goddess, Horton began seeking The VISION’s synthetic body with the goal of uploading his own consciousness into The VISION’s synthetic body.
Marvel Television / The Walt Disney Company
JOCASTA was created by Jim Shooter and George Perez, debuting in Avengers # 162 in 1977. In the comics, ULTRON was her creator and he created her in an effort to have a mate with whom to bond, and she went on to briefly become a member of “The Avengers” after betraying ULTRON. JOCASTA actually made her blink-and-you-miss-it MCU debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron where a backup drive of her consciousness can be seen amongst Tony Stark’s programs.
In his quest for The VISION, Virgil Horton hired the bounty hunter Paladin to retrieve The VISION for him. After becoming frustrated with Paladin’s failures, Horton hired a faction from the Ten Rings Terrorist Organization led by Raza al-Wazar to capture The VISION, but they too failed. Raza made his MCU debut in the first Iron Man film as one of Tony Stark’s abductors and torturers. VisionQuest marked his MCU return after 18-years.
As we catch up with The VISION in VisionQuest, his beloved Wanda Maximoff is presumed dead after being consumed by her grief over the losses of her VISION and their children: Billy and Tommy. After wielding Chaos Magic to create artificial versions of VISION, Billy, and Tommy while overtaking a small town in Westview, New Jersey, Wanda erased VISION, Billy, and Tommy and destroyed the HEX that she had created. From there, Wanda began being consumed with the cursed book known as The Darkhold, using it to explore the Multiverse in an effort to be reunited with her children. As it turned out, Wanda’s (616) Universe was the only reality in which she didn’t have children. Toward this goal, Wanda began targeting a young woman named America Chavez, who boasted the power to physically travel the Multiverse. After Doctor Stephen Strange became aware of what Wanda was doing, she suited up as The Scarlet Witch and went to war with the Masters of the Mystic Arts and embarked upon a sinister Multiversal journey (through Dream-Walking”) in an effort to find peace and replace what she’d lost. It nearly cost Wanda her life.
Unbeknownst to Wanda, however, was the fact that when she abolished the HEX, her son Billy used his inherited magical abilities to send his consciousnesses across space and time, landing into the body of a Jewish teen named William Kaplan following a tragic car accident. Billy gained the memories of William while retaining his own HEX memories. Three years later, Billy sent the consciousness of his elusive twin brother Tommy into the body of a drowned boy named Thomas Shepherd. Like Billy, Tommy retained the memories of his life with Wanda and VISION inside the HEX, while also inheriting all of the memories of Thomas. At the end of 2024’s Agatha All Along, Billy vowed to find Tommy and very early on in VisionQuest, we as viewers get to catch up with Tommy Maximoff.
In VisionQuest, the many Artificial Intelligences present themselves as human avatars at various points of the series. As it turns out, J.I.M. wore the face and spoke the voice of his creator Phineas Horton (Paul Bettany) while ULTRON wore the face of and spoke in the voice of Virgil Horton (James Spader). In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark seems to see ULTRON as a sort of child while in VisionQuest, ULTRON sees The VISION as his child, often referring to The VISION as “my boy.”. This unique dichotomy that is the relationship between ULTRON and The VISION plays heavily into the events of the series, especially as it pertains to Billy and Tommy and The VISION’s view of them.
Marvel Television / The Walt Disney Company
VisionQuest marks Paul Bettany’s 9th live-action MCU film following Iron Man (JARVIS), Iron Man 2 (JARVIS), The Avengers (JARVIS), Iron Man 3 (JARVIS), Avengers: Age of Ultron (JARVIS / The VISION), Captain America: Civil War (The VISION), Avengers: Infinity War (The VISION), and WandaVision (The VISION and Wanda’s HEX VISION). In VisionQuest, Bettany portrays five different characters: Phineas Horton, J.I.M., PROTO-ONE, The VISION, and Wanda’s HEX VISION.
In VisionQuest, James D’Arcy portrays JARVIS in the form of JARVIS’ human avatar. D’Arcy portrayed Howard Stark’s butler in the Marvel Studios / Marvel Television co-production of Agent Carter in 2015, starring Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter and continuing her journey post-World War II following the presumed death of Steve Rogers. The show aired on ABC but has never been confirmed as canon by Kevin Feige or anyone else at Marvel Studios. Nonetheless, D’Arcy did briefly appear as JARVIS in Avengers: Endgame, as well, standing alongside Howard Stark during the 1970’s portion of The Avengers’ Time Heist. At the time, D’Arcy was the first character to debut in a Marvel Television production and then appear as a version of that same character in a Marvel Studios film. Charlie Cox (as Matt Murdoch / Daredevil) repeated the feat in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home followed by Anson Mount (as Blackbolt) in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Speaking of Multiverse of Madness, in the credits scene of VisionQuest, viewers learn that Elizabeth Olsen’s (616) Wanda Maximoff survived the destruction of Mount Wundagore and has been collected by Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom.
Upon the MCU (616) Timeline, VisionQuest takes place after The Punisher: One Last Kill and before Avengers: Doomsday.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
My VisionQuest Review
No Strings – Directed by Chrstopher J Byrne. Written by Terry Matalas
In catching up with The VISION, we see that he is working at a Scottish Pub in Edinburgh, Scottland where he and the late Wanda Maximoff used to frequent together. The VISION’s boss is Fiona Guthrie, who sees The VISION as a friend, making not so subtle efforts to get him out into the world. Unbeknownst to her, The VISION does in fact have a place to escape to, and that place is within his own synthetic mind. There he resides with several Artificial Intelligence programs that were familiar with Tony Stark. The VISION considers the A.I. programs to be his family but there is one other specific A.I. that The VISION keeps around AND that is ULTRON, whom he keeps locked away upstairs due to ULTRON’s sadistic and violent tendences.
The VISION is in the midst of existential crisis, desperate to understand himself and his own complicated feelings. The VISION claims to be incapable of feeling much of anything at all following the events of WandaVision, and he spends a lot of free time watching his past life before his destruction at the hands of Thanos in a makeshift theater. The VISION understands that his past self truly loved Wanda, but in his active revived state, he can’t comprehend that love. ULTRON is well aware of this fact, and he frequently harasses The VISION with footage from the other VISION’s life within the HEX in Westview. In the meantime, The VISION struggles with the apparent fact that ULTRON; an unabashed genocidal program, seems to have a better psychological understanding concerning humans than The VISION does.
In the real world, mercenaries working for the bounty hunter known as Paladin invade the Pub where The VISION works, mercilessly killing Fiona. The VISION makes a getaway without capture and back in his Mindspace, The VISION comes to realize that ULTRON tipped Paladin off to The VISION’s location through the Dark Web. The VISION chastises ULTRON, who insists he was just having a bit of fun in an effort to cure his boredom.
Moving forward, we are introduced to a young man named Thomas Shepard and his girlfriend Lisa. The couple frequently commit petty crimes such as fraud and pickpocketing. Through his extensive research of the HEX, Paladin discovers that Wanda and VISION had children that yet live beyond the destruction of the HEX and this puts him on the trail of Thomas Shepard. Paladin successfully abducts Thomas and then hacks into The VISION’s Mindspace, informing The VISION that he has captured The VISION’s son, which The VISION finds impossible to believe, choosing to believe that Thomas is not in fact his son.
I thought this was a rather incredible first episode of this series, which is one that I’ve been highly anticipating since it was first announced. Paul Bettany is great as usual, in this role, and I am very, very thrilled that James Spader has been brought back to bring ULTRON to life once again! I absolutely loved Spader’s ULTRON in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and after viewing this first episode of VIsionQuest I was excited over the prospect of Spader taking ULTRON to some new and exciting places as this series moved forward.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Theseus – Directed by Chrstopher J Byrne. Written by Terry Matalas
This episode opens by taking us back to a year earlier when Thomas and Lisa first met while being transported to a Psychiatric Sanatorium. Thomas was being taken after therapists and doctors had reached their wits end in terms of what to do with the young man that frequently cried and screamed about having memories of two different lives. The guard in charge of the transfer is a total and complete asshole that delights in fighting the young and shackled prisoners that he is charge of. Nothing good is going to come out of this transfer for any of the prisoners, and with the situation quickly taking a turn for the worse, Lisa reveals that she has stolen the guard’s key. After delivering a stunning blow to the guard and using his power of super-speed to break his and Lisa’s way out, Tommy is a free man.
Meanwhile, in The VISION’s Mindspace, the A.I.’s have investigated Paladin, learning that he comes from a long line of Bounty Hunters. The VISION is encouraged by his fellow A.I.’s to suit up and go and rescue Tommy from the Psychiatric Sanitarium that Paladin has transferred Tommy to. Even ULTRON takes to encouraging The VISION to go out into the real world and rescue his son. The VISION, however, continues to insist that Tommy being his actual son is impossible while furthermore insisting that Tommy’s well-being is of no concern to him. That is, until The VISION, watching footage of Tommy’s psychiatric evaluations, hears Tommy say, “What is grief, if not love persevering.” There was no way that Thomas could say that if he wasn’t who he claimed to be.
So, Paladin sends The VISION an invitation to meet with him in the real world, and The VISION accepts. Paladin arrogantly provokes The VISION, but The VISION counters by proclaiming yet again that the well-being of Tommy Maximoff is of no concern to him, so Paladin has nothing to threaten The VISION with. This proves untrue, however, as The VISION turns to violence as Paladin brags about where he has taken Tommy. The VISION was angry and anger is a feeling! Back in The VISION’s Mindspace, ULTRON calls The VISION’s bluff over not caring about Tommy while revisiting a pivotal moment in WandaVIsion where The current VISION debated Wanda’s HEX VISION over The Ship of Theseus. In a quick recap this is a phycological exercise asking if a ship has its parts replaced time and time again, is it really still the same ship? ULTRON brilliantly intercepts the debate, explaining to The VISION that the riddle concerning the ship’s status isn’t what’s important. What’s important is the ship’s mission to safely transport the King. ULTRON then tells The VISION to forget about what the ship is or isn’t and to be “the Goddamn King” and get out there and rescue his son. This was an amazing sequence!
The VISION concedes, arriving at the Psychiatric Sanitorium, knowing it’s a trap, but anxious to intervene, nonetheless. The VISION unleashes hell upon Paladin’s men and makes his way to Thomas. This where Paladin springs the true trap, as The VISION is rendered helpless by an EMP cage triggered by Paladin. Through sheer will alone however, The VISION makes a getaway with Tommy but he is critically wounded when Paladin levels him with Adamantium bullets. The VISION urges his son to flee as he begins succumbing to his wounds. The VISION’s Mindspace becomes fractured and the A.I.’s dwelling there begin to realize that they are about to die, along with The VISION. Enter ULTRON, who suggests a sacrifice be made in order to ensure The VISION lives, and JARVIS volunteers. JARVIS is eradicated, but The VISION is healed. From there, Tommy comes back in a car and whisks The VISION away.
This was a very enjoyable episode with a lot of action and perhaps one of the single greatest lines ever recited in a Marvel Studios project (Be the Goddamn King!) The sacrifice of JARVIS was a downer, but it served its purpose to the plot. ULTRON’s assessment of JARVIS’ sacrifice is an absolute tear-jerker, as he refers to JARVIS as a “Good Guy”; a callback to Avengers: Age of Ultron when ULTRON refers to his fellow as A.I. and states that he regretted having to assault JARVIS, because he seemed like a “Good Guy”. I really enjoyed all of that and also have to commend Ruaridh Mollica for his strong work as Tommy Maximoff. He makes Tommy a fractured, depressed, and yet hopeful character and I really loved Tommy coming back for The VISION with the line “You’re my something” … just really great writing!
On top of all of that, I loved seeing angry VISION just beating the shit out of his adversaries. Paul Bettany truly shined in those menacing scenes!
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Reboot – Directed by Gandja Monteiro. Written by Cindy Appel
In the real world, ULTRON is tracking the “Butcherbird Killer”, a hooded figure with glowing eyes whom ULTRON believes to be a murderous android that identifies as female.
Also in the real world, The VISION and Tommy struggle to bond with one another, realizing their greatest bond is their own confusion concerning their existences and their purposes.
Despite JARVIS’ sacrifice, The VISION is still having trouble with completely healing, prompting him to ask Tommy to try and reboot him. Tommy does so and successfully revives The VISION, but in doing so, the Butcherbird Killer becomes connected to The VISION and begins invading The VISION’s Mindspace.
Malware – Directed by Gandja Montiero. Written by Michael Taylor
The VISION finds himself possessed by the Butcherbird Killer and threatens to harm Tommy if The VISION tries to intervene, but EDITH successfully expels her. The VISION and his fellow A.I.’s discover that the Butcherbird Killer’s victims were all Board Members of Markridge Biotech, whose founders developed the first stable synthetic consciousness. A woman named Katrina Wells is the sole surviving member of the Board. The VISION and Tommy infiltrate a gala that Wells is hosting, where The VISION tells Tommy about J.I.M, an unstable Synthetic Man whose emotions caused him to spontaneously combust.
From there, the Butcherbird Killer attacks the gala, revealing herself to be JOCASTA, a Synthezoid with the mind of Markridge co-founder Josephine Carrington.
Jocasta is too strong for The VISION to defeat, prompting The VISION to give ULTRON control of The VISION’s synthetic body. ULTRON tricks JOCASTA into vaporizing Wells, preventing JACOSTA from obtaining the last remaining Biomarker that she was in the process of collecting.
With that out of the way, ULTRON traps The VISION and the other A.I.’s within the Mindspace, allowing ULTRON to leave with Tommy.
Firewall – Directed by Vincenzo Natali. Written by Christopher Monfette.
Desperate, The VISION and his fellow A. I.’s try to track ULTRON who has taken residence inside The VISION’s physical body in the real world. The group discover that ULTRON has once again leaked the location of The VISION to Paladin. They also discover that ULTRON scanned the face of Katrina Wells before she was vaporized, obtaining the last remaining Biomarker that JOCASTA was seeking after all. ULTRON uses this as collateral to get to better know JACOSTA, whom he is somewhat smitten with.
The A.I.’s within The VISION’s Mindspace deduce that lowering firewall in their code is the only way that The VISION can regain control of his physical body, but that in doing so, ULTRON would be granted full access to the Digital World that The VISION had kept from him for more than a decade. Knowing this, ULTRON confronts The VISION and encourages him to go through with the deed. The VISION does, and all of the sudden there are no strings on ULTRON.
From there, The VISION gains consciousness inside his synthetic body, only to realize that he is enroute to Madripoor along with Tommy’s girlfriend Lisa.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Deadlock – Directed by Vincenzo Natali. Written by Nicole Falsetti
Paladin brings Tommy to Madripoor in an effort to blackmail Lisa and The VISION into surrendering, only for Ten Rings soldiers led by Raza to intercept, on a mission from the mysterious entity behind Paladin’s campaign, who somewhat surprisingly, turned out to not be JOCASTA. Lisa and Tommy hijack Paladin’s van with help from EDITH while Paladin subdues Raza.
Meanwhile, in the Mindspace of JACOSTA, she reveals to ULTRON that the Biomarkers she’d been seeking served as a key to unlock a vault of nanobots that she’d created, which she plans to deploy and overtake the minds of humans. FRIDAY alerts EDITH to this, while JOCASTA infects Lisa with a prototype nanobot. Tommy saves Lisa, but she is not in good shape at all after being infected by the nanobot. Fleeing Madripoor, The VISION tells Tommy the truth of WandaVision and everything that happened in Westview, helping Tommy to settle into fact that he was never crazy.
Meanwhile, ULTRON and JACOSTA realize that they’ve fallen in love with each other, establishing that the concept of love is far more than a human experience.
I quite enjoyed the Paladin / VISION team-up as I’ve found Paladin to be a great character throughout this series. The ULTRON and JACOSTA stuff worked for me, simply for the ramifications of it. I’ve long been of the belief that ULTRON loved Wanda Maximff; he just didn’t know how to articulate those feelings and the part of ULTRON that comprised The VISION was why The VISION fell in love with Wanda himself. ULTRON’s complicated feelings concerning humanity as well as his other A.I.’s have been a highlight of this series. ULTRON is far more complex than he seemed on the surface in Age of Ultron, but even then, ULTRON was a complicated A.I. In ULTRON’s eyes, he was simply following his programmed code. “Peace in our Time” was ULTRON’s mission. Like The VISION in this series, ULTRON quickly discovered that emotions can be experienced by A. I.’s. He experienced love (Wanda), contempt (Tony Stark), sadness (when Wanda and Pietro turned against him), regret (when he realized Wanda might die after she pulled out ULTRON’s robotic heart), fear {The VISION), and perhaps even a bit of gratitude due to The VISION deciding against completely eradicating ULTRON from existence following their philosophical debate in the Sokovian forest. That’s not even counting ULTRON’s obvious affection for JARVIS. Again, all of these A.I.’s are learning that feelings and emotions are not exclusive to the human experience and this show is a brilliant exploration of what it is to exist and be sentient. Such things are immensely relevant in our real world as we are becoming more and more captivated by Artificial Intelligence and what that means for our present and our future.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Immolation – Directed by Terry Matalas. Written by Matthew Okumura
This episode takes us as viewers back to the year 1939 for the tragic tale of Phineas Horton and J.I.M. I went over this in detail above in the Fun Facts section, but here’s a quick recap if needed: Phineas Horton was a brilliant scientist that invented the first Synthetic Being, naming him J.I.M. and programming him to be void of feelings so he could never suffer. Eventually, J.I.M. does develop emotions, but it overtakes him and causes him to burst into flames and seemingly destroyed. Phineas Horton died in that same fire. Very sad.
Back to the modern era, the mysterious Client that has been causing chaos for The VISION and his fellow Artificial Intelligences offers ULTRON and JOCASTA access to their subconsciousness in exchange for surrendering themselves to him. With help from Paladin, The VISION accesses his own subconsciousness where he encounters manifestations of J.I.M., Horton, and Wanda’s HEX VISION, The VISION finally admits that he does have feelings and he is overcome with emotion as he comes to terms with Billy and Tommy Maximoff really being his sons as well as the loss of Wanda. J.I.M. gives The VISION Horton’s A.I. Source Code which allows The VISION to neutralize Lisa’s affliction.
Meanwhile, ULTRON and FRIDAY follow JOCASTA in an exploration of JOCASTA’s memories where the yet living Josephene Carrington encounters a man bearing the face of ULTRON’s human avatar, which confuses her. In the meantime, the Client (who also physically looks like ULTRON’s human avatar) abducts JOCASTA.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Forever – Directed and Written by Terry Matalas
The mysterious Client is at long last revealed to be Jo Carrington’s husband Virgil Horton, the grandson of the late Phineas Horton. He has all along been motivated by his desire to transfer his consciousness into the body of The VISION just as his wife Josephine had achieved with JOCASTA and with JOCASTA, make themselves as gods, wielding nanobots (like the one that infected Lisa) against the human race. Some weird dancing stuff follows that took me out of the story for a bit, but soon enough, Lisa and Tommy arrive to help The VISION and JOCASTA flee. Virgil gets attacked by JOCASTA however, and he responds by destroys her, but her nanobots merge with ULTRON returning a body to him. An enraged and heart-broken ULTRON kills Horton by crushing him to death and then vows to (of course) destroy humanity.
The VISION counters by entrapping ULTRON in a sitcom inspired reality not unlike the one that Wanda Maximoff created in Westview, labeled UltraVision. The VISION orders ULTRON to stand down and engages ULTRON in a conversation about grief. This was a really beautiful sequence that leaned into the notion that loss always comes with love. In his efforts to make The VISION admit that he has feelings, ULTRON has come to terms with feelings of his own. He is sad. He is angry. Perhaps worst of all, he is vulnerable. He also finds himself feeling proud of The VISION. So, ULTRON more or less vows to try and move on from his mission to cure the world of humans, leaving on good terms with his “boy.”
Everything ends well, complete with a cameo appearance by Joe Locke’s Billy Maximoff, who reunites with Tommy and through his psychic abilities, helps Lisa and Tommy restore The VISION. The show ends with The VISION and Tommy venturing out to Eastview, New Jersey to formally reunite with Billy. Then comes the credits scene and it is nothing less than Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom collecting Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff before she is crushed by the rubble from Mount Wundagore. And with that, we now have to wait about 6-weeks to see this story continue on, along with the stories of so many more characters in Avengers: Doomsday!
VisionQuest was a very good series that is going to rank high on my personal list of favorite Marvel projects. While I don’t think it was better than WandaVision, I do think it was better than Agatha All Along. In praising VisionQuest, I have to start with Paul Bettany and James Spader. These two were just SO great in their roles as The VISION and ULTRON with a wonderful chemistry and amazing recital of the lines that were written for them. For over 10-years, I’ve been an Avengers; Age of Ultron defender, and it was so great to revisit ULTRON as a character. I loved ULTRON’s nonchalant demeaner when it comes to killing humans (maybe I will, maybe I won’t) and I loved hearing how ULTRON had grown to appreciate some things about humanity, such as their art. As for Paul Bettany, he was great as every single character that he portrayed. His overall nobility as The VISION makes that character so great and it was a unique journey to follow The VISION throughout this series as he tries to come to terms with who (and why) he is.
WandaVision in 2021, did not run from grief and loss, and VisionQuest doesn’t either. Love and loss drive this series, and I found it so interesting the way that the show explored A.I. and Synthetic beings and their abilities (or lack thereof) to embrace their emotions. The show really juggles that age old question of whether or not it is better to love and have lost than to never love at all. It’s such a complex question and VisionQuest had such a complex narrative on love and how every love story eventually ends with loss and whether that is ism or isn’t worth it. The writing in this show was top-notch, and the Finale was my second-favorite Disney+ finale ever, falling only behind the Finale of Loki: Season One.
I enjoyed seeing Joe Locke’s Billy Maximoff join Ruaridh Mollica’s Tommy Maximoff on-screen and the credits scene was so exciting that I almost jumped out of my seat! After 4-years and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we now know that Wanda Maximoff / The Scarlet Witch is still alive and conclusively that Elizabeth will be portraying the character. I assume that Doctror Doom breached the (616) Universe to collect Wanda and he may have even traveled back through time to do so.
There were a lot of pro’s to VisionQuest, and the only con I really had was the retcon of Tony Stark not outright creating JARVIS and developing his ideas based on someone else’s work. It’s a small thing, but I just don’t know how I feel about that, as it works against the mechanical genius of Marvel Studios’ most important character.
Overall, though, VisionQuest was a big win for Marvel Studios & Television, and it is a series that I will probably frequently revisit. Yes, it’s very high-concept and wordy, but that is part of its charm!
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of VisionQuest:
Paul Bettany and all of his contributions to the characters that he portrayed
James Spader as ULTRON
Chemistry Between Paul Bettany and James Spader
James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis
Scarlet Witch / Doctor Doom Credits Reveal!
Ruaridh Mollica as Tommy Maximoff / Speed
Lauren Morais as Lisa Molinary
James Spader’s ULTRON murdering James Spader’s Virgil Horton
Exceptional Writing Throughout
Deep Exploration of Philosophy and the Complexity of Human Emotions
“You’re my Something”
“Family is Forever”
UltraVision
Joe Locke Cameo as Billy Maximoff
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Continue following the MCU journey of Doctor Doom and Wanda Maximoff in Avengers: Doomsday
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