Vision of the Past: James Spader and Paul Bettany Returning as Ultron and Vision in New MCU Show
Everything old is new again.
That’s hardly a headline in the prequel/sequel era, but perhaps it’s a bit surprising to learn that James Spader will return after more than ten years as the voice of Ultron in a new streaming series for Marvel Studios, presumably to run on Disney+. The series, often dubbed Vision Quest in the media, though it has not been given an official title yet, will also star Paul Bettany as Vision, a character last seen as one of the title characters in WandaVision on Disney+.
Spader last played Ultron in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was written and directed by Joss Whedon. The character was created for the comics by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. In the Avengers series, Ultron was created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner to protect the Earth; however, the artificially intelligent being becomes sentient and attempts to wipe out humanity.
Ultron in turn created Vision, who ultimately destroyed Ultron’s body after the Avengers put a stop to his plan to destroy the Earth with the Doomsday Trigger. White Vision as created by S.W.O.R.D. after they experimented with Vision’s corpse, after he died in the Battle of Wakanda, and was last seen abandoning a fight with Wanda Maximoff’s Vision in WandaVision and flying off to parts unknown.
Terry Matalas will serve as the showrunner for the series. Plot details have yet to be released, though The Hollywood Reporter has said the show “tackles white Vision’s search for a new purpose in life.”
Marvel’s Vision series is expected to begin filming in 2025. A release date has not yet been set.