VisionQuest

*VisionQuest* is an upcoming Marvel Studios television series centered on Vision, with Paul Bettany returning to the role he has played across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Terry Matalas, who served as showrunner for the final season of *Star Trek: Picard*, is the series’ showrunner. Marvel has positioned *VisionQuest* as a continuation of the story begun in *WandaVision* and followed in *Agatha All Along*. It is planned for Disney+, though a detailed episode synopsis has not been released.

Vision’s history gives the series a specific starting point. In *Avengers: Age of Ultron* (2015), the Avengers create him using a synthetic body, the Mind Stone and the artificial intelligence J.A.R.V.I.S. Bettany had previously voiced J.A.R.V.I.S. in the *Iron Man* films before appearing on screen as Vision. In *Avengers: Infinity War* (2018), Wanda Maximoff destroys the Mind Stone in Vision’s forehead to keep it from Thanos. Thanos reverses that moment, takes the stone and kills Vision.

*WandaVision* (2021) complicates what it means for Vision to return. Wanda creates a version of him within her altered reality in Westview, New Jersey. Meanwhile, the government agency S.W.O.R.D. reassembles Vision’s original body and activates it as an all-white figure. The two Visions confront each other in the finale, but their encounter ends in a discussion of the Ship of Theseus: if an object’s parts are replaced, is it still the same object? The Westview Vision restores the white Vision’s memories, and the latter flies away. Wanda’s version disappears when she brings down the spell surrounding Westview. *VisionQuest* follows the character whose body and memories remain, but whose next choices were left unresolved.

James Spader is returning as Ultron, the antagonist he voiced in *Age of Ultron*. That casting reconnects Vision with the film in which both characters first appeared: Ultron intended the synthetic body for himself before the Avengers used it to create Vision. Faran Tahir is also returning as Raza, the Ten Rings leader who held Tony Stark captive in the first *Iron Man* film. Todd Stashwick, who worked with Matalas on *Picard*, has been cast in the series as well.

Those returning performers connect *VisionQuest* to different points in Marvel’s screen history, but their presence does not establish how their characters will meet or what the series’ central conflict will be. What *WandaVision* establishes is narrower and more intriguing: Vision leaves Westview with restored memories, without the life he and Wanda had built there.