{"id":934787,"date":"2026-10-16T04:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T04:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/934787\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T04:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T04:54:31","slug":"visionquest-interview-does-the-vision-feel-abandoned-by-the-avengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/934787\/","title":{"rendered":"VisionQuest Interview: Does the Vision Feel Abandoned by the Avengers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been almost five years since we last saw the Vision in WandaVision, but now he\u2019s back \u2013 or a version of him is, anyway \u2013 in the new Disney+ series VisionQuest<\/a>. Paul Bettany returns as the android (synthezoid for you Marvel heads) alongside James Spader\u2019s Ultron and a variety of other AIs from the MCU, including JARVIS (James D’Arcy), FRIDAY (Orla Brady), and EDITH (Emily Hampshire).<\/p>\n

But you know who\u2019s not present for the new show? Wanda Maximoff or the Avengers. That doesn\u2019t come as much of a surprise considering that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) is, well, dead after the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness<\/a>, and the Avengers just aren\u2019t themselves these days, what with there apparently being two teams floating around the MCU<\/a> right now (which none of the original members are a part of).<\/p>\n

More on VisionQuest<\/p>\n

Notably, in the VisionQuest premiere, Vision muses to himself about how he seems to have evaded everyone who\u2019s been looking for him since the events of WandaVision. \u201cThere isn\u2019t an enemy, an acquaintance\u2026 or even an Avenger trying to find the Vision,\u201d he says. But when he says this line, Bettany delivers it with a sort of melancholy realization. So of course I had to ask the actor about it when we spoke recently \u2013 specifically if Vision feels abandoned by the Avengers in that moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think so,\u201d Bettany explains. \u201cI finally realized that I was really making Vision for a version of me as a child, where I felt like the outsider who was bullied. I didn’t think I would ever fit in anywhere. So it’s just a moment to remind [us]… It’s sitting on a chair at a dance, a school dance, you know what I mean? And having the courage to go and talk to a girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the Wanda of it all. Somehow I doubt there\u2019s a single Marvel fan out there who thinks the Scarlet Witch is really, truly dead, despite the whole Mount Wundagore falling on top of her thing in Doctor Strange 2. At this point in the series, Vision (formerly known as White Vision, who lacked the emotions and memories of the original Vision before meeting a magical version of the OG back in WandaVision \u2013 it was a whole thing) is detached from humanity, as well as any deep feelings about Wanda (or at least that\u2019s how he\u2019s presenting). But how about Ultron, the now-imprisoned villain who Wanda and her late brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) once worked for? What are his thoughts on the Vision\u2019s former partner and the mother of their children?<\/p>\n

Bettany on Vision and the Avengers: ‘I realized that I was making Vision for a version of me as a child, where I felt like the outsider who was bullied. I didn’t think I would ever fit in anywhere. So it’s just a moment to remind [us].’\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s pretty rude about Wanda,\u201d Spader tells me. Essentially, Wanda is dead now, and so for Ultron she doesn\u2019t matter anymore. \u201cUltron lives in the present. He really lives in the present. And he’s ready to step forward. And he’s not going to step forward until he shoves [Vision] ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the relationship between Vision and Ultron, while when we first meet him here, Ultron is trapped in the artificial reality that Vision has constructed, the two clearly have an important bond. \u201cHe’s sort of like a quasi-therapist, psychotic father figure,\u201d Bettany says of Spader\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think without question, he looks at him as a son-like figure,\u201d says Spader. \u201cIt serves him well to perceive him as that. … But I think the more interesting thing is how much it matters to him how Vision perceives him. And it’s touching in a way because he \u2026 allows himself to not care or to appear to not care, but he does. He really does care. But what’s interesting is it’s not so much he cares how he feels about Vision. It’s he really cares about how Vision perceives him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans will recall the great scene<\/a> between Vision and Ultron from Avengers: Age of Ultron, where the two synthetic lifeforms discussed humanity \u2013 both the pros and the cons of the species. It was that scene \u2013 which Spader points out was actually filmed in a parking lot and not a forest as it appears to be in the final film \u2013 which really is a key to why Ultron is back for VisionQuest, and what the relationship between the two characters is all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s this little seed of the last scene with them in Age of Ultron,\u201d says Spader. \u201c[We] grew it and watered it and fed it and raised it and gave it light and it blossomed into this amazing show and story. And these characters, they came from this seed, but they grow into this fabulous thing, this fabulous creation [that’s] funny and moving and sad and tragic and incredibly exciting and thrilling and disturbing at times.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that scene from 11 years ago, Vision says the following to the defeated Ultron:<\/p>\n

\u201cHumans are odd. They think order and chaos are somehow opposites, and try to control what won’t be. But there is grace in their failings. I think you missed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a>The fateful meeting from Avengers: Age of Ultron<\/p>\n

Says Spader, \u201cHe spends 13 years really embracing that idea and really embracing humanity because of that idea. Where it’s him. He is chaos. That’s what he is. That’s what he lives for. That’s who he is. And yet his son is dedicated at this present time to trying to find order and trying to process this. And what they then learn from one another is fabulous and funny and exciting and challenging for both of them. And they both get as much from each other as the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actors also think that there\u2019s been a shift of perspective for Vision since Age of Ultron in that the events since that film \u2013 when Viz was, don\u2019t forget, just born yesterday \u2013 have caused the android to have \u201cvery real doubts\u201d and be confused by the chaos of the world, and more specifically, the chaos that humanity brings.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it’s funny, the two of them are very different,\u201d continues Spader. \u201cVision has a sense of consequences and has a sense of collateral effect that I don’t think Ultron… Ultron just wants more. And I don’t think he thinks about the consequences. I think he accepts chaos in all its forms and therefore \u2026 the dichotomy between their two reactions, and how it comes together, they force it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

VisionQuest is streaming on Disney+ now.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Talk to Scott Collura @scottcollura.bsky.social<\/a>, or listen to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3<\/a>. Or do both!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been almost five years since we last saw the Vision in WandaVision, but now he\u2019s back \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":["post-934787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}