James Spader Didn't Expect VISIONQUEST to Take Ultron This Far: "I Still Wasn't Prepared"
Ultron is back in the MCU, and even James Spader wasn't prepared for just how much Marvel would expand the character in VisionQuest. The fan-favorite villain has returned with a lot more going on than we saw in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Spader admits that playing this new version of Ultron kept catching him off guard.
The Disney+ series brings Ultron back into the picture alongside Paul Bettany's Vision, but things are very different this time around. Rather than attempting to wipe out humanity, Ultron appears in his human form, trapped inside Vision's Mind Space alongside several other Stark Corporation artificial intelligences.
As Vision struggles to piece together his memories and understand emotions he isn't even sure he possesses, Ultron is right there to challenge him, question him, and make his already complicated existence even more difficult.
The series also gives audiences a chance to understand Ultron in ways the original Avengers movie never explored. His complicated relationship with humanity, his personal beliefs, and his own difficulties processing emotions all become important parts of the story.
For Spader, returning to the character turned out to be a much more surprising experience than he expected, even after discussing the entire story with showrunner Terry Matalas.
Speaking with GamesRadar+, Spader explained: "Any of the things that I might have thought about him when I did the film just were so much more of in the show, in VisionQuest. I was constantly surprised, even though Terry and I had discussed the whole show, from beginning to end, sort of beats, and certainly in episodes.
“And then having received the scripts and seeing what developed in the script form, I still wasn't prepared for the perfect thing that you're always aspiring to as an actor, always, is that it has a life when you start to perform it that you never really imagined.
"You could never really have predicted that. Even if you might have predicted intent or reaction or action, even if you might have been able to predict or speculate on that, the depth and breadth of it can often surprise you, and it did again and again and again on the show."
It's pretty cool that Spader is getting the opportunity to explore Ultron beyond his original role as an Avengers villain. His performance was easily one of the best things about Age of Ultron, and the character always seemed like he had more to offer than a single movie appearance.
Putting him directly opposite Vision also makes for an interesting dynamic. These two characters share a complicated history, and watching them confront questions about identity, humanity, and emotion gives their relationship an entirely different direction.
Fans have already responded positively to Ultron's return, and I personally think that he’s the highlight of VisionQuest. Considering how much personality Spader brought to the character the first time around, it's great to see Marvel giving him more room to play.
New episodes of VisionQuest are streaming weekly on Disney+, with two episodes released at a time.
What do you think of Ultron's return? Are you enjoying this new take on the character, or do you miss the murderous robot who wanted to drop a city on the Avengers?