New VISIONQUEST Images and Details Shared and Ultron Is Described as the “Psychopath Locked Away Upstairs in the Attic”

Marvel’s VisionQuest is bringing Vision back into the MCU, but the synthezoid’s next chapter sounds considerably stranger and more dangerous than simply figuring out what happened after WandaVision.

New images from the Disney+ series have arrived alongside fresh story details, including Paul Bettany offering a pretty interesting description of Ultron’s place in Vision’s head.

Apparently, Vision is essentially walking around with a murderous AI relative tucked away in his digital attic. That sounds healthy.

Marvel Television originally planned for Jac Schaeffer, who created WandaVision and Agatha All Along, to return and finish out the trilogy.

Schaeffer ultimately departed for what Bettany described as "personal reasons," with Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas stepping in to continue the stories of Vision and Tommy Maximoff.

Bettany admitted that losing Schaeffer from the project hit him hard. "I felt like the rug had been pulled from under my feet," he told Entertainment Weekly.

"I love her very much, and we made a lovely thing together. I had been waiting and looking forward to having my turn with Jac. And then 24 hours later, I was at a lunch with Terry, because that’s the speed at which Marvel moves."

Matalas came aboard with an idea centered on "intergenerational digital trauma," and one of the concepts that quickly won Bettany over was bringing James Spader back as Ultron.

"Then the question was, 'Would he do it?' But I was pretty confident that he would because it’s so eccentric and Terry’s so eccentric in the way that he thinks. Once we had James on board, we had a grandfather, a father, and a son."

That family dynamic gets especially cool when you remember who the grandfather is. Bettany describes the Avengers: Age of Ultron villain as "this psychopath that he’s keeping locked away upstairs in the attic," while also comparing Ultron to "a psychotic psychotherapist."

It’s a great way to frame the character’s return. Ultron is part of Vision’s programming and history, making him an incredibly dangerous voice for Vision to consult while trying to understand who and what he has become.

Bettany explained how VisionQuest digs into those questions, saying: "There are a couple of things you can do with robots. One of them is, 'I’m a real boy now.'

“That can be part of it, but the other thing that you can do, that I think would be quite interesting, is Frankenstein. 'Who am I? Who made me? What am I for? What’s my purpose? How do I fit in this world I’ve found myself in?'"

That existential crisis is particularly complicated for White Vision. The character possesses all of his predecessor’s memories, but he doesn’t have an emotional connection to them. He remembers the experiences of Vision without necessarily feeling like the person who lived them.

Since the events of WandaVision, Vision has been hiding in plain sight and attempting to live a normal life among humans. Naturally, that doesn’t last.

"That all gets blown to hell when a bounty’s put on his head and he is pushed out into the world in a much more visible way."

The story details explain that Vision escaped the people who wanted to weaponize him and has since been searching for a new purpose. Part of that journey involves consulting AI personalities embedded within his programming, including F.R.I.D.A.Y., E.D.I.T.H., J.A.R.V.I.S., and, unfortunately for everyone involved, Ultron.

Once the bounty forces Vision out of hiding, he ends up on the run with Thomas Shepard, a mysterious young man who may be his reincarnated son. Vision will have to evade whoever is hunting him, figure out the truth about Thomas, wrestle with his own identity, and resist Ultron’s influence.

The series may also close the chapter that began with WandaVision, but Bettany doesn’t make it sound like Marvel is finished with Vision. He says the story provides "a springboard for where Vision might go" and "feels like the beginning of something for a new type of Vision."

That could make VisionQuest less of a conclusion for the character and more of a reinvention, especially now that White Vision has to determine who he wants to be rather than simply inherit the life of the Vision who came before him.

The new VisionQuest images offer another look at what Marvel has cooked up for the series, and the combination of Vision, Ultron, Thomas Shepard, and a collection of familiar MCU artificial intelligences has the potential to get wonderfully strange.

VisionQuest also stars Ruaridh Mollica, Todd Stashwick, T'Nia Miller, Lauren Morais, Orla Brady, Diane Morgan, Polly Frame, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Emily Hampshire, and James D'Arcy.

The series is directed by Christopher J. Byrne, Gandja Monteiro, Vincenzo Natali, and Matalas. The writing team consists of Matalas, Cindy Appel, Christopher Monfette, Nicole Falsetti, and Matthew Okumura.

VisionQuest premieres on Disney+ on October 14.