Paul Bettany Talks ‘VisionQuest’ and Its Unconventional Father

Even synthezoids can have family drama.

Marvel Television’s VisionQuest shines a spotlight on Vision, the beloved synthetic hero played by Marvel veteran Paul Bettany. The new series (streaming now on Disney+) concludes the acclaimed trilogy that began with 2021’s WandaVision and 2024’s Agatha All Along, and VisionQuest follows Vision as he grapples with his humanity — or lack thereof. 

When the story begins, a rebooted Vision is attempting to keep a low profile, working at a pub in Edinburgh. As he attempts to find meaning in his jumbled memories, he consults with the nefarious Ultron (James Spader), who’s still embedded deep within his programming. Together, they attempt to unravel the mystery around Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica), an 18-year-old boy who may or may not be Vision’s reincarnated son. 

“It has been a fantastic journey, going from a voice inside Tony Stark’s suit to becoming an ingenue and omnipotent robot,” Bettany says. “WandaVision was one of the highlights of my career, and I loved doing it, so I was really pleased when VisionQuest came along. This is a new exploration of the Vision character with a totally different energy… a father-son energy. It’s a father-son story disguised as science fiction.”

VisionQuest picks up after the events of WandaVisionand Agatha All Along, where Wanda and Vision’s son Billy (Joe Locke) saved the consciousness of his twin brother Tommy with some well-deployed magic. The new series introduces Mollica as the 18-year-old Tommy, who’s fresh out of the foster care system, living in London, and wrestling with flashbacks he can’t explain. 

“I was very much involved in his audition,” Bettany remembers of casting Mollica. “I hate being involved in actors’ auditions. I feel like I’m on the wrong side of the table, and I feel like I’m working with the enemy. But I knew it was really important to find the right person.” 

Fortunately, he found that person in Mollica. The Scottish actor is best known for appearing in Sebastian and A Thousand Blows, and when he submitted a self-tape for VisionQuest, Bettany and the team knew they had found their Thomas Shepherd.

“The truth is when Ruaridh walks into a room, the room just lights up,” Bettany says. “He’s a very winning person, and the camera loves him. I thought we would be able to make something special happen between us, and I think we did.”  

Mollica found himself drawn to the complicated Tommy, and he quickly bonded with his on-screen dad. In fact, Bettany offered some real-life fatherly guidance on set. “I got to do my own accent because of Paul!”  Mollica explains. “I was doing this English thing, and you were like, ‘Uh no.’” 

“That’s not what happened!” Bettany interjects. “You were doing a perfect accent, and I was like, ‘I wonder what it would be like in his own [Scottish] accent. Let’s just do that.’ He did it, and we were like, ‘That’s great!’”

“And I’m very happy for that,” Mollica adds with a laugh.

One of the actors’ favorite moments was filming a key scene between Vision and Tommy in a hotel swimming pool — a day that left them both emotional and slightly soggy. 

“It was one of the days where it was just us, and we couldn’t leave the pool,” Mollica remembers. “We all got very wrinkly because of the water, and we just really got to know each other in that pool. It was a really heartwarming scene, and that was the moment where I felt like we really connected.”

“We really nailed the relationship, I think,” Bettany adds.

Of course, Vision and Tommy aren’t the only familial connection in VisionQuest. The series sees the return of Spader as Ultron, the nefarious artificial intelligence who helped trigger Vision’s creation in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. 

“With this series, the canvas was wide open,” showrunner Terry Matalas says of Ultron’s return. “We knew we wanted to focus on the father-son story… Actually, it needed to be about Vision and Tommy, but then there’s also this idea that Ultron could be Vision’s father, which was a fun idea to play with.”

Spader says he jumped at the chance to explore a more human side of Ultron, and for the first time ever, Ultron appears in a human avatar form (complete with some very impressive facial hair). The charming but sociopathic antagonist has spent the last few years locked in the attic of Vision’s Mindspace, and he finds himself both fascinated and disgusted by humanity.

“Ultron is probably the most human of them all, and his living space reflects that,” Spader explains. “His costumes reflect it. His sensibility, his philosophy, his perspective — everything reflects that.” 

Together, Vision and Ultron have a complicated relationship. Despite their wildly different views on humanity, they can’t help but find a kinship in one another. “As you look at all the different A.I.s that are in the [series], they’re all at different spots on the spectrum,” Spader adds. “From U to Ultron, that would be the full spectrum. And poor Vision is running back and forth along the full spectrum himself, trying to encompass all of it.” 

Hey, who said family dynamics were simple? 

Marvel Television’sVisionQuest is streaming now, exclusively on Disney+.

In this article: VisionQuest,Vision,Ultron,Agatha All Along,WandaVision,Avengers: Age of Ultron

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