Marvel’s VisionQuest Gets Record

A new listing revealed the official runtimes for VisionQuest‘s first two episodes will break a key record. Following this year’s seasons of Wonder Man, Daredevil: Born Again, and X-Men ’97, Marvel Television will soon deliver its final release of the year, VisionQuest, which will run weekly from October 14 to November 25. The studio recently made a surprising change to VisionQuest‘s release schedule, confirming that the first two episodes will now start streaming on day one.

Before VisionQuestcomes to Disney+ on Wednesday, October 14, a lucky few fans will get a taste of the WandaVisionsequel early, and not just the press. The British Film Institute (BFI) will officially premiere VisionQuest‘s first two episodes at the London Film Festival on Monday, October 12, and the event listing confirmed that the opening chapters total 97 minutes, a record-breaking length.

Averaging out at 48.5 minutes per episode, VisionQuest is officially arriving with the longest two-episode premiere in the WandaVisiontrilogy. At the start, WandaVisionwas still leaning heavily on its multi-era sitcom premise and hadn’t yet revealed its reality-bending storyline, so the runtimes represent that.

The 97-minute total is 26 minutes longer than the WandaVisiontrilogy’s first two chapters, which lasted 71 minutes, including 10 minutes of credits per episode, bringing their actual length down to the 51-minute mark. It’s unclear whether VisionQuest‘s officially listed runtimes factor in credits, and, if so, how much.

WandaVisionand Agatha All Alongwere both created by Jac Schaeffer and spanned nine magic-fueled episodes, launching with a double-episode premiere. The opening chapters culminated with Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness and her witchy coven finally reaching the Witches’ Road.

Across those episodes, Agatha recovered her memories after WandaVision, met Joe Locke’s Billy Maximoff (unknowingly), and assembled her coven for the road. They totaled to 87 minutes with the credits and 77 minutes without, once again making it significantly shorter than its sci-fi successor VisionQuest.

VisionQuestmay have the longest debut yet for the WandaVisiontrilogy, which has leaned into shorter episodes, but it isn’t an MCU-wide record breaker. The longest two-episode opening goes to Daredevil: Born AgainSeason 1 at 110 minutes, dropping to around 100 minutes when excluding credits. 

Even compared to the other MCU show with a two-episode premiere, Hawkeye, the street-level crime tale began with a 104-minute double release, or more realistically, 90 minutes once the excess of credits is shaved away.

Depending on how long the credits hog out of VisionQuest‘s opening, it may be similar in runtime to Hawkeye‘s premiere, as recent MCU TV shows tend to have shorter credits than in 2021, when Marvel Studios was just starting out on Disney+.

VisionQuest’s Longer Runtimes Are Exactly What the WandaVision Trilogy Needed

Let’s say, hypothetically, VisionQuest maintained the 48.5-minute-per-episode runtime average from the first two installments; the eight-episode series would run for 7 hours, 28 minutes. That would exceed the runtimesof WandaVisionand Agatha All Alongby over an hour, despite having one fewer episode, and become the second-longest MCU Disney+ series, behind Daredevil: Born Again.

VisionQuestshowrunner Terry Matalas previously teased that each episode is “very different”and resembles “different types of movies,”effectively copying WandaVision‘s successful structure. While each of VisionQuest‘s eight episodes is unlikely to be as different as WandaVision‘s “sitcoms through the years” style, it will certainly keep audiences guessing about what to expect week to week.

While WandaVisionand Agatha All Alongwere beloved, many agreed that both could have benefited from longer runtimes to flesh out their supporting casts, avoid pacing issues, and delve deeper into their magical concepts. VisionQuestshould rectify that issue, allowing more time to explore its high-concept sci-fi elements and pick up with characters who haven’t been seen in years. 

It must be noted that the BFI listing only confirms the runtimes for VisionQuest‘s first two episodes; the length of the remaining six is pure speculation. There is always the chance that episodes in the middle and end run shorter, with the early episodes utilizing that extra time to open up this new corner of the MCU.