Disney+ and Marvel Television’s VisionQuest is coming soon, and yes, Elizabeth Olsen is returning, but not in the way most fans would like. At D23, VisionQuest released its first trailer, finally giving fans a proper look at the final series in the WandaVision trilogy. Paul Bettany returns as a new version of Vision, along with James Spader’s Ultron, in human form, along with a variety of human actors playing former MCU AI characters. That said, Wanda, Vision’s lost love, is not on the official call sheet, but she will play a role in the series.
It’s been a while, but Olsen’s Wanda was back in an MCU trailer last month. The Scarlet Witch appeared in past MCU footage from the MCU, namely WandaVision, the series that is being directly spun off into VisionQuest.
In the series, Vision will have his own internal “Mind Space,” where Bettany’s character is seated alone in a theater, watching a screen that replays pieces of his past.
It was made clear during White Vision’s awakening in WandaVision, and is now being doubled down on in this news series’ marketing, that this new Vision only shares the memories of his past lives, but he didn’t live them.
For lack of a better term, this is the mind and body of Vision, but not the soul. There’s even some telling dialogue from the trailer that paints a pretty clear picture of what fans can expect:
“I was a different person back then… Home is… home is just me… I was an Avenger. But I’m not a hero anymore. I have his face, but not his virtue.”
One of the Wanda moments that racing across the screen when Vision says “I am a stranger to myself,” in the new footage is from Captain America: Civil War, when she blasted Vision through a floor with her hex magic, during her and Hawkeye’s escape from the Avengers compound. It’d be interesting to know if the new Vision thinks his past self was right for being on Team Iron Man’s side of the conflict after all he went through.
There’s even a glimpse at the happy, imaginary life Wanda and Vision were living in Westview, specifically the Episode 6, “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!” which was one of the first episodes to start truly breaking the facade.
At the beginning of the trailer, a Scottish bartender tells Vision he “used to come in all the time with that redhead,” and a heart carved into the bar’s table marked with the initials “W + V” backs him up.
It’s a direct reference to the secret life Wanda and Vision built for themselves between Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, a relationship audiences only briefly glimpsed when Infinity Waropened on the two of them living quietly together before Thanos’s alien henchmen caught up with them.
Wanda, actually in the flesh, hasn’t been seen since her apparent death at the end of 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, though plenty of fans still think she will be back in the future, possibly even Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars.
In-universe rewatches of old MCU footage, as seen in VisionQuest, actually isn’t a new concept for Marvel Studios. Through the TVA, it’s been used in Loki Season 1,andDeadpool & Wolverine(Why is Thor crying?), but VisionQuest looks to be the first time a character revisits memories entirely alone, projected inside his own head.
That headspace will seemingly double as the show’s entire setting, with a bunch of AI’s taking human form, as seen in a funny moment between Bettany and Spader, with Ultron needing to take on his human avatar.
Other human avatar AI’s include J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D’Arcy), F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady), E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire), Jocasta (T’Nia Miller), DUM-E (Henry Lewis), and U (Jonathan Sayer).
For now, Ruaridh Mollica’s Tommy Maximoff looks like the clearest throughline to Wanda, much as Joe Locke’s Billy was in Agatha All Along. This may not mean Olsen is actually appearing, besides past moments, but the mystery behind Tommy is intrinsically tied to his mom.
VisionQuest’s Tommy Mystery Explained
Beyond Vision’s memories, the trailer’s real throughline is Tommy tracking down his father, as his mother is no longer with us.
Having had his soul moved into the new body of Thomas Shepard at the end of Agatha All Along, Tommy is now on the hunt to find his father, or at least who he thinks might be his father.
What he finds in the trailer doesn’t sit well with him: Vision is effectively sharing his body and mind with Ultron, “With a genocidal maniac inside your head?”
Vision also seems to realize that this man is somehow, sort of, his son, and Spader’s Ultron is likely back up to know good, luring Vision in the trailer, saying, “Free us all. And save your son.”
One interesting nugget from the first footage is that he isn’t necessarily doing it alone or unopposed, either. Lauren Morais is playing Lisa Molinari, the comic book villain Coat of Arms, who may have crossed paths with Tommy in the past.
Paired with Tommy and brother Billy’s reintroductions, it looks like there still might be early groundwork leading to a Young Avengers project, but considering Marvel is dialing back its TV output, many fans have given up hope on that prospect.
