Paul Bettany Just Revealed His Real Reaction to James Spader Coming Back as Ultron in ‘VisionQuest’

Marvel’s television slate has quietly built one of its most compelling long-form stories in recent memory, tracing Vision’s evolution across a trilogy of Disney+ series that began with ‘WandaVision’ and continued through ‘Agatha All Along’. Now, as that trilogy heads toward its conclusion, the marketing rollout for the final chapter has started revealing just how emotionally complicated this next installment is going to be.

That final chapter is ‘VisionQuest‘, and much of the excitement surrounding it centers on a reunion nobody was entirely sure would happen. James Spader is returning as Ultron, the rogue AI last seen meeting his apparent end at the close of 2015’s ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, and his comeback has become the show’s biggest talking point heading into its October premiere.

Speaking with EW, Paul Bettany and Spader broke down exactly how Ultron survives into this new chapter of the story. According to Bettany, when Vision destroyed Ultron’s physical body years ago, he didn’t erase him entirely. “We discover that when he killed Ultron’s corporeal body, he actually uploaded him into his mind. And he lives in this kind of fantastic prison loft, and I go to him for advice,” Bettany explained, describing the strange new dynamic driving much of the series.

That dynamic, Bettany added, plays out inside what the show calls Vision’s Mind Space, a “ghastly mansion” populated by various AI personas created by Tony Stark over the years, including F.R.I.D.A.Y., E.D.I.T.H., and J.A.R.V.I.S. Ultron has taken up an unlikely role among them as something like an advisor, despite his history of trying to wipe out humanity entirely.

Bettany didn’t shy away from describing just how bizarre that relationship has become on screen. “We have a sort of father-son, therapist-psychopath relationship,” he said, calling it “the craziest idea ever” before adding that Ultron essentially functions as his “psychopathic life coach” throughout the series.

Spader, for his part, offered his own take on what Ultron has been up to during his time trapped inside Vision’s consciousness. According to Spader, the character has spent his imprisonment consuming everything from the outside world through the internet and television, while also unexpectedly taking up painting as a creative outlet, all while continuing to stir up trouble among the other AIs sharing the mental space with him.

Beyond the central Vision-Ultron dynamic, ‘VisionQuest’ also introduces a new wrinkle in the form of Thomas Shepard, a mysterious young man who may be a reincarnated version of Vision’s son from ‘WandaVision’, played by Ruaridh Mollica. With a bounty placed on Vision’s head forcing him out of hiding, the series appears set to weave together questions of identity, memory, and fractured family alongside its psychological showdown between hero and former villain.

The returning ensemble also includes Emily Hampshire as E.D.I.T.H., Orla Brady as F.R.I.D.A.Y., James D’Arcy as J.A.R.V.I.S., and T’Nia Miller as Jocasta, rounding out the roster of Stark-created AIs populating Vision’s inner world. Terry Matalas, known for his work on ‘Star Trek: Picard’, serves as showrunner for the eight-episode series.

For longtime fans who’ve followed Vision’s increasingly complicated journey since his death in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, watching him confront the digital ghost of the villain who first inspired his creation feels like a fittingly strange way to close out this trilogy. Between the show’s emotional stakes and its genuinely bizarre central relationship, ‘VisionQuest’ looks poised to deliver one of Marvel’s more introspective television outings yet.

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