‘VisionQuest’ Showrunner Terry Matalas Reveals Which Episodes Go Deepest on Vision and Ultron

Marvel’s Disney+ slate keeps expanding on the emotional fallout of ‘WandaVision’, and the newest chapter is finally coming into focus. ‘VisionQuest‘ is shaping up to be one of the studio’s most personal stories yet, built entirely around Paul Bettany’s synthezoid and the complicated legacy he carries into the show.

The eight-episode series continues the thread Marvel left dangling after ‘WandaVision’ and ‘Agatha All Along’, following White Vision as he tries to reconnect with memories that were only recently restored to him. Behind the camera, ‘Star Trek: Picard’ veteran Terry Matalas has taken the reins as showrunner, shaping both the story and, as it turns out, a significant chunk of the direction himself.

Speaking in an interview shared by Rotten Tomatoes, Matalas confirmed exactly how involved he got with the series’ back half, revealing that he personally directed the show’s final two episodes. “I was lucky enough to direct the final two episodes,” he said. “Which is very heavy on the both of them,” referring to the dynamic between Vision and his old nemesis, Ultron.

That last detail is likely to excite fans, since James Spader’s Ultron makes his MCU return in a genuinely unexpected way. Rather than staying gone after being destroyed at the end of 2015’s ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, the villain turns out to have been quietly uploaded into Vision’s own mind, where he now exists as a kind of digital houseguest that Vision visits for advice. It’s an odd, almost uncomfortable arrangement that keeps the two AI creations in close, ongoing conversation throughout the season.

That relationship sits at the center of what Matalas has elsewhere called the emotional backbone of ‘VisionQuest’, a show he’s described as functioning like a Vision solo movie in miniseries form. With two of Tony Stark’s AI creations wrestling over what it actually means to be human, the two episodes Matalas directed himself are shaping up to be where that tension finally comes to a head.

‘VisionQuest’ will complete a loose trilogy that began with ‘WandaVision’ in 2021 and continued through ‘Agatha All Along’, with Bettany’s Vision this time driving the narrative largely on his own after years spent orbiting Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff.

The rest of the ensemble leans further into Stark’s old AI roster, with Emily Hampshire playing E.D.I.T.H., Orla Brady as F.R.I.D.A.Y., Henry Lewis as D.U.M.-E., Jonathan Sayer as U, and James D’Arcy stepping into the role of J.A.R.V.I.S. T’Nia Miller, Todd Stashwick and Ruaridh Mollica round out the cast in roles Marvel has kept largely under wraps.

‘VisionQuest’ premieres its first episode on Disney+ on October 14, with the remaining seven episodes rolling out weekly afterward. Given how much Matalas has already teased about the finale, anticipation for those last two episodes only figures to grow louder as the premiere date gets closer.

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