VisionQuest Review: Marvel’s WandaVision Sequel Is A Digital Delight

Return to HomepageEntertainment: Backlash to Shane Gillis on 'SNL''You Can See Everything' spotlights Elizabeth HolmesJessica Chastain’s 'Other Mommy' smileCelebs making literature look chicKelly Clarkson's shop fight'Social Reckoning' flopsGillis on 'SNL'Darth Vader's lightsaberNicolas Cage casting slipMichael Douglas's indiscretionMarvel Studios"A thing isn't beautiful because it lasts." In one of the rare instances of the Marvel Cinematic Universe punching above its weight class, Paul Bettany's Vision sagely delivered this line of understated poetry during his final confrontation with James Spader's megalomaniac Ultron in "Avengers: Age of Ultron." Not only was this one of the big-budget sequel's many moments of inspired introspection, but also a devastatingly ironic statement for a blockbuster machine well on its way towards grinding into gear in 2015. Here we are over a decade later, and the same franchise that refuses to let the past die (as evidenced by the upcoming "Doomsday") has somehow treated us to something even rarer in the MCU — a project that actually tries to pick up that torch and grapple with its own sense of impermanence.

Enter "VisionQuest." The latest Disney+ series carries itself like a "WandaVision" sequel, looks and feels like a spiritual sibling to the boundary-pushing "Loki" and "Agatha All Along" shows, and ultimately proves to be the ideal epilogue to what may go down as one of the messiest and most underappreciated MCU movies of them all: "Age of Ultron." Much of that has to do with reuniting Bettany and Spader in the flesh, using the digitally-constructed world of Vision's cozy and colorfully 1960s-inspired mindscape to remove all the artifice of visual effects and makeup and motion capture. But even more than simply allowing two gifted performers to bounce off each other in the most delightful of ways, there's something deeper, richer, and altogether more emotional going on beneath the surface.

What showrunner/writer/director Terry Matalas has pulled off here is a story about grief, parenthood, and the power of connection — all wrapped up in the shiny superhero patina of two archrival robots exploring their all-too-fragile humanity.

Read more: 15 Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters We Don't Expect To See Again

The Disney+ series begins with everyone's favorite synthezoid Vision (technically White Vision, the backup version rebuilt from Vision's corpse after his fatal run-in with Thanos) stuck in limbo. In the real world, his human avatar appears as a bartender in the same Edinburgh pub that his original once frequented with Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff in "Infinity War." By night, he retreats even further from the outside world into a liminal space of his own mental creation — a clever approach to recontextualize cost-cutting VFX work and sets into a purposeful visual aesthetic. Here, Vision spends his digital days hoping to relearn what it means to be human, assisted by a bustling household of various Stark AI castoffs. This setup gives the relatively small cast all sorts of time to shine, made up of Orla Brady as even-tempered Friday, James D'Arcy's fussy Jarvis, the scene-stealing Emily Hampshire as thrill-seeker Edith, and both Johnathan Sayer and Henry Lewis as two particularly comedic Stark creations.

But, of course, it's James Spader's long-awaited return as Ultron that frequently raises "VisionQuest" to another level. Imprisoned in an attic loft so as not to cause any further mischief, the villain's (somewhat retconned) appearance in the series becomes a focal point throughout the narrative. Why keep a renegade and genocidal AI around for kicks? While Vision struggles to answer this for himself, the immediate benefit is we get a series of psychotherapy sessions crackling with Bettany and Spader's chemistry. Picking up where he left off in "Age of Ultron" seamlessly, Spader plays to the rafters with all the barely-restrained theatricality he can muster. "VisionQuest" soars every moment it spends on this complex, bristling dynamic — which, thankfully, is early and often.

Once "VisionQuest" breezes through some expositional table-setting and settles into its quirky routine, showrunner Terry Matalas hardly even hesitates before upending the chessboard all over again. Every time we seem to get a handle on where this story is going, the mystery-box plotting (which the series self-deprecatingly calls out at one point) has a tendency to blow it all up in favor of even more entertaining plot twists and turns lurking around the corner. Although this gets to be one or two mysteries too many by the end of the eight-episode season — certain drawn-out reveals may give viewers flashbacks to all the Mephisto fan-theories and fever dreams from "WandaVision" – the answers that Matalas and his writers come up with usually skew towards servicing the characters rather than the MCU itself.

This is clearly a series indebted to the best of what "WandaVision" had to offer, eschewing the usual franchise format in favor of something much bolder, ambitious, and visually distinct. It's a testament to both Will Hughes-Jones' vibrant production design and the combined efforts of rotating cinematographers Christopher Ross, Ben Smithard, and especially Neville Kidd that this slots easily next to both seasons of "Loki" as some of the best the MCU has ever looked on-screen. And, thematically, Vision's journey of self-discovery amid grief and newfound fatherhood dovetails nicely with several ongoing arcs — from Ultron to newcomers T'Nia Miller as rival synth Jocasta and Ruaridh Mollica as Vision's erstwhile son Thomas Shepherd.

For those of us who've been in the trenches defending the oddball joys of "Age of Ultron," however, "VisionQuest" is an ode to the days when the MCU was free to be a little more experimental, goofy, and earnest.

Which brings us back to the push and pull of how "VisionQuest" exists within the MCU proper — and its paradoxical relationship to that most memorable line in "Age of Ultron." The "WandaVision"-inspired motifs and visual gags are apparent everywhere you look, while the positive reception to "Agatha All Along" seems to have given this production even more freedom to embrace its own personality. The season even features multiple scenes of Vision and Ultron literally watching moments from past movies and shows play out in front of them — a gimmick that could've quickly become irritating if it weren't so unexpectedly moving and self-reflexive.

Yet, at nearly every opportunity, "VisionQuest" walks the same impossible tightrope that some of the franchise's more recent and surprisingly effective installments have done. Like "Thunderbolts*" and "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," this (mostly) self-contained storyline recognizes how to exploit our investment in these characters, first and foremost, rather than the shared universe of it all. The drama, humor, and genre-hopping tone are all based on a rich foundation, strengthened by the passing of time. Sure, this entire enterprise could be perceived as a cynical excuse to bring Vision back from the dead, wrap up a "trilogy" that has unfolded entirely outside of the movies, and prop up whatever the next few years of Disney+ streaming has in store. Instead, it unfolds as the best of what cross-media storytelling is capable of when artists are allowed to cook.

Like its title character, "VisionQuest" understands inevitability. People die, love leads to grief, and mistakes can't be undone. But maybe we can create something beautiful nevertheless — flawed, yes, but worthwhile.

The first two episodes of "VisionQuest" premiere on Disney+ on October 13, 2026.