James Spader Returning As Marvel’s Ultron In Paul Bettany’s Vision Series

A long-forgotten villain is making a comeback in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Ultron, of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” fame, is indeed making the jump from the big screen to the small screen for the upcoming Vision TV series that will center on Paul Bettany’s sentient robot. Perhaps not coincidentally, Vision was brought to life for the first time in “Age of Ultron,” with the two robots battling it out for the fate of the world. Now, it seems as though they’ll be mixing it up with one another once again.

Details are currently a bit slim, but we learned earlier this year that the Vision series had tapped Terry Matalas (“Star Trek: Picard”) as its showrunner. The project was first announced in 2022 in the aftermath of “WandaVision,” which was the first live-action MCU show commissioned for Disney+. For a while, it seemed like this project might have been quietly canned or set aside, given that there were so few updates for those first couple of years. But it’s alive and well, now serving as a springboard to bring Ultron back in a big way. What’s more, THR is reporting that James Spader will reprise his role as the character from “Age of Ultron” (which was a major hit, pulling in $1.4 billion at the box office in its day).

The series was going to be titled “Vision Quest” but it’s unclear if that’s still the case. There is much to be determined. The “WandaVision” series finale left us in a place where White Vision was, in many ways, an altered version of the Vision fans had become familiar with over the years. Let us not forget that Vision was killed rather brutally by Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War,” which set Wanda off on her violent, chaotic path in the first place. As for how Ultron is going to factor into all of this? That’s the big question.

For those who may need a brief refresher: Wanda yanked Ultron’s heart from his main body towards the end of “Age of Ultron,” enacting a bit of vengeance after Quicksilver died. Later, we see Vision and Ultron, who is using one of the falling apart bodies of one of his drones as a host, have a bit of a philosophical conversation before Vision finishes the job off screen. We haven’t heard much of anything from or about Ultron in the MCU since, save for the character appearing in the animated series “What If…?”

But that’s all about alternate realities. How could the Ultron of old be resurrected? Oftentimes in the pages of Marvel Comics, characters who are dead almost never stay dead. To that end, Vision is alive in some capacity after being brutally murdered. The series could, in theory, pull from a storyline like the one depicted in “Avengers” #66 through #68 from 1969. This arc sees Ultron return after Vision is corrupted into building him a new body made of Adamantium. The story, as it exists, involves many of the core Avengers, but it could be loosely adapted, as the MCU often does with Marvel Comics storylines.

In any event, it goes to show that the comics could provide a pathway for this to occur, reasonably enough. As for Bettany, the actor made it pretty clear in a 2022 interview that it was only a matter of time before he suited up as Vision once again:

“At the end of ‘WandaVision,’ you see Vision fly off and that’s a loose end. And Kevin Feige (president of Marvel Studios) is a man who doesn’t really allow loose ends. So I assume at some point I will be putting on my tights and cloak for another outing.”

The currently untitled Vision series is expected to premiere sometime in 2026.