Has Vision been abandoned by the Avengers? "I think so," says Paul Bettany

VisionQuest stars Paul Bettany and James Spader on the father-son dynamic behind the new MCU series, the lack of Avengers, Ultron's feelings for Wanda, and more.

It's been almost five years since we last saw Vision in WandaVision, but now he's back—or a version of him anyway, in the new Disney+ series VisionQuest. Paul Bettany returns as an android (a synthzoid for you Marvel heads) alongside James Spader's Ultron and other AI types from the MCU, including Jarvis (James Darcy), Friday (Orla Brady) and Edith (Emily Hampshire).

But you know who isn't up for the new show? Wanda Maximoff or The Avengers. Given that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) is dead after the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the Avengers aren't themselves these days, and there are apparently two teams floating around the MCU right now (neither of which the original members are a part of), it's not that surprising.

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Notably, in the VisionQuest premiere, Vision thinks to himself about how he seems to have evaded everyone who has been after him since the events of WandaVision. "There is no enemy, familiar, or even avenger who wants to find the prospect," he says. But when she says that line, Bethany delivers it with a kind of melancholic understanding. So, of course, when we spoke recently, I had to ask the actor about that — especially if Vision feels abandoned by the Avengers in that moment.

"Well, I think so," Bethany explains. "I finally realized that I was really creating a vision for a version of myself as a kid, where I felt like an outsider who was being bullied. I didn't think I would ever fit in. So it's just a moment to remind [us]... sitting in a chair at a dance, a school dance, you know what I mean? And having the courage to go out with a girl."

And then there's Wanda everything. Somehow I doubt there's a single Marvel fan who thinks the Scarlet Witch is actually dead, despite having the entire mountain of Wondagor fall on top of her in Doctor Strange 2. At this point in the series, Vision (formerly known as White Vision, who lacked the emotions and memories of the original, was a magical version before meeting OdaVision). Apart from humanity, as well as any deep feelings about Wanda (or at least that's how she presents it). But what about Ultron, the imprisoned villain that Wanda and her late brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor Johnson) once worked for? What does he think of Vision's ex-partner and the mother of their children?

Bettany on Vision and the Avengers: "I realized that as a kid, I was creating Vision for a version of myself, where I felt like a persecuted outsider. I didn't think I fit in. So it's just a moment to remind [us].

"He's very rude about Wanda," Spader tells me. Basically, Wanda is dead now, and Ultron doesn't care anymore "Ultron lives in the present. He really lives in the present. And he's ready to step forward. And he won't step forward until he gets [Vision] ahead of him."

Regarding the relationship between Vision and Ultron, while when we first meet him here Ultron is trapped in the artificial reality that Vision has created, the two clearly have an important bond. "He's like a quasi-therapist and a psychotic father," Bethany says of Spider's character.

"I think without question, she looks at him as a boy-like character," Spader says. "It helps him perceive her that way... but I think what's more interesting is how much he cares about how Vision perceives him. And it's kind of touching because he... lets himself not care or pretend he doesn't care, but he does. He really does. But what's interesting is that it doesn't matter how much he cares about his vision."

Fans will remember the big scene between Vision and Ultron from Avengers: Age of Ultron, where the two artificial life forms debated humanity - both the pros and cons of the species. It was this scene — which Spider points out was actually filmed in a parking lot and not in a forest as it appears in the finale — that is really key to why Ultron is back in VisionQuest and what the relationship between the two characters is.

“[We] nurtured it and watered it and fed it and raised it and gave it light and it blossomed into this amazing show and story,” says this little seed in the final scene with them in Age of Spiders. And these characters, they come from this seed, but they grow into this fabulous thing, this fabulous creation [that's] funny and poignant and sad and tragic and sometimes incredibly exciting and thrilling and unsettling.”

In that scene 11 years ago, Vision tells a defeated Ultron:

"Humans are strange. They think that order and chaos are somehow opposites and try to control what will not be. But there is grace in their failures. "I think you've missed it."

"He spends 13 years embracing this idea and really embracing humanity for that idea," Spader says. Where he is, he is chaos. That's what he is. This is what he lives for. That's what he is. And yet his son is currently dedicated to trying to sort things out and trying to process this. And what they then learn from each other is fabulous and funny and exciting and challenging for both of them. And both take from each other equally."

The cast also thinks there's been a change of perspective for Vision since Age of Ultron, as the events since that movie — when Viz, don't forget, was just yesterday's newborn — have caused the android to have "very real doubts" and become confused by the chaos of the world, and specifically, the chaos that humanity brings.

"But it's funny, they're so different," Spudder continues. "Insight has a sense of consequence and a sense of side effect that I don't think Ultron... Ultron just wants more. And I don't think he thinks about the consequences. I think he embraces chaos in all its forms and so...