The penultimate episode of VisionQuest, titled "Immolation," ended by finally introducing the mysterious Client, a character whose identity has been kept under wraps throughout the Disney+ series.
Played by Ultron actor James Spader, the reveal raises plenty of questions about what's coming in the finale. The episode stops short of naming the moustachioed antagonist, but there are already several intriguing possibilities when it comes to who this mysterious figure really is.
Could he be an evolved version of Ultron, the grandson of a key Marvel Comics character, or even a villain with ties to the MCU's future? We're breaking down the three most likely candidates below, along with what their potential roles could mean for the wider franchise...
Ultron, Evolved
Since we first met Ultron in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, the villain has been determined to evolve. Vision's body was supposed to be his ultimate, human-like form, but he instead settled for the hulking Vibranium frame we saw in Age of Ultron's final act.
The time Ultron spent in Vision's mindspace has given him something of an affinity for humanity, while he's also found love with Jocasta. Could that have led Ultron down the route of wanting to become more man than machine...or perhaps a mixture of both?
Well, there's precedent for this in the comics. In Avengers: Rage of Ultron, Ultron merged with his creator, Hank Pym, to become a human/robot hybrid. Could something similar have happened here? If so, it's given Ultron's human avatar a real-world form, which is a scary thought.
Phineas Horton's Grandson
This currently seems like the most obvious possibility. After all, episode 7 establishes that Phineas Horton had a daughter who took her father's journal as a child. That likely holds the secrets to creating AI, meaning Horton's grandson was probably Josephine Carrington's mystery partner.
It's fitting that the creator of modern AIs in the MCU is who Ultron's human avatar is based on. He's also almost certainly not a good man based on what little we know about what happened to Josephine.
While Phineas Horton doesn't have a grandson in the comics, he did have a granddaughter, Victoria Anderson (so, there is a basis for taking the story down this route). Regardless, we can't wait to see what happens if Ultron comes face-to-face with his moustachioed human doppelganger.
Cornelius Van Lunt
Talking of the Client's impressive facial hair, we're getting really obscure with this suggestion. Cornelius Van Lunt debuted in 1969's Avengers #72, and isn't only included here because Spader's mystery character bears a striking resemblance to him!
In the comics, he was one of the key members of the Great Wheel, aka Zodiac. With Marvel Television developing a Zodiac TV series that many fans believe will revolve around this mysterious group, VisionQuest could set the stage for Spader to reprise his role as Van Lunt there.
Crucially, Van Lunt has a history with androids after clashing with an army of Life Model Decoys deployed to kill a later version of Zodiac he was leading at the time. We'll see, but there has been chatter about this series setting the stage for the MCU's future.