We haven't seen the supervillain known as Ultron since 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, and fans have been wondering if the evil AI might make his return to the MCU ever since.
Now, THR is reporting that James Spader is set to reprise the role for the planned Disney+ Vision series, which is being described as "the third part of a trilogy that started with WandaVision and continues in Agatha All Along."
Ultron was created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner to be part of a peacekeeping program that was meant to "put a shield around the Earth" as a defence against invasion, but the AI ended up turning against humanity and was ultimately destroyed by his "son" Vision towards the end of Age of Ultron.
How he will be reintroduced remains to be seen.
We found out earlier this year that the Vision show had been revamped, with Star Trek: Picard executive producer Terry Matalas now on board as showrunner. The show is currently on track for a 2026 premiere.
Matalas' work on Picard is said to have "greatly impressed the top brass at the studio. Marvel chief Kevin Feige, an avowed Trekkie, even recently appeared with Matalas on a two-hour episode of the Star Trek podcast Inglorious Treksperts.”
Paul Bettany will reprise his role as the MCU's tragic synthezoid. There's no mention of Elizabeth Olsen's potential involvement, but the initial report did note that the series will take place after the events of WandaVision, "as ghost Vision presumably explores his new purpose in life."
The finale of WandaVision revealed that the Vision we'd been spending time with over the course of the season was actually one of Wanda's constructs, but the real, "White Vision" was rebuilt by S.W.O.R.D. and programmed to track down and kill the Scarlet Witch. This version of the character away to parts unknown towards the end of the episode after declaring himself to be the "true Vision."
As for Wanda, last we saw of the powerful sorceress, she was laying waste to the Illuminati and bringing a mountain down on top of herself in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Previous Vision Quest rumors claimed that Vision's children, Vin and Viv, would make their MCU debuts in the show, but we have no idea which - if any - ideas from Jac Schaefer's incarnation of the series will carry over. Euphoria alum Javon Walton is rumored to be up for the role of "Teen" (most likely Speed).
"Marvel Studios' WandaVision blends the style of classic sitcoms with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision – two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban life – begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems."
In addition to Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as the leads, WandaVision stars Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, Debra Jo Rupp, Randall Park, and Kat Dennings. Following the success of the series, an "Agatha: Coven of Chaos" spin-off featuring the return of Hahn as Agatha Harkness was announced. We recently learned that this show would actually be titled Agatha All Along.