Does VisionQuest still want us to fear “Peepaw” Ultron?

Showrunner Terry Matalas answers our burning questions about his show's grandfatherly vision of a classic Marvel supervillain.

By Matt Webb Mitovich  |  October 20, 2026 | 2:00pm
Photo: Dennys Ilic
TV Features VisionQuest
Does VisionQuest still want us to fear “Peepaw” Ultron?

When Avengers: Age Of Ultron premiered in the spring of 2015, the reviews were mixed. Written and directed by Joss Whedon, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 11th film was more divisive than its crossover predecessor, 2012’s The Avengers: “There’s so much ground to cover here—so many introductions to make, so much story to churn through, so many gargantuan set pieces to mount—that the movie never really finds room to breathe,” The A.V. Club’s A.A. Dowd wrote in his B- review. Age Of Ultron’s titular villain, however, was largely hailed as a positive—a most worthy opponent for Iron Man, Captain America et al. Conceived by Tony Stark to provide “a suit of armor round the world,” Ultron promptly goes rogue, snuffing out (or so he thinks) Stark’s previous AI creation, J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Bettany). Minutes later, he crashes the Avengers’ jovial penthouse hang, sporting a rather frightful “chrysalis” composed of spare parts found in Stark’s lab.

“I had to kill the other guy,” the uninvited guest says with a shrug, unaware that J.A.R.V.I.S. has merely gone into hiding. Between such casually offered, callous words (voiced by James Spader) and the body horror aesthetic of his initial robotic form, Ultron’s coming out is chilling stuff. And in the 100 minutes that follow, he proves to be a maniacally menacing, incredibly resilient, humanity-loathing adversary who can only be stopped with the help of the re-emerged J.A.R.V.I.S., uploaded into the indestructible chassis Ultron had fashioned for himself and dubbed Vision.

Jump forward 11 years to the arrival of Disney+’s VisionQuest and its presentation of Ultron as a magnificently bearded, fedora-favoring human avatar, once again—and in the flesh this time—played by Spader. (Similarly, the current S.W.O.R.D.-crafted version of Vision, White Vision—last seen flying off to who-knows-where at the end of WandaVision—is played here by Bettany, often sans makeup or the use of visual effects.) Despite the makeover, this Ultron retains his belief system of yore. But he’s unarguably more personable as… well, a person. 

How does showrunner  (previously of TV’s 12 Monkeys adaptation and Star Trek: Picard) wish us to reconcile this more “human” incarnation of Ultron with the vibranium-based heavy we feared at the cineplex? Is Matalas at all concerned that, for any future rewatches of that Marvel film, the tension created by Ultron and his threat of humankind’s “extinction” is at risk of being undercut by the mental picture of a kindly old Spader?

In a word, “No,” the showrunner tells The A.V. Club.

Ahead of VisionQuest‘s launch, Matalas said in interviews that Ultron adopting a human form within the digital mind space constructed by his progeny’s doppelganger was not strictly a budgetary issue. Yes, it costs less to not present Ultron 24/7 as a CGI robot, but Matalas said he also embraced the opportunity to offer viewers more of Spader. The three-time Emmy Award–winning actor, meanwhile, has said that he pitched Matalas (and in turn, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige) on this unexpectedly scruffy look to evoke the dramatic flair of Greek deities such as Poseidon and Zeus. Makes sense: Dating back to his Marvel Comics birth in May 1968, Ultron has always had a bit of a god complex.

VisionQuest, per its title, follows White Vision’s exploration of that which sets him apart from his late namesake, who tragically perished at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. In his journey, the kindly synthezoid comes to suspect that a Scottish lad named Thomas (Ruaridh Mollica) is, somehow and to some degree, Tommy, a “son” that Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) conjured for her and Vision via WandaVision‘s witchy hex.

“Mazel tov! It’s a boy,” Spader’s imprisoned Ultron says to Vision in the immediate wake of that parental epiphany, before planting a proud peck on his captor’s cheek. In another early scene, Ultron suggests Vision regard him as “Dad” or “Papa.” Perhaps even “Peepaw”? Sure, he’s being impishly facetious in these moments, but they still paint Ultron in human form with the energy of a doting, almost cuddly Jewish grandfather. It’s a far cry from even his quippiest moments in Whedon’s Age Of Ultron. 

But as Matalas points out,  both lines are uttered by Ultron “after creating a situation where an innocent woman”—Fiona (Polly Frame), the pub owner cut down during bounty hunter Paladin’s (Todd Stashwick) pursuit of Vision—”was killed thanks to his meddling.”

With that in mind, “Personally, I would not attempt to ‘cuddle’ with this version of Ultron,” Matalas says. 

Indeed, across the entirety of its double-episode premiere, VisionQuest offers a few whiffs of the sort of cynical rhetoric we’d come to expect from the traditionally steely Age Of Ultron villain. Is more of the same—perhaps even a full-on return to the malicious AI’s roots—to come in the remaining six episodes as they roll out over the next four Wednesdays on Disney+?

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” says Matalas. Then perhaps tipping his hand, the showrunner adds: “I would like to point out, [Ultron] mentions in the first episode that burning all of humanity to ash is on the table.”

 
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