The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been built around its interconnectivity. Major characters could seemingly appear down the road or even in a movie you weren’t expecting. The studio made this clear when Robert Downey Jr. appeared unannounced in The Incredible Hulk, but the most notable instance was the recurring appearances of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. It wasn’t limited to just heroes, with villains like Samuel Sterns showing up in Captain America: Brave New World 17 years after his last appearance, but most famously, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki popping up multiple times throughout the franchise.
Videos by ComicBook.com
One might think that the only thing keeping a character from coming back in the MCU is death, with villains like Jeff Bridges’ Obidiah Stane never returning after 2008’s Iron Man; however, nothing could be further from the truth. Thanos, Loki, Ronan the Accuser, and Kilmonger have all returned to the MCU in some form after their on-screen deaths. One major Marvel villain that died and did not return, however, is Ultron. To date, the iconic Avengers villain only has one MCU appearance, and not only is that about to change, it’s going to get weird. In the end, it might be a bad thing.
Ultron’s Return in Vision Quest Could Be Divisive
Over the weekend at New York Comic Con, Marvel Studios pulled back the curtain a little bit on the upcoming TV series Vision Quest. The new show focuses on Paul Bettany’s Vision in the aftermath of WandaVision, now the White Vision and looking for his place in the world and his own identity. A trailer for the series was shown to attendees, that confirmed some surprising details about the film, namely that many of the other AI bots invented by Tony Stark in the MCU will also return, only this time they will appear as humans.
In addition to FRIDAY, JARVIS, EDITH, and others, Ultron will make his MCU return. Rather than a James Spader-voiced CGI character, though, it will just be James Spader himself in the role. It largely remains to be seen how this will be explained in the plot, but the best we can guess is that it has something to do with how these entities perceive themselves. Perhaps the series will be exploring the larger questions of identity and personhood, leading to conversations where all these previously unseen characters get to decide who they are, and doing it in a human form.
The meta-analysis of why this is being done, of course, is so Vision Quest can just have actors on a set and not spend hundreds of millions of dollars on visual effects. That may very well be a practicality of the situation, but with no plot details to give this reveal relevance, it’s tough to decipher. That said, a human Ultron does have precedent.
Ultron’s Marvel History Dictates He Should Return
At the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, there is a pivotal moment between Bettany’s Vision and the final Ultron drone, seemingly the last vestige of survival that the bot has in the world. The scene is one of the best in the sequel, as the two non-humans have a brief discussion about the nature of humanity and their place among them. In the end, Vision destroys Ultron, seemingly eliminating him from the board and future MCU appearances, and to date, that has been true.
As Marvel fans know, however, Ultron has been a recurring villain in the pages of Marvel comics for decades. Despite being defeated and his body destroyed, Ultron always comes back. Sometimes it’s because there’s another body lying around; in the end, he’s a comic book villain after all, and writers will always find a way to make his return make sense. Even the “Rage of Ultron” storyline, a relatively recent one, saw Ultron merge with his creator Hank Pym and take on a human form. There’s always a way to bring back a bad guy.
But given the expansive scope of the MCU since Avengers: Age of Ultron, it seems like Marvel has never had an interest in revisiting the villain. Perhaps that had to do with the cost of the character’s VFX, maybe it was because they wanted to respect Spader and not recast the part, or maybe they just didn’t have a place where it made sense. On the flipside, a series where Vision is questioning his role in the world and who he really is does seem like as good a place as any to break that glass and let Ultron out.
Is Marvel Going to Ruin Ultron by Not Making His Return a Bigger Deal?
That noteworthy final scene with Vision and Ultron has a line that takes on a new meaning in the context of Ultron’s MCU return. In the scene, Vision says, referring to humanity, “A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts.” It’s a line that puts importance on the here and now, that there is value to be found in something having a proper conclusion. For ten years now, it marked the last line of dialogue said to Ultron in the MCU, one that seemed profound given his larger absence in the following decade.
Now, with Ultron back, Spader reprising his role, and the character taking on a human form, it has me worried that one of the great one-and-done MCU villains could be deployed in a reductive form. Ultron has long been about a grand scale, fueled by rage at his creators, and a distinct feeling that he is correct about all things.
Ultron deserves a prestigious return; he’s too big a deal even in the larger MCU to make his comeback a soundbite to sell a streaming series. The Sokovia Accords are spurred by his plan in Avengers: Age of Ultron, meaning his choices rippled out into countless Marvel movies. Not to mention, Vision himself was built because Ultron wanted an indestructible body.
As noted, we don’t know nearly enough about Vision Quest to determine how Ultron will be used, we could get a line on par with “What is grief if not love persevering” that is delivered in those dulcet Spader tones. Based on the history of Marvel’s Disney+ TV shows, it’s just as likely that this could be a return that’s flashy on the surface and doesn’t offer fans much else.
Ultron’s return was inevitable in the MCU in some form; the character is too big in the grand scale and too important to the larger Marvel mythos to stay sidelined forever. But a series where Ultron isn’t even a robot, doesn’t interact with any of the Avengers, and whose return may not even have an effect on the MCU at large, feels like the villain isn’t being deployed correctly. I want to be proven wrong because Spader’s portrayal of Ultron is one of the most underrated villains in the MCU, but right now, the post-Endgame MCU doesn’t inspire confidence.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Stage 6 Films -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm. -
Image Courtesy of Bones Film/Passione
