Marvel Studios is closing out VisionQuest with a companion podcast. The VisionQuest Official Podcast features Paul Bettany, James Spader, Ruaridh Mollica and showrunner Terry Matalas in conversation with co-hosts Iman Vellani and Frank Alvarez, and it arrives tonight at 7 PM MST on Disney+, Marvel's YouTube channel and podcast apps. Check out the official post down below:
An AI Story At Its Core
VisionQuest is built around artificial intelligence from its very first episode. The series follows a rebooted Vision, the synthetic being Bettany has played since Avengers: Age of Ultron, after he escapes from people who wanted to turn him into a weapon. While in hiding and searching for new meaning, he consults the AI personas embedded in his own programming: F.R.I.D.A.Y., E.D.I.T.H., J.A.R.V.I.S. and Ultron.
Each of those artificial intelligences has its own history in the MCU. J.A.R.V.I.S., F.R.I.D.A.Y. and E.D.I.T.H. were all Tony Stark's creations, while Ultron was the AI that turned on the Avengers. Marvel's latest promo for tonight's finale puts Ultron front and center with a single line:
Vision's quiet existence ends when a bounty is placed on his head and he goes on the run with Tommy, a mysterious boy played by Mollica who may be Vision's reincarnated son. The series asks whether a synthetic person can have a family, a soul or a self that is truly his own, as he tries to resist Ultron's influence and figure out who the boy really is.
Creator And Creation, Reunited
Bettany first voiced J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark's AI assistant, before playing Vision, who was built from that same AI. Spader played Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the rogue AI that tried to build Vision's body for himself. VisionQuest puts both of them back together, with Ultron's voice living on inside Vision.
The podcast preview teases both actors talking about "playing synthezoids" and playing multiple characters, with Bettany also joking about having a stuntman. Mollica, Matalas and the co-hosts appear in the same red-curtained set, intercut with footage from the series.
Terry Matalas And Sci-Fi TV
Matalas comes to VisionQuest with a long sci-fi résumé. He co-created and ran Syfy's 12 Monkeys and served as the sole showrunner for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard, which starred the late Sir Patrick Stewart, as covered in Star Trek Legend Sir Patrick Stewart Has Sadly Passed Away At The Age Of 86. 12 Monkeys was a time travel series, and Picard's final season reunited the crew of The Next Generation.
The cast also includes Todd Stashwick, who worked with Matalas on 12 Monkeys and Picard, along with T'Nia Miller, Lauren Morais, Orla Brady, Diane Morgan, Polly Frame, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Emily Hampshire and James D'Arcy.
The Finale Tonight
The finale, titled "Forever," streams on Disney+ at 7 PM MST, the same time the podcast goes live. Marvel is billing it as "the epic conclusion of the visionary trilogy," the run of Disney+ series that began with WandaVision and continued with Agatha All Along. The cast and showrunner celebrated with a Finale Launch Event in New York City last night.
Vellani and Alvarez previously hosted Marvel's 5-part Countdown to Doomsday podcast ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, which opens on December 18. Another story about an artificial companion recently reached theaters, as covered in Klara And The Sun: Taika Waititi Rages At Critics For Box Office Bomb's Negative Reviews: "You're Irrelevant".
Do you think VisionQuest will let Vision break free of Ultron in tonight's finale?
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