Marvel Studios just revealed Ultron's fourth evolved form, and he looks just as menacing as when he last appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The murderous AI, played by James Spader, made his mark as one of the most unhinged MCU villains when Marvel gave him the spotlight in 2015. At the end of Age of Ultron, it was thought that the evil synthezoid was long gone, but after 11 years, he's back, and he's evolved even further than MCU fans last remember.
Ultron appears in Marvel's upcoming Disney+ release VisionQuest, the culmination of the trilogy that began with WandaVision in 2021 and continued through Agatha All Along. Ultron's new form was unveiled when Marvel played VisionQuest's trailer at Disney's D23 Expo. Paul Bettany joined Spader and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to show fans the footage for the very first time. Ultron's robot form is shown halfway into the trailer, inside the mansion that exists in Vision's mindscape, where he keeps human incarnations of several of Tony Stark's AIs.
The robot appears only briefly because Vision quickly interjects, saying, "Ultron, human avatars only!" Some fans have even joked that it's more of the budget department talking than Vision's own words. We then see Ultron switch to his human form, and James Spader appears in his full glory, sporting a massive beard. Before this reveal, fans got a sneak peek at both designs via a Funko Pop! figure.
Since arriving in the MCU, Ultron has taken on several forms. The character's base design was introduced as a web of blue light, a living neural network that Tony Stark discovered inside the Mind Stone in Loki's scepter. Stark and Bruce Banner harnessed this power and created an artificial intelligence meant to be a peacekeeping program.
Of course, this doesn't go as planned, as Ultron immediately resorts to violence after taking a peek at the internet and what humanity has been up to.
He decides humans are a problem and resolves to fix this predicament. Ultron attacks Jarvis and eventually evolves to his next form. He builds an ugly, patched-up robot body from pieces of Stark's Iron Legion and storms the party the Avengers are having inside the tower, telling the team his intentions and origin. After duking it out with Stark, Thor, and the rest of the Avengers, Ultron's patchwork exterior is destroyed, and he decides to evolve further. He famously announces, "I had strings, but now I'm free," and makes his way through the internet.
He then appears in Sokovia at an abandoned HYDRA base, wearing a more fitting dark exterior. This new body makes Ultron appear even more ominous, a robust shell with red eyes and a head with curved plates that look like horns. There, he recruits the Maximoff twins, Wanda and Pietro, to help achieve his goals, and causes plenty of havoc in that form. He kills Baron Strucker in a cell and chops off Ulysses Klaue's arm after the arms dealer compares him to one of Stark's creations.
That body eventually gets wrecked in a battle with Iron Man at Klaue's salvage yard on the African coast, so he transfers into another version of the same exterior and mind-controls Helen Cho with the scepter to make him a new ultimate body, a vibranium-infused synthetic shell with the Mind Stone at its core. That shell, however, is what Vision eventually occupied after the Avengers interfered while Ultron was downloading himself into it.
The synthezoid answers this with a menacing alternative. In Sokovia, he unveils a new and improved exterior in the presence of a captive Natasha Romanoff, destroying the older body he was in and stepping forward in a taller, sleeker, more durable frame. This is Ultron's most powerful form, and in it, he causes even more trouble, commanding an army of robots known as the Ultron Sentries, giving the Avengers a run for their money. His ultimate plan is to lift Sokovia into the sky and destroy the planet with it. It takes the combined efforts of Thor, Vision, Iron Man, and Hulk to significantly weaken Ultron.
Even then, he manages to hijack the Quinjet, unleashing fire on everyone and hitting Pietro, who dies protecting Clint Barton and a young boy. Fittingly, Wanda delivers what seems like the final blow to Ultron, ripping out his metallic heart. However, he still survives in one final form, appearing in a scrappy shell that is barely standing, and comes face to face with Vision, who destroys that exterior as well.
Why's Ultron So Essential To VisionQuest's Story?
VisionQuest continues where WandaVision left off, with Vision resurrected in a new exterior known as White Vision, inheriting a flood of memories from Wanda's recreation of the original before flying off. Ultron appearing in this story is a bit of a surprise, given that this trilogy is supposed to be Wanda and Vision's story. However, the limbo Vision finds himself in this series makes Ultron's involvement all the more important. Vision is lost, still trying to figure out who he is, the purpose of his existence, and how he came to be. To understand this, he must look to his past and go all the way back to Jarvis, the AI to whom he owes the core of his existence.
Ultron also plays a key role in Vision's origins, since he's responsible for creating the red exterior he inhabited and placing the Mind Stone in it. Marvel Television boss Brad Winderbaum even confirmed that the show "plays with themes of fatherhood," explaining that it's "really about fathers and sons and specifically about three generations of grandfather, father, son," referring to Ultron, Vision, and Vision's son Tommy. "The entire trilogy is focused, in many ways, on parenthood as a concept," he added.
Vision actor Paul Bethany himself also recently explained how the villain survived. According to the actor, Vision "actually uploaded him into his mind, and he lives in this kind of fantastic prison loft, and I go to him for advice." The series' official synopsis backs this up, confirming that Vision consults the AI personas embedded in his programming, including FRIDAY, EDITH, JARVIS, and the infamous Ultron. Ultron is not the only one he turns to in his mindscape.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
