For the first time, Marvel Studios has given Ultron (James Spader) a trailer all his own ahead of VisionQuest. Spader is back in the role for the Disney+ series, which debuts with its first two episodes on October 14. He was, of course, the main villain of Avengers: Age of Ultron, his one and only MCU appearance, with the AI robot having been born and then wiped off the face of the Earth by the end of the movie. But in classic Marvel fashion, death is only the beginning, and Ultron's new trailer proves that his God complex is still alive and well.
Marvel Studios just released a new VisionQuest trailer titled "Ultron's Got His Groove Back," and as the name suggests, it's all about the devious child of Tony Stark: Ultron.
The video blends behind-the-scenes featurette footage with new VisionQuest clips, and it kicks off with Spader reflecting, "It really started with a voiceover... Ten years later, here I am."
Interestingly, Spader did, of course, do the voiceover, but he also did mo-cap work as Ultron on the set of Avengers: Age of Ultron over 10 years ago now.
Spader adds that Ultron is "older and wiser" this time around. Before his confirmation return, Ultron had been considered dead after the events of Age of Ultron, which, in-universe, was now roughly 13 years ago.
The trailer shows off this updated version of the villain, the Spader human avatar, sporting a big beard, inside Vision's (Paul Bettany) mindscape.
At the end of the trailer, the human avatar of E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire) asks Ultron why he would choose that human form, and he simply replies, "Suits me."
It's a pretty on-the-nose nod, considering Ultron canonically chose to look just like Spader.
Earlier in the trailer, though, it's clear that Ultron is still the villain we all knew and (the Avengers) feared.
Everyone around him seems to know it too, a variety of characters calling him all kinds of names, from "monster" and "devil" to "killer" and "genocidal maniac." Ultron isn't exactly helping his case, either, warning at one point, "I'll just be here watching the world burn."
The trailer also shows Ultron in his classic metal body, along with a new power that lets him move through space using what appear to be disintegrating constructs. At one point, he even seems to have Tommy Maximoff (Ruaridh Mollica) in danger.
One mystery of VisionQuest is whether Ultron will truly be freed into the real world, rather than just the mind of Vision.
Ultron has some harsh words for Vision, too, telling him, "You are blind, Vision, to almost everything, including the truth." But his most chilling line, which also seems to be directed at Vision himself, is all about who really gets to "play God:"
"You wanted to play God? Now it's time you met one."
It seems like this version of Vision will be open to having Ultron around in his mindscape, and Ultron is (sort of) his dad in a weird, robotic way. After all, Vision was famously supposed to be the next evolution of Ultron in Age of Ultron.
In VisionQuest, it seems like Vision could open up to Ultron, and then Ultron may try to escape. As he puts it in the new trailer, "I'm going to finish what I started all those years ago."
In case anyone forgot, what he started in Age of Ultron was global extinction. Back in that film, Ultron analyzed human history and concluded that humanity itself was the ultimate threat to world peace.
To accomplish this, he engineered a world-wiping event by lifting the city of Sokovia into the sky to slam it back down to Earth like a meteor. This led to the Sokovia Accords, and those impacts on the MCU are still felt today.
It's hard to imagine VisionQuest will be tackling an Avengers-level threat, but it does put into question what the true nature of Ultron's return will be this fall.
Why is Ultron Back in the MCU?
When Vision destroyed Ultron's body in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he actually uploaded the villain into his own mind, where Ultron has been locked away in what Bettany calls a "fantastic prison loft."
Spader explained that Ultron has "had access to the internet, television, history, and he's just been consuming, and he's been painting."
All that downtime may have left Ultron somewhat reformed. Bettany described Vision and Ultron's dynamic as "a sort of father-son, therapist-psychopath relationship," even calling the villain "my psychopathic life coach." Spader added that Ultron is "just making trouble in this house with [Vision], who he loves and hates."
On the surface, that makes Ultron an abusive, father-like figure who offers the occasional bit of wisdom as Vision works to regain his humanity.
But that "finish what I started" line suggests Ultron may still have a secret agenda. He could be manipulating Vision into helping him take on a new body, or he could even try to seize control of Vision's... which was his initial plan anyway.
The big question is whether Ultron ever makes it back to the real world, and plenty of fans would love to see an action-packed rematch with Vision. With Vision's new suit and brief moments from the trailers of them fighting, this face-off appears to be on the table, but the end result is anyone's guess.
