Vision Quest: Paul Bettany says White Vision's mind isn't as peaceful as it seems - here's all about it

Paul Bettany, the actor behind Vision in the Marvel movies, disclosed that the White Vision in the upcoming Vision Quest series is not as tranquil as he looks.

White Vision seems to be in a very calm and indifferent state externally, while internally, his thoughts are very chaotic. He is in the middle of a war with the memories that were passed down to him from the original Vision, the dark side of Ultron's influence, and even his personal struggles are hinted to be the source of the conflict.

The fact that James Spader is reprising his role as Ultron makes the whole thing even more intricate, for White Vision’s adventure is going to be very complex, as it will reveal not only the character's past but also his burgeoning self-exploration.

Vision Quest, an upcoming Marvel Studios Disney+ miniseries focused on Vision, is expected to be released in late 2026. Even though no precise date has been given, it is speculated that the miniseries will be released around the end of the year. The series is going to consist of eight episodes and is included in Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Paul Bettany explains White Vision’s troubled mind in Vision Quest

Speaking with Collider at New York Comic-Con, Paul Bettany revealed:

“One of the things that’s fun about that is that we finally get to see what it’s like inside Vision’s mind, and it’s more cluttered than you would think.”

Bettany mentioned to Collider that in the upcoming Vision Quest, the audience will get to see various AIs coming to life, one of them being the most perilous among all. He went on to say that this particular AI has been very meticulously “saving and copying and pasting” to keep it alive in the other person's brain, and one of them will have to be placed behind a firewall due to its aggressive nature. Bettany characterized it as a “psychopath,” but also admitted that it is really smart.

Collider reported that the “psychopath” Bettany is talking about is most likely the character of Ultron, the villain from Avengers, voiced by James Spader, who has already been reported to make a comeback in the new series.

This indicates that White Vision is undergoing a struggle with conflicting programming: his inherited memories, his total absence of feelings, and intrusive artificial intelligences; all these elements create a subconscious that is easily disturbed.

After what happened in WandaVision, White Vision gets the complete picture of the original Vision's experiences, but he is not ready to take them as his own, and he cannot give real feelings to them.

Terry Matalas, the sci-fi master whose works are always full of layers, has shaped an emotional and visual storyline for Vision Quest that depicts this internal conflict, with White Vision going through a transformation to discover the reason for his being.

The interweaving of the story with Ultron's presence increases the risk: Ultron, played by James Spader once more, is thought to show up as a menacing figure inside Vision's mind, thereby questioning Vision's free will and ultimate goal.

So, the psychological drama in Vision Quest is the result of the White Vision's attempt to come to terms with the machine logic, lack of emotion, and the risk of being overrun by either past programming or AI's enmity.

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Bettany admits that the struggle was the main factor why he accepted Matalas' pitch. He explained to Collider:

“Terry had a really great pitch for how he was going to... he's struggling. White Vision is really struggling with how he was going to attach feeling to those memories. Terry had a very good visual idea on how to do that.”

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