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Ultron is coming back to the MCU.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that James Spader is returning to voice the murderous mechanoid that he had previously played in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron as part of the upcoming Vision series being developed by Terry Matalas for Disney+. He’ll be appearing alongside Paul Bettany, who’ll headline the series as the synthezoid hero, rebuilt as seen in 2021’s WandaVision and now searching for his purpose.

Spader’s return is somewhat unexpected, as Ultron was seemingly destroyed at the end of Age of Ultron — although it’s worth noting that it was the Vision himself who was responsible for that destruction, meaning that it’s possible that something happened that wasn’t immediately apparent to allow the villain to live on in some unexpected manner. (After all, if the Vision can be rebuilt and live again, why couldn’t Ultron?)

Curiously enough, The Hollywood Reporter describes the unnamed series — referred to by many as VisionQuest, after a 1980s comic book storyline, although that is apparently not the actual name of the show — as “the third part of a trilogy” that includes both WandaVision and Agatha All Along. If true, that’s an interesting new fact; previously, it was believed that Agatha All Along and the untitled Vision series were separate spin-offs from WandaVision, as opposed to continuations of each other. Recasting the three series as a trilogy suggests that there’s a running story between all three… and that, perhaps, characters might move between shows more easily than might have been anticipated.

The Vision series is expected to shoot next year in the UK. To date, no other casting announcements have been made about it.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.