VisionQuest's new Avengers live inside Vision's head: FRIDAY and EDITH have to fight Ultron from his Mindscape
On the Pinewood set of VisionQuest, Marvel showed how Vision gets his own team of AIs, and Tommy’s actor refused to say if he gets super-speed.
Marvel's clearly not done tinkering with Vision, and with VisionQuest they're taking him to some brilliantly odd places. Instead of the usual motley crew of muscle and magic, this time he's getting backup from a bunch of artificial intelligences inside his own head. Call it a digital Avengers, if you like, and they're all making their screen debut just before Avengers: Doomsday lands.
An Avengers Team in Vision's Brain
I had a snoop at what Marvel's up to during a production visit to Pinewood Studios—the set was swarming as they filmed bits of VisionQuest. The new spin is simple: Vision's not facing the world alone. He's now augmented by a council of classic Marvel AIs, all stuck inside his Mindscape. You've got FRIDAY (Tony Stark's old digital secretary), EDITH (the Stark Industries glasses interface), and a few more, all packed together to tutor and bicker with Vision. It's less an AI support group, more a brains trust that argue their way through trouble and act—rather pointedly—like a makeshift Avengers unit.
Ultron takes control of Vision’s actual body in the outside world, trapping the artificial intelligences inside the Mindscape and forcing them to work together to get out.
In one scene, Ultron becomes the obvious villain, locking up the digital gang while hijacking Vision's body on the outside. The AIs don't exactly pull together seamlessly. FRIDAY acts as the procedural one, clutching her pearls over digital security and warning that bashing at Ultron too aggressively could backfire. Meanwhile, EDITH votes for a straight fight, isnisting Vision should charge at Ultron. Their squabbling actually helps, bizarrely enough—it gives Vision a crack at finding out what Ultron's up to, and drops a hint about the mysterious Paladin, who seems bound to be a major reveal.
Read more: Ready your pause button: Paul Bettany promises a ‘surplus’ of MCU Easter eggs in VisionQuest
New Blood and Old Mysteries
One MCU wildcard here is Tommy, a character who's always been a bit overshadowed by his brother Billy. Comic fans know Tommy for his super-speed, though VisionQuest hasn't shown if he's using his powers yet. When Rauridh Mollica, who plays Tommy, was asked point-blank by Lewis Glazebrook whether we'd see any super-speed antics on the show, he politely stonewalled the question:
‘This is a mystery that I am not comfortable answering.’
Marvel's definitely keeping Tommy's abilities under wraps for now, even as they're putting Vision's AI-based team at the heart of their next big storyline. Whether or not we'll get a proper Young Avengers roll-out is anyone's guess at this stage.