Marvel’s Vision Quest Fails to Replicate Westworld’s Emotional Depth in TV Review

KUALA LUMPUR, 13 OCTOBER 2026 —

Marvel Studios’ new eight-episode series “VisionQuest,” positioned as a direct sequel to the 2021 hit “WandaVision,” struggles to connect emotionally with audiences despite clever visual concepts and a star-studded cast, according to a review published by Variety.

The review argues that the show ends up in the same predicament as its protagonist: a synthetic being trying and mostly failing to connect with its emotions.

The narrative complexity of “VisionQuest” mirrors the internal conflict of its lead character. In the series, Vision runs a simulation where he repeatedly attempts to condense extensive lore and explain it to Tommy without overwhelming him with anger and confusion. The review notes that there is not a single version of this explanation that does not end with Tommy storming out of the room.

This dynamic reflects the viewing experience, where the show plays with clever concepts, particularly in its visual presentation. As simulation scenarios accumulate, Vision clones pile up until a dozen exhausted, exasperated versions of Bettany collapse on a hotel floor. Much of the series strips away the monochrome coating to show Vision as an ordinary human, allowing Bettany to display his charm, but the imagery is larded with convoluted backstory and abstract concepts.

The series introduces a topical slant to the long-standing science fiction staple of artificial intelligence, as real-life AI companies discuss potential sentience. Vision creates or convenes a group of autonomous AIs, referred to as “agents,” to assist with various tasks. These include F.R.I.D.A.Y., voiced by Orla Brady, who helps decode social interactions, and E.D.I.T.H., voiced by Emily Hampshire, who is a proponent of fun.

Mechanics D.U.M.-E., played by Henry Lewis, and U, played by Jonathan Sayer, tend to mundane internal systems. The ensemble also includes familiar figures from earlier stages of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as Tony Stark’s assistant J.A.R.V.I.S., voiced by James D’Arcy, and the antagonist Ultron, voiced by James Spader.

All these assistants take corporeal form in Vision’s “Mindspace,” a virtual and psychological plane shaped like a quirky Victorian mansion. In this realm, Ultron appears not as a menacing CGI robot but as the 66-year-old Spader himself, depicted as a schlubby man with a flowing beard and a trenchcoat. His menacing, purple-prosed monologues are undercut by his appearance, creating a highly entertaining character who is cynical but humbled from his supervillain days.

Without access to the real world, Ultron settles for being the devil on Vision’s shoulder rather than an actor in his own right. The review credits the show for this specific creation, allowing Spader to layer his signature sardonic air into the role.

The series becomes overly complicated when the Mindspace intersects with the real world. Directors Christopher J. Byrne, Gandja Monteiro, and Vincenzo Natali, along with creator Terry Matalas, who helms the final pair of episodes, find some fun within the mutable dimension.

For instance, when a hostile android’s neural network connects with Vision’s, the episode becomes a riff on possession and exorcism, with the line “The power of code compels you!” Similarly, when Ultron begs Vision to let him “take the wheel,” it is depicted as a literal ship’s wheel buffeted by stormwinds.

However, apart from having the AIs appear and speak to Vision as invisible imaginary friends, the show never lands on a consistent or legible way to map the relationship between the two realms or how events in one affect the material reality of the other.

Constantly toggling between the Mindspace and the physical world takes a toll on Tommy, who only exists in the latter. The tenuousness of Tommy’s nature makes him a difficult protagonist to map onto; he is described as kind of another incarnation of Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters in “WandaVision,” but also kind of not.

This straining to comprehend the irrational fog of human emotions is the show’s explicit subject, which only clarifies the problem rather than neutralizing it. As Vision wonders what his purpose is without Wanda or the Avengers, the audience is left wondering the same. The series tries to balance philosophical questions about consciousness, including the Ship of Theseus metaphor, with more active conflicts.

At the behest of a mysterious client, the bounty hunter Paladin, played by Todd Stashwick, is on Vision’s trail, as is the aforementioned android, played by T’Nia Miller. Evading them provides some momentum, though not enough to propel an entire cast so massive that the review notes it has not even mentioned Diane “Philomena Cunk” Morgan, who plays the Paladin’s assistant.

Before long, “VisionQuest” is trying to stitch all its unwieldy threads together with basic clichés about chosen family. The review states that the show often tells the audience what they are supposed to be feeling, yet rarely achieves its stated aim.

“WandaVision” was the first Marvel Studios show to air on Disney+, and with its shapeshifting sitcom homage as an allegory for grief, it has remained a high bar to beat amid the MCU’s oversaturation era. This remains the case for the direct sequel. “VisionQuest” rehashes many of the same themes about recovering from loss, including a flashback to the famous line about love persevering, with a hero who is, by definition, much less accessible.

The review notes that given AI’s alarming trajectory toward mass job replacement and civilizational destruction, the reviewer did not feel especially inclined to empathize with a bunch of digital entities. While “VisionQuest” can be enjoyable in its comfort zone of zanily tweaking the Mindspace, it does not leave a lasting mark when it ventures out into the tactile world.

The first two episodes of “VisionQuest” will premiere on Disney+ on Oct. 14, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Wednesdays.

Related: Marvel Studios · Paul Bettany