The Marvel Cinematic Universe is very unique when it comes to its portrayal of comic book characters. On the one hand, it's capable of creating three-dimensional heroes that make mistakes, don't always keep their cool, are hunted by the demons of their past, and yet they manage to set an example to everybody else by saving the day countless times. On the other hand, they can also craft a one-dimensional villain with no outstanding motivations other than the caricaturesque "I want to rule the world" trope.
Granted, there are some big exceptions in the form of Kingpin, Thanos, Killmonger, The Vulture, and a few others. But more often than not, we remember an MCU project because of the hero and not its antagonistic counterpart.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is a perfect example since it was widely criticized for its portrayal of the murderous robot. Granted, it was always going to be a tough task following the first-ever Avengers movie where Loki absolutely stole the spotlight. However, Ultron had few redeeming qualities whatsoever. He liked to joke a lot, had an unexplainable obsession with Tony Stark, and—worse enough—died in the same movie in which he made his debut... or at least that's what we thought for almost a decade. See, even if fans' hopes of watching his character once again were near zero, Marvel surprised us all by indicating he'll be back sooner than expected.
Ultron will return in the Disney Plus Vision series
The Vision series will be all about comebacks. Set to release in 2026, the anticipated Disney Plus project will feature the return of the White Vision to the small screen, whom audiences last saw during the events of WandaVision all the way back in 2021. Furthermore, Faran Tahir will return to the MCU to portray the role of Raza Hamidmi — a member of the Ten Rings terrorist organization who appeared in the first Iron Man movie in 2008. And he has confirmed the reports that Ultron will be involved in the project.
During an interview with ComicBookMovie.com, Faran Tahir revealed he'll reunite with his The Blacklist co-star James Spader for the Vision series. Spader voiced Ultron in the MCU, which means we'll finally see more of the infamous MCU villain next year:
"It was sort of a reunion for us as the showrunner [Terry Matalas] was someone I worked with on a series called 12 Monkeys. We had already worked together nine years ago, and there's another cast member who was on that show who is also in this one. James Spader and I did a couple of episodes of The Blacklist, so there was a nice reunion of people who had worked together before. It was nice to have the team back in a different way, setting, and reality. It was a lot of fun. I have one more stunt to do, which I will do in about a month; that's going to be a lot of fun."
Fans had speculated that Ultron would be back in some capacity after concept art for upcoming Marvel projects leaked. One of the illustrations gave us our first look at Jocasta Pym — a robotic hero who was created by Ultron on comic book pages, much like it happened to Vision on the big screen. Insider Divinity Seeker has stated that Jocasta will make her debut in the Vision show, which would explain what Ultron's role could potentially be. The only question remaining is: how will the evil robot "return to life"?
During the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Vision himself was the one to destroy "the last" Ultron robot in existence. Besides, now that Tony Stark is gone, it would be almost impossible to recreate Ultron from scratch. But, wouldn't you know it, that's exactly where our titular character comes in. Ultron uploaded his "cerebral matrix" to the advanced android (or at least a part of it), so if there is any way we see the supervillain "in the flesh" once again, then Vision would need to be the key.
It's worth remembering that this new iteration of the former Avenger (who's now called White Vision) was created by S.W.O.R.D. and had no recollection of its past whatsoever. It wasn't until this new android connected with Wanda's projection of her husband that all the memories started to flood back in. With that in mind, it wouldn't be far-fetched to assume that the new Vision series will see its titular character try to figure out who he really is and what happened during his past. That could lead him to create Ultron once again in the search for answers, and the results could potentially be catastrophic.
A common complaint about the MCU is that it sometimes takes its villains out of the picture way too soon. While it's usual for antagonists to steal the spotlight in multiple stories on comic book pages, they usually act as a "one-and-done" on the big screen. So it's great that Marvel is giving Ultron another chance after an underwhelming debut in an Avengers movie. Hopefully, the results will be far better this time around.
The untitled Vision series is set to be released in 2026.