Meet T'Nia Miller, a mesmerizing British actress known for her roles in The Haunting of Bly Manor (Hannah Grose), The Fall of the House of Usher (Victorine LaFourcade), or most notably as the mercurial Simone Thearle in the Sky / AMC drama Gangs of London. Now, she joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Miller has been cast in what might be her most substantial role yet, appearing in Marvel's upcoming Vision series for Disney Plus (which currently has the working title of Vision Quest). She will be bookended by Paul Bettany, returning as Vision, and back by much popular demand is James Spader, as Ultron. That's important because she is playing Jocasta Pym, the character who in the comics is the wife... mother... and daughter of the murderous android.
Yes, she is all three. Not split personality. More like a Trinitarian being. It's complicated.
Explaining Jocasta's strange origins in Marvel Comics
The secret is in the last name.
In Marvel Comics (Avengers No. 58, 1963), it was Hank Pym who created Ultron, not Tony Stark. Regretfully, so many casuals were head-over-heels for Tony Stark/Iron Man/Robert Downey Jr. that no one cared to ruin it for them. However, the die-hard comic fans knew the series injustice made to make Age of Ultron the direct connection to Thanos it was destined to become.
It was Pym's neural patterns that created the pathos of Ultron. However, during Hank's toiling with AI and advanced robotics, he thought Ultron would become the ultimate service vessel to research the net and bring things to life. Only, once Ultron found his sentience, the only thing he served was his hatred for his creator.
Much like the film, that part is accurate. He even frames Edwin Jarvis for an attack against the Avengers in Avengers No. 55 (1963). Where things go really wonky in Ultron's origin is his zeal for power isn't what made him go rogue and try to take over the world. It was love-ish.
He developed an unhealthy fascination with Pym's wife, The Wasp. So he kidnaps her. Long story, short, Hank gets her back, but not before Ultron brainwashes his creator to clone her conscience into the shell of something Ultron was nutting and bolting back at his lab, a shell for what would be his wife.
Jim Shooter (writer) and George Perez (illustrator) created an android version of Janet Van Dyne in The Avengers No. 162 (1977), an AI-fluent, technological Bride of Frankenstein named Jocasta. Since she has (most of) the conscience of Janet, her last name is Pym in the comics.
For literary buffs and lovers of deceptive irony, in Greek myth Jocasta is the queen of Thebes, wife of Laius, and, yes... mother of Oedipus. As in the inspiration behind the psychological neck crank of the "Oedpius Complex."
Jocasta, then, and in Marvel Comics, is the walking embodiment of that deranged pathos.
More Vision behind Jocasta
In the comics, Vision and Jocasta have something in common—both realized Ultron wasn't that great of a personality and betrayed the sinister AI to work alongside the Avengers. The unique characteristic about Jocasta is that she never felt accepted by the Avengers and left them before she was made a full-fledged Avenger (The Avengers No. 46, 1963).
Jocasta's history in canon is stilted as she has been revived a few times in print to make more than a minimal effect. For example:
- One time, as a loner AI, she had the urge to rebuild Ultron (it was pre-programmed inside her programming). She did, but soon teamed up with The Thing and Machine Man to later destroy him when he went rogue (again) (Marvel Two-In-One, Vol. 1, No. 92, 1982).
- Another time, Jocasta was in pieces having become a remnant of an Avengers war, when the High Evolutionary (remember him as Chukwudi Iwuji in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3) gathered her parts and AI to rebuild her. Only she later decided to blow up the High Evolutionary's base, freeing the Avengers (The Avengers Annual #17, 1988).
And then, there was that time when Jocasta was in the MCU! Yes, really.
During Age of Ultron, when Ultron devastated Jarvis, followed by Jarvis reprogramming his own AI to become a sentient being of his own (Hello, Paul Bettany), Tony Stark is sfiting through files to give his virtual assistant a personality. There was an Easter Egg so faint, few comic historians even noticed it.
There she is, JOCASTA, sitting in a Stark-technofied USB port.
Jocasta was created by Ultron to become his bride (wife), but in essence, since he created her, Jocasta's programming acquiesces to her creator (daughter). However, since Hank Pym was fighting for his wife through the diabolical transference, the essence of Jocasta is, you guessed it, his mother, since Hank Pym is Ultron's "father." Quite the unusual set-up for the character in the source material, but will Marvel Studios replicate any of that
Again, if showrunner Terry Matalas can nail that intergalactic dynamic, Vision Quest proves to be a fascinating TV series for Disney+. The sequel series to both WandaVision and Agatha All Along, it is expected to be one of the most unique Disney Plus shows that Marvel Television has produced. But how will Jocasta play into that, and how much of the comics lore will the TV show pull from? Unfortunately, we will have to wait until 2026 to find out.
Vision Quest premieres on Disney Plus in 2026.