Artificial intelligence has become an increasingly familiar presence behind the scenes in Hollywood, from visual development to post-production, even as its use continues to raise questions about the role of human artists. For a Marvel series built around an android and several AI personas, the technology could have seemed like an obvious fit.
Interestingly, VisionQuest takes the opposite route. The upcoming Disney+ series places Vision’s artificial intelligence at the heart of its story, while its production team chose to recreate the peculiar visual language associated with AI through conventional filmmaking and production design.
Creator and showrunner Terry Matalas confirmed that no generative AI was used in the making of the series. Speaking to ScreenRant during a set visit, Matalas was asked directly about the use of GenAI and replied, “No, not at all. There hasn’t really been a need.” He added that the show’s designs deliberately take cues from the way current AI systems process and generate images, turning the technology itself into part of the visual language of the series.
This approach is particularly visible in Vision’s Mindspace, the internal world where several of the story’s AI characters exist. Production designer Will Hughes-Jones and his team incorporated details that mimic the mistakes often associated with AI-generated imagery. The set reportedly features elements such as stair bannisters that lead nowhere, chairs merging into walls and furniture that looks subtly wrong. Rather than letting AI create these imperfections, the human artists behind the series recreated them intentionally.
The decision also gives VisionQuest an unusual relationship with Marvel’s own history with generative AI. The studio previously faced criticism over the AI-generated opening title sequence for Secret Invasion, which the creative team had defended as fitting the show’s themes. VisionQuest, meanwhile, uses AI as a subject of its story and as inspiration for its visual design without employing GenAI as a production shortcut.
The series follows Paul Bettany’s White Vision as he attempts to understand his identity and humanity after the events of WandaVision. His journey takes him into an internal world populated by AI versions of characters connected to his history, including Ultron, while he also faces an external threat in the form of a bounty hunter. Matalas has previously described the show as more of a sequel to WandaVision than simply the conclusion of a trilogy, with the story designed to stand on its own.
With James Spader returning as Ultron and Bettany reprising Vision, VisionQuest is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on October 14.
