VisionQuest brings back one of Marvel’s most underrated villains as James Spader’s Ultron takes center stage opposite Paul Bettany’s Vision. The new series sees the Avengers: Age of Ultron antagonist inhabit his human avatar, trapped in Vision’s Mind Space along with several other Stark Corporation AIs.

As Vision tries to reconcile his memories with feelings he’s not sure he has, Ultron is there to goad and challenge him along the way. And over the course of the season, the series dives deeper into who Ultron really is, his opinions on humanity, and his own struggles with navigating emotions. It’s a process that Spader says constantly surprised him.

“Any of the things that I might have thought about him when I did the film just were so much more of in the show, in VisionQuest,” he tells GamesRadar+. “I was constantly surprised, even though Terry and I had discussed the whole show, from beginning to end, sort of beats, and certainly in episodes. And then having received the scripts and seeing what developed in the script form, I still wasn’t prepared for the perfect thing that you’re always aspiring to as an actor, always, is that it has a life when you start to perform it that you never really imagined.

“You could never really have predicted that. Even if you might have predicted intent or reaction or action, even if you might have been able to predict or speculate on that, the depth and breadth of it can often surprise you, and it did again and again and again on the show.”

Ultron has already been an early stand-out of the series, with viewers saying he’s the “highlight”. New episodes are airing weekly on Disney Plus in two-episode blocks. For more, check out our VisionQuest release schedule as well as our verdict on the show in our VisionQuest review.