Vision Quest Trailer Reaction: I'm High on Terry Matalas After This D23 Reveal

The Marvel panel at D23 just gave us our first trailer for Vision Quest, the series continuing directly from what happened to Vision at the end of WandaVision, and I'm fired up about it. This one matters for Marvel fans because it picks up a character thread that's been dangling since 2021, and it's being run by Terry Matalas, a name I've been talking about for a while now.

I'll be upfront about my bias going in: I just binged 12 Monkeys and loved it, and I know a lot of people loved what Matalas did with Star Trek: Picard too. So going into this trailer I was already primed to be on his side, and what I saw only confirmed it for me.

Vision Is Building His Own Virtual World, Just Like Wanda Did

The footage makes clear Vision is putting himself into a constructed reality to block himself off from everything he's lost, essentially mirroring what Wanda did in WandaVision. Inside that world he's got Ultron posing as a father figure, and he's surrounding himself with new people in a fabricated family. Vision himself sums up his identity crisis bluntly in the trailer: "Who am I? I was an Avenger. But I'm not a hero anymore." There's a kid calling him "Papa," a nod back to WandaVision's greatest hits, and a clear sense that this manufactured peace is not going to hold. As one line in the trailer puts it, "Nothing bonds a family together quite like mortal jeopardy."

Why Matalas Feels Like the Right Fit for This Kind of Story

Having just watched what he pulled off with 12 Monkeys, that kind of elaborate, twisty science fiction is exactly where I think Matalas thrives, and continuing on with the vibe WandaVision established seems like a natural extension of his strengths.

I Was Wrong About WandaVision's First Trailer, and I Don't Want to Repeat That Mistake

I'm remembering how skeptical I was when the first WandaVision trailer dropped. My honest reaction back then was basically, "I don't want to see that, it looks terrible, what are they doing with the old sitcoms and everything." That show ended up becoming one of my favorite Marvel series because of how involved and intricate it got, blending an interesting premise with real character work. That's exactly what Vision Quest needs to do given everything Vision has been through and all the loss he's carrying.

What This Could Mean for Doomsday and Secret Wars

Watching this trailer also has me wondering what this means for Vision's place in Doomsday and eventually Secret Wars, and how his arc here connects to where he shows up in those bigger events.

Overall, I dig it. I liked what I saw here, kooky tone and all.

Did the Vision Quest trailer win you over, or are you still on the fence like I was with WandaVision's first look?