Marvel’s ‘vision’ with Paul Bettany set for 2026

Marvel has tapped “Star Trek: Picard” executive producer Terry Matalas to resurrect Vision, the synthezoid played by Paul Bettany, for a new untitled Disney+ series planned for 2026. Variety learned exclusively. Bettany will return to the role and Matalas will serve as showrunner.

After Vision died at the hands of Thanos in 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” he returned twice in 2021’s “WandaVision,” first as the spectral creation of his beloved, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). ), thanks to magic fueled by grief; then as a reconstructed, functional android with a ghost-white appearance and no memory of his past life. When the two Visions fought in the “WandaVision” finale, Wanda’s Vision restored the ghost Vision’s memories, and then Wanda allowed her Vision to disappear. The new show will take place after these events, as Ghost Vision presumably explores his new purpose in life.

Marvel tapped Matalas after his work on Season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard” – which brought the cast of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” back to widespread acclaim, earning Matalas a WGA Award nomination for 2023 series finale – greatly impressed the studio’s top brass. (Marvel chief Kevin Feige, a self-confessed Trekkie, even recently appeared with Matalas in a two-hour episode of the “Star Trek” podcast “Inglorious Treksperts.”)

An earlier version of a Vision series was in development with “WandaVision” creator Jac Schaeffer, but Schaeffer’s attention turned to running a separate “WandaVision” spinoff, “Agatha All Along » with Kathryn Hahn, premiering in September.

With the arrival of Matalas, this will be Marvel’s first new live-action series in nearly two years, representing a significant shift in how the company produces television shows for Disney+. Originally, Marvel adopted a features model, hiring head writers to create predetermined (and, often, already announced) shows, but assigning most of the directing responsibilities to directors and creative heads. Brad Winderbaum, head of streaming, television and animation at Marvel, recently said Variety that starting in 2022, the company began taking a “more traditional approach” to television, with a longer development period and a return to hiring writer-producers to oversee all production in as showrunners. The company is also rebranding its live-action television production as Marvel Television and reducing the number of shows it broadcasts to about two per year, down from four previously.

Prior to “Picard,” Matalas was the creator and showrunner of the Syfy series “12 Monkeys” for Universal Cable Productions, which ran for three seasons. He also served as executive producer and showrunner on Season 4 of CBS’ “MacGyver” reboot and has written for “Nightflyers,” “Nikita,” “Terra Nova” and “Star Trek: Enterprise.” He also restored several “Back to the Future” DeLoreans, which appeared on “Jay Leno’s Garage,” in Super Bowl commercials and at the Academy Awards.

Matalas is represented by CAA and Anonymous Content.