VisionQuest is probably the last big, weird Marvel TV series

[#item_full_content] [[{“value”:”Marvel’s VisionQuest made its long-awaited debut this week on Disney+ with a two-episode series premiere. If you watched WandaVision or Agatha All Along, you can guess the vibe.
It’s big, bold, zany and weirdly ambitious — and considering Marvel’s latest pivot to its small screen strategy — it could be the last time we see this kind of show in the Marvel universe.
I’ve only seen the first two episodes of VisionQuest, but I loved it. Showrunner Terry Matalas was already one of my favorite TV writers anyway (his 12 Monkeys adaptation is a masterpiece, and his run on Picard was a blast), and he clearly has a vision (no pun intended) for what this show can be, charting the next chapter for an Avenger (or well, the reborn version of one).
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Back when WandaVision kicked off what would become this loose trilogy of TV shows in 2021, Marvel was going all-in on spending big money to launch Disney+ as the streaming home of blockbuster MCU storytelling. That kicked off plenty of big budget streaming shows with varying degrees of quality, including projects like Loki, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye and Secret Invasion.
Sure, some of those weren’t great, but Marvel was trying to do something that hadn’t really been done on TV up to that point with comic book-based shows. Bringing that big screen talent to the small screen, with stories that would weave in and out of the movies. It was ambitious, even if they didn’t actually pull off the execution all the time.
But this era also brought a level of experimentation that led to some of the coolest series of the past decade: Moon Knight, Wonder Man, Echo and the aforementioned WandaVision and Agatha All Along. Marvel was willing to try and tell the same kinds of quirky stories that had only really existed in the comics up to that point. Characters like Moon Knight and Wonder Man had always been considered too niche. But now? They were in blockbuster TV shows with the full marketing weight of Disney behind them.
Then… another pivot.
For a minute, Marvel seemed keen to get back to the mid-budget kind of street-level shows that were such a hit back in the Netflix era, which led to two seasons (and a third and final one on the way) of Daredevil: Born Again. But now that revival is set to wrap up. At the moment, the only live action Marvel show (that we know about) in active development is the new spy thriller Zodiac. It’s that, and a continued slate of animated projects.
And that’s it.
Yes, Marvel will undoubtedly produce more TV shows, but the strategy seems to be moving further and further away from expensive, big, weird and bold. Even Wonder Man, fresh off Emmy nominations for Season 1, was quickly renewed and then unrenewed and canceled.
Which brings us back to VisionQuest. A show belonging to a different era of Marvel TV strategy, arriving after it had ended due to a longer-than-expected development cycle. WandaVision and Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer was originally developing the project, but left. The studio then brought in Matalas to redevelop it, which kicked the show further down the calendar. As for Schaeffer, she’s now at Amazon working on a new Stargate TV series.
It’s early, but VisionQuest seems to be threading the needle of wrapping up the dangling plot threads from WandaVision and Agatha All Along, while still creating something that can stand on its own as a clever, propulsive series with its own unique style. But however it ends, we can almost certainly consider it the end of a very specific, weird era.
Here’s hoping Zodiac is good.
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