VisionQuest Snuck in a Cameo That Harkens Back to Ultron’s Finest Hour
The Watcher has a good reason to watch Ultron in VisionQuest.
This article contains spoilers for VisionQuest season 1 episode 6 and Marvel’s What If…?.
Who watches the Watcher? Lots of eagle-eyed viewers of VisionQuest, apparently, because one of them took to social media to claim that a pair of glowing dots on a monitor shown in Episode 6 belonged to Uatu, that other-worldly being from Marvel lore who can only observe, and never interfere with, major events. Turns out, those viewers were right, prompting kudos from showrunner Terry Matalas on X.
However, the bigger question may be, “Who watches What If…“? Because those who did catch up with Marvel Animation‘s series about alternate realities would know that the Watcher has very good reason to check in on Ultron, reasons that may affect the rest of the MCU.
In the comics, Uatu the Watcher is best associated with one of his first significant appearances, arriving with the coming of Galactus in 1968’s Fantastic Four #48–50. Since then, the Watcher’s presence is synonymous with a major event, some shift that would shake the very foundations of the universe.
However, the Watcher’s most regular appearances came in the anthology series What If…?, which began publication in 1977. In each issue of What If…?, the Watcher would greet the reader and invite them to join in observing another reality, one in which events from the mainline Marvel universe happen slightly differently, resulting in major changes: What if Wolverine killed the Hulk in their first meeting? What if Captain America became the President of the United States? What if Uncle Ben had lived?
The three-season Marvel Animation series on Disney+ What If…? followed this model. In each episode, the Watcher (voiced by Jeffrey Wright) shows viewers variations in the multiverse, in which T’Challa becomes Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill, or Peggy Carter takes the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. Like the comics, most episodes of What If…? were just fun little exercises in canon, enjoyable but forgettable.
However, the first season did involve an interesting, multi-episode arc, one that dealt directly with Ultron and the Watcher. In the penultimate episode, “What If… Ultron Had Won?,” the Watcher observes a world where the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron play out differently. Here, he defeats the Avengers and uses nuclear weapons to destroy humanity. So when Thanos arrives, seeking the Mind Stone in Vision, he gets killed by Ultron, who takes the Infinity Gauntlet for himself.
With the Gauntlet in hand, Ultron becomes aware of the Watcher, and the multiverse itself. Ultron attacks the Watcher, drives him from the Observation Plane, and begins an attack on the multiverse. Of course, the attack gets repelled in the season 1 finale, “What If… the Watcher Broke His Oath?”, in which the Watcher agrees to interfere (his comic book counterpart does this a lot), and assemble heroes and villains from across realities to fight back, finally destroying Ultron.
Which brings us back to VisionQuest. Since What If…? arrived on screens, the Watcher has been a fun easter egg in MCU projects, showing up to see the destruction of Genosha in season 1 of X-Men ’97 or observing the death of Vanessa Fisk in Daredevil: Born Again‘s second season. In VisionQuest, he appears in one of the monitors that Vision’s AI’s use to see how Ultron courts Jocasta, sealing their relationship with a promise to destroy humanity.
Is the Watcher watching because he’ll always show up when a Marvel TV show starts moving into its final act? Or is he here because he intimately knows just how dangerous Ultron can be? We’ll have to wait until the final two episodes of VisionQuest to find out if the Watcher’s watching is worthwhile.
VisionQuest streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.