Spader grows a long beard for VisionQuest's humanoid Ultron

When James Spader called to say he was growing a beard, VisionQuest creator Terry Matalas imagined Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber from Die Hard: a manicured, clean-cut villain.When Spader actually walked onto the set, he saw a long beard in front of him. The actor himself called it “mane”.

In Boston Legal and The Blacklist, Spade showed a smooth face.Returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe this time, he still plays Ultron, but appears in human form in Vision's mind.

Matalas recalled on the New Rockstars podcast that Spader had his own reasons for the look: Now that he was no longer a nine-foot-tall robot, he needed to carry the divinity of Poseidon.After hearing this explanation, Matalas called Kevin Feige and said they might get an interesting version of Ultron.

As soon as the beard idea was accepted, Spade added one more item: “I'm also going to wear a top hat.” Matalas was equally hesitant at first.

In an interview with Cineatomy, Spader linked the beard to the character's experience.He believes that the first appearance of a character in a story is very important, and the appearance should convey some information that no longer needs to be explained through lines.Ultron was once imprisoned, and he wanted the audience to outwardly see that time had passed.

It wasn't the look Matalas originally envisioned, but it ended up being a very recognizable look in his eyes.He said that the fun of making TV series lies in such collaboration: the writers or actors may come up with ideas that they have never thought of.

The show also welcomes back other old Marvel characters, including Raza from Iron Man.For Matalas, the heart of the story remains the relationship between Spader's Ultron and Paul Bettany's Vision, who faced off in Avengers: Age of Ultron.He wanted to use the relationship to discuss humanity and connection, and felt that Bettany and Spader were the right actors to complete this exchange.