Thank Ultron, Ruaridh Mollica Is Exactly Who You Think In ‘VisionQuest’
You did it, Billy. You pulled it off.
We’re one step closer to Young Avengers and reuniting the Maximoff family. The identity of the mystery young person in VisionQuest has been speculated, and more or less confirmed, but now it’s NYCC and Marvel.com official: Ruaridh Mollica is played Thomas Shepherd, a.k.a. Speed and a.k.a. Billy’s brother Tommy. Those who attended the Marvel Television panel moderated by Phase Zero’s Brandon Davis were treated to a surprise appearance from Vision himself, Paul Bettany, and got an exclusive look at a teaser for the third part of the WandaVision and Agatha All Along trilogy.
Trying to pretend that Joe Locke wasn’t playing Billy/Wiccan in Agatha All Along was so painful, even though the show had other surprises in store and rocked. The identity of “Teen” was the worst kept Marvel secret. Thankfully, we don’t have to do this again with VisionQuest. Will Billy and Tommy reunite in the show, given that Tommy and Agatha’s ghost left to find him at the end of that show? We’ll see!
Speaking of Agatha All Along, the end of that mini-series set up Tommy’s arc in VisionQuest. With Agatha’s help, Billy used his nascent magical abilities to transport his brother’s lost soul into the body of a teen who was in the process of dying by drowning. Billy sensed that this boy was in pain. He was a victim of bullying and didn’t have a loving family to take care of him. It’s important to know that, in both Marvel comics and the MCU, Billy Kaplan and Thomas Shepherd are not older versions of Billy and Tommy Maximoff. They are young adults who contain a fragment of Wanda and Vision’s twins souls. They’re the same but different.
In the VisionQuest trailer, exclusive to attendees at New York Comic-Con 2025, Thomas Shepherd shows up with his signature blonde fluffy hair on a screen in what looks like a police interrogation. “I have a family,” the character repeats. Did his speedster powers get him in a little trouble? Does he suddenly remember his former WandaVision life, the way Billy did after the car crash that killed his parents? This introduction was too brief! The actor is Scottish, and the character may or may not have a UK accent. It was hard to tell with such a blink-and-you-miss-it moment.
Ultron, in human form played by James Spader in the flesh himself, congratulates White Vision on having a son. Do we think he knows about the other one? Will Tommy be canonically bisexual, as he is in the comics? Now that we don’t have to “theorize” that Mollica is playing another character, we can get into the nitty gritty.
(featured image: Disney+)
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