Summary
TheMarvel Cinematic Universeis on the cusp of a new dawn, and as Phase 5 comes to a close in 2005, fans are looking ahead to what comes next. There’s already a stacked roster of movies and shows for Phase 6 of theMCU, and with it, new teams are surely building from the sidelines. Although it seems inevitable that the Young Avengers will join the likes of the Thunderbolts, it remains to be seen whether they’ll be introduced through their own projects or piggyback off others.
Away fromThe Marvels’ post-credit scene teasing the Young Avengers with Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), Jac Schaeffer’sAgatha All Alongjust introduced another major player in the form of Joe Locke’sBilly Kaplan/Maximoff, aka Wiccan. The MCU now has one-half of the Maximoff boys all grown up and ready for action, but what about Speed? Tommy Shepherd/Maximoff is more than just Billy’s twin brother, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he needs a Disney+ series all of his own.
Who is Speed in the MCU?
The story of the Maximoff boys is a particularly convoluted one, with Tommy and Billy Maximoff being introduced back in 1986’sThe Vision and the Scarlet Witch#12. Both turned out to be creations ofWanda Maximoff’s reality-warping powersand were actually fragments of the villainous Mephisto’s soul. Although Mephisto reabsorbed the twins, they were reincarnated many decades later as Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd.
Tommy Shepherd arrived on the scene as part of the Young Avengers in 2006’sYoung Avengers#10 and sported the mantle of Speed. As his name suggests, Speed has superhuman agility and reflexes, making him not too dissimilar to Quicksilver…who just so happens to be his uncle in the comics. The character of Tommy Maximoff first appeared in the MCU forWandaVisionand was most notably played by Jett Klyne toward the end of the series. TheWandaVisionfinalethen led to Tommy and Billy’s returns inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Although Tommy Maximoff is currently MIA in theEarth-616 timelinethanks to his soul seemingly being destroyed by Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) removing the Hex at the end ofWandaVision,Multiverse of Madnessproved there are alternate versions out there.Agatha All Alongmade it even simpler than this, with a big reveal that Billy’s soul was transferred into the dying body of William Kaplan at the exact moment the Hex was destroyed.
Similar to howAgatha All Alongrevamped Billy’s backstory by taking elements of his William Kaplan persona from Marvel Comics, fans are expecting a similar arc for Tommy Shepherd/Maximoff. Episode 6 confirmed that Billy’s modus operandi on the Witches' Road is to reunite with his brother, making a cameo before the end of the series even more likely.Agatha All Alonghas also given the MCU’sfirst official mention of Mephisto, and with rumors that Sacha Baron Cohen is playing him in the upcomingIronheartseries, another major player in Tommy’s inevitable return is now on the board.
Vision Quest is the perfect place for Speed
Noted Marvel leakerDanielRPKrecently claimed that Speed would be getting his own Disney+ series in the vein ofAgatha All Along, but with Terry Matalas’Vision Questalso on the horizon, that could be a whopping three standalones before the rumored return of Olsen’s Scarlet Witch.Vision Questis tipped to be aWandaVisionsequel akin toAgatha All Along, focusing on Paul Bettany’s White Vision and apparentlybringing backAvengers: Age of Ultron’s James Spaderas the villainous Ultron.
There have been a lot of comparisons betweenAgatha All AlongandThe Wizard of Oz, and it would be in keeping with the latter if Billy doesn’t quite get what he wants at the end of the Witches' Road. Assuming there’s at least a tease of Tommy, it would be a convenient cliffhanger to set upVision Questand make a subplot of the show about the boys reuniting before finding their father as the final piece of the puzzle beforeScarlet Witch’s inevitable returnto the MCU. Like Billy has sat in the shadows of Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha in her own show, it makes sense for Tommy to play second fiddle to his robotic father inVision Quest.
There have been recent complaints that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going for quantity over quality, which is something MCU overlord Kevin Feige has addressed.Secret Invasionhardly got glowing reviews, cost a jaw-dropping $200 million, and broke the franchise’s record for the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score. Elsewhere, the harshest critics brandedEchoas an unnecessary way to cueDaredevil: Born Again, and there hasn’t been much buzz aboutIronheart. The Don Cheadle-ledArmor Warswas retooled as a movie, but again, that’s gone quiet. DespiteVision Questonly being tentatively penciled in for 2026, there hasn’t been much fanfare about its potential.
One way to generate hype would be to makeVision Questa story about Vis and his kids ahead of Wanda’s eventual resurrection. Impatient viewers are tired of projects setting up projects, and with the Young Avengers teases feeling like they’re a long way off from becoming a full-blown movie or Disney+ series for these junior heroes, the last thing anyone wants is a six-episode miniseries revealing how Tommy Shepherd gains his powers and ruining the good work thatAgatha All Alongdid in recapturing the magic ofWandaVision. IfAgatha All Alongcan explain Billy’s full backstory in under 50 minutes, there’s no need to bring Ralph Bohner (Evan Peters) back for a whole speedster series.
