Credit: Marvel StudiosVision Quest is one of the most hotly anticipated Disney+ series currently in development, and it seems that it may be responsible for scrapping another Disney franchise reboot series after production had already begun.
‘Witch Mountain’ Canceled
In the last several years, numerous Disney+ original productions have been canceled after a single season, leading to accusations that the Mouse is discarding series before they even have the chance to build up a viewership base. While there have been high-profile cancelations of flagship franchise IP shows, like The Acolyte or She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, it has largely seemed to be a lot safer to produce a Star Wars or Marvel Cinematic Universe series.
The evidence: in the last two years, Disney has canceled numerous non-MCU/Star Wars original series, including:
- Renegade Nell
- American Born Chinese
- The Right Stuff
- The Crossover
- The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
- Diary of a Future President
- The Mysterious Benedict Society
- The Muppets Mayhem
- Doogie Kamealoha, M.D
- National Treasure
- and the Warwick Davis Willow legacy series
In many cases, those series have been completely removed from the Disney+ platform after less than two seasons, meaning there is no way for them to even build up a cult audience for a revival.
Related: Marvel Boss Kevin Feige Officially Weighs in on Restarting New ‘WandaVision’ Series
Now, there is another canceled series to add to the list: Witch Mountain. The series was first announced in 2022 and was to star Bryce Dallas Howard, Isabel Gravitt, Levi Miller, Bianca “b” Norwood, and Jackson Kelly. Travis Fickett and Terry Matalas, best known for the acclaimed Star Trek: Picard series, wrote and executive produced Witch Mountain.
The show was intended to revive the Witch Mountain franchise, based on Alexander Key’s novel Escape to Witch Mountain (1968). Disney first adapted the book into the hit film Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), which was followed by several sequels and a Dwayne Johnson reboot, Race to Witch Mountain (2009). Despite the franchise’s long history with Disney and an entire pilot episode being reportedly produced, it has been scrapped without explanation.
Bryce Dallas Howard, herself Disney+ royalty, says of the canceled Witch Mountain (per Collider), “It’s not happening, which is disappointing. It was a really great groove, and we really all enjoyed shooting it here in Toronto. Some things make it, and some things don’t, and that’s the unfortunate truth of this industry.”
‘Vision Quest’ Survives
While Howard is undoubtedly correct that show business is a fickle industry, there is also a much more likely reason why Witch Mountain isn’t moving forward. Series co-writer and executive producer Terry Matalas has been tapped as the showrunner for Vision Quest, the new MCU series starring Paul Bettany as the revived synthetic Avenger.
Given Disney’s reluctance to invest in anything but Marvel and Star Wars as of late, it is entirely probable that the company decided not to split Matalas’ attention.
The upcoming MCU series is technically currently untitled but generally referred to as Vision Quest after the 1985 West Coast Avengers story arc of that name (written by the legendary John Byrne). It is reported to be based on the 2015 Tom King self-titled series, which was critically acclaimed.
The original Vision Quest arc is described by Marvel Comics as:
“In this chapter of the West Coast Avengers, the Vision receives a startling transformation after he is kidnapped, has his memory wiped, and discovers the true (and tragic) nature of his children with Scarlet Witch.”
Related: Disney Reverses Course, Renews Canceled Marvel Disney+ Series
While Vision is described as:
“The Vision wants to be human, and what’s more human than family? He goes to the laboratory where he was created, where Ultron molded him into a weapon, where he first rebelled against his given destiny, where he first imagined that he could be more, that he could be good, that he could be a man, a normal, ordinary man. And he builds them. A wife, Virginia. Two teenage twins, Viv and Vin. They look like him. They have his powers. They share his grandest ambition or perhaps obsession: the unrelenting need to be ordinary. Behold The Visions! They’re the family next door, and they have the power to kill us all. What could possibly go wrong?”
In MCU continuity, the Vision Quest series is a direct sequel to WandaVision, which saw Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) officially become the Scarlet Witch and the revived version of Vision (Paul Bettany) be destroyed once again. However, a different version of the character, dubbed the White Vision, survived the series and presumably will lead this new one.
It has been announced that James Spader will reprise Ultron in some form in Vision Quest, marking the actor’s first appearance since Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). It has also been hotly speculated that the series may see the return of Elizabeth Olsen in some form, which Marvel Studios seems to be ramping up to.
But for Vision Quest to live, it appears Witch Mountain had to die. It doesn’t pay to exist outside of the MCU or Star Wars these days.
Do you think that Disney is prioritizing Marvel and Lucasfilm projects over original productions?