VisionQuest creator reveals why his Tony Stark cameo dream fell at the first hurdle

VisionQuest 's creator briefly floated the idea of a Tony Stark cameo in the Marvel TV show The series has numerous ties to Robert Downey Jr's iconic MCU character Terry Matalas knew it was a non-starter, so it never moved forward VisionQuest 's showrunner has admitted he'd have liked to have included a Tony Stark cameo — but was well aware that he was "not going to get" Robert Downey Jr to appear in the Marvel TV show.

Chatting to me at the Disney+ series' UK junket, Terry Matalas name-dropped Stark as a character he would have included if time and money were no object.

But, as Matalas also noted, though it would've been "wonderful" to surprise audiences with a shock appearance from Downey Jr, the chances of him actually agreeing to pop up in the Wanda/Vision TV trilogy capper were effectively zero.

Asked whether Marvel placed any limitations on the story he wanted to tell and/or established characters he wanted to utilize, Matalas replied: "No.

I mean, it usually comes down to budget.

If we had more time and money, you could include anything, maybe even a flashback to Tony Stark dealing with the source code [that he uses to make his artificial intelligence (AI) programs]." Surprisingly, Tony Stark and Vision only share a few scenes in the MCU (Image credit: Marvel Studios) It's not an outlandish suggestion for Matalas to make.

After all, Stark helped to create Vision and Ultron, aka the deuteragonists of VisionQuest , way back in 2014's Avengers: Age of Ultron .

Furthermore, he made myriad AIs to help him with various tasks in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ( MCU ) before — spoiler — his heroic sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame .

With Vision, Ultron, and the other artificial beings built by Stark appearing in VisionQuest , it's not unreasonable to assume that a Downey Jr cameo was bandied about in the writers room.

Add in the story that the Marvel Phase 6 project tells (don't worry, I won't spoil anything here), and a Stark appearance makes even more sense from a narrative standpoint.

Nonetheless, Matalas knew it would be nigh-on impossible to involve Downey Jr in any capacity, so that idea was consigned to the scrap heap as quickly as it took form.

Responding to my follow-up about whether he broached the subject of a Downey Jr cameo with Marvel executives, Matalas said: "We're not going to get Downey Jr into a Marvel show.

"It would've been wonderful," he added.

"But, we're just a TV series, so you can't really have all of the...