Marvel Studios appears to be changing the ethnicity of one of its upcoming Young Avengers heroes. The MCU has slowly introduced various members of the Young Avengers team, including Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) in Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) in Hawkeye, and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. The next Young Avengers to make an appearance, or rather, a return, is Tommy Maximoff, who will be played as a teenager by Ruaridh Mollica in VisionQuest.
Tommy Maximoff was already introduced to audiences as a child in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where he was played by Jett Klyne. Agatha All Along established that the sons of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) survived despite being created by chaos magic, and their souls were transplanted into the bodies of teenagers, Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd. Fans met teenage Billy, played by Joe Locke, in Agatha All Along, and now they’ll be acquainted with the new Tommy in VisionQuest.
However, for this new version of Tommy Maximoff, Marvel Studios is making one significant change to the character’s ethnicity, seemingly allowing Mollica to keep his native Scottish accent. Bettany revealed in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes that Vision’s son is Scottish in VisionQuest, adding jokingly, “How did I have a Scottish son? It’s impossible.”
A hint of Mollica’s accent is glimpsed in the VisionQuest trailer, where he says, “I have a father. A machine called Vision.” Later in the trailer, Tommy calls out Vision for partnering with Ultron, calling him a “genocidal maniac inside your head.”
Notably, Tommy was not portrayed as Scottish in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where he was played by Klyne and had an American accent instead. Joe Locke’s portrayal of Billy Kaplan also has the teenager maintaining an American accent, despite Locke’s natural British accent.
However, there could be a logical way for Marvel Studios to explain this switch for Tommy Maximoff. In the comics, Tommy is typically based in Springfield, New Jersey. But when Billy guides Tommy’s soul to a new body in Agatha All Along, it’s never specified where the new host is. It’s only said that he drowned in a pool because of a prank and that he has nobody to love him.
This could place Tommy Shepherd anywhere in the world, including Scotland, which would explain his change of accent in the show.
VisionQuest also has some overt Scottish references, including a moment in the trailer where Vision, using his human avatar, is shown working at a Scottish pub. It’s not yet clear how the world within Vision’s mind is established, and whether these Scottish influences reflect Tommy entering Vision’s mind or Vision being in Scotland at the time.
VisionQuest releases on Disney+ on October 14, 2026. The series, created by Terry Matalas, features the return of Paul Bettany as Vision and James Spader as Ultron.
Marvel Studios Redefines Tommy Maximoff For the Future
Ruaridh Mollica’s involvement as Tommy Maximoff in VisionQuest sets him up for a big future in the MCU. Marvel Comics fans will know that Tommy and Billy Maximoff are two key members of the Young Avengers, and after this year, both their adult versions will have been introduced on-screen in the MCU.
This primes both Mollica and Locke to team up with the other various Young Avengers team members who have been introduced in the MCU thus far. The groundwork has already been laid, with Ms. Marvel seen recruiting a team in the post-credits scene of The Marvels. Now that Tommy and Billy will have been re-established after WandaVision, this sets up two more integral pieces of the young superhero team.
A Young Avengers project may already be in the works if the rumors of a Champions Disney+ series pan out. The project isn’t expected to come out until after Avengers: Secret Wars, but it would add to a huge lineup of projects for Marvel’s next saga, which already includes the X-Men reboot.
