When we last spoke to Ruaridh Mollica in April 2025, the Scottish actor had recently landed a mysterious, top-secret role in Marvel’s upcoming series VisionQuest, one he was understandably rather reluctant to discuss. “I cannot comment! I cannot say anything!” he exclaimed when asked about the project, refusing to reveal even the smallest detail about his involvement. A year and a half later, it’s easy to understand why. Mollica is now playing Tommy Maximoff, the long-lost son of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), in the final installment of Marvel’s WandaVision trilogy, delivering a phenomenal performance that should undoubtedly introduce the enormously talented young actor to an entirely new audience.
It’s a remarkable milestone for Mollica, whose extraordinary breakout performance in Mikko Mäkelä’s acclaimed drama Sebastian announced the arrival of a genuinely exciting new talent just two years ago. Playing Max, an aspiring novelist struggling to reconcile two seemingly conflicting aspects of his personality, Mollica delivered one of the most impressive performances of 2024, a complex, incredibly nuanced portrayal of a young man attempting to find his place in the world. It’s a role that earned him considerable critical acclaim, including nominations at the British Independent Film Awards and Scotland’s BAFTA Awards, and helped launch a career that has been gaining momentum ever since.
And while Mollica has continued to impress in projects such as HBO’s The Franchise (which, ironically enough, lampoons the behind the scenes work that goes into making a superhero movie), VisionQuest represents something of a departure for the actor, giving him the opportunity to become part of one of the biggest franchises in entertainment while tackling another wonderfully complicated character whose search for identity forms the emotional foundation of the series.
Landing the role, however, was no small feat. Mollica initially submitted a self-tape without much expectation of hearing back, only to find himself embarking on a five-month audition process that eventually culminated in a trip to New York, where he performed a screen test alongside Bettany and showrunner Terry Matalas.
“I submitted a self-tape and I thought, ‘I’m never going to get the role,’ but then they called me in to audition,” Mollica recalled during a red carpet interview. “After a five-month audition process, I went to New York for a screen test with Paul Bettany and Terry Matalas. And then my manager called and said, ‘Your life is about to change.'”
“It was the best day of my life,” he added.
It’s an extraordinary achievement for an actor who, just two years earlier, was making his feature film debut in Sebastian, and one that feels particularly rewarding considering the remarkable journey his career has taken since. For Mollica, who previously spoke to us about how much his life had changed following Sebastian’s Sundance premiere, joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe represents another enormous leap forward, one that he admits he initially struggled to believe was even possible.
Created by Matalas, VisionQuest picks up following the events of WandaVision, with Vision, the synthezoid who was seemingly killed during Avengers: Infinity War before being reconstructed by S.W.O.R.D., attempting to make sense of his existence after regaining memories of a life he can no longer fully remember. Now living in relative obscurity in Edinburgh, Vision has been struggling to reconcile those memories with his increasingly complicated understanding of what it means to be human, a journey that becomes considerably more difficult when a mysterious bounty hunter known as Paladin (Todd Stashwick) is hired to track him down.
Things take a particularly unexpected turn when Vision crosses paths with Thomas Shepard (Mollica), a troubled young man who has begun experiencing strange visions and memories of a family he has no recollection of ever having. As it gradually becomes apparent that Thomas may actually be Tommy Maximoff, the reincarnated son of Vision and Wanda, the two find themselves embarking on a journey that forces them to confront some uncomfortable questions about identity, belonging and the nature of their own existence.
It’s a fascinating premise, one that allows VisionQuest to explore some of the same themes that made WandaVision such a remarkable achievement, particularly the relationship between grief, memory and the lengths to which people are willing to go in order to hold on to those they’ve lost. But while the series is ostensibly centered on Vision’s search for meaning, Tommy’s journey is just as compelling, with Mollica bringing an enormous amount of warmth, vulnerability and humanity to a character whose very existence is something of a mystery.
One particularly interesting aspect of Mollica’s portrayal is that Tommy retains the actor’s natural Scottish accent, something that wasn’t necessarily part of the original plan. During the audition process, Mollica experimented with different accents before Bettany suggested that he might be better off using his own, a decision that ultimately allowed the actor to bring something distinctly personal to the role.
“Initially, I tried it with a really English accent and then also an American accent as well,” he revealed. “While we were in the screen test, Paul suggested I try it with my own accent and they let me keep it.”
It’s a small but welcome detail, particularly for a character whose sense of identity is already so complicated, and one that speaks to the collaborative relationship between Mollica and Bettany, whose characters gradually develop an incredibly affecting father-son dynamic over the course of the series.
When we first meet Tommy, he’s a young man who has spent much of his life feeling isolated and disconnected from the world around him, struggling with memories and emotions that don’t seem to belong to him. But as he gradually begins to uncover the truth about his origins, those feelings become increasingly difficult to ignore, with Mollica expertly capturing both the confusion and discomfort of someone who no longer feels entirely at home in his own body.
For Mollica, understanding the distinction between Tommy Shepard and Tommy Maximoff was essential to finding the character, particularly when it came to portraying the conflict between his two identities.
“I think you had to, at the start, have them as separate identities because it needs to be this clashing, like, ‘Who am I?’ scenario,” he says. “You’re really fighting and struggling with that.”
“I think the whole show is about humanity and identity and self-acceptance,” he continues. “The journey of the show really is those coming together and accepting that my father is Vision.”
It’s a particularly interesting approach when considering Mollica’s previous work in Sebastian, a film that similarly required him to navigate two seemingly incompatible identities belonging to the same person. While Max and Sebastian initially appear to be entirely different characters, one anxious and deeply insecure, the other more confident and self-assured, Mollica gradually reveals that they’re undeniably two sides of the same coin, with the latter allowing Max to explore aspects of himself that he’s otherwise reluctant to confront.
When we spoke to Mollica about Sebastian in 2024, he recalled an important conversation with director Mäkelä that completely changed his understanding of the character.
“I remember going to Mikko and saying, ‘Oh, Max is like this and Sebastian’s like that,’ and Mikko had to be like, ‘It’s less Batman and Bruce Wayne, they’re still the same person,'” he explained.
That discomfort is particularly apparent when Tommy begins discovering his superpowers, which include the ability to move at extraordinary speeds. Rather than immediately embracing his newfound abilities with the confidence and ease we’ve come to expect from superhero origin stories, Tommy initially struggles to understand what’s happening to him, with Mollica bringing a wonderfully awkward, almost physical sense of unease to those early moments. There’s something incredibly endearing about watching him attempt to navigate a body that suddenly seems capable of doing things he never thought possible, and Mollica captures that excitement and uncertainty in a way that feels entirely believable.
For the actor, those scenes were among his favorites to film, bringing to mind some of the most memorable moments from the superhero films he grew up watching.
“One of my favourite things about superhero shows and superhero movies is the bit at the start when they’re figuring out their power,” he explains. “Like when Peter Parker’s accidentally shooting his web in the cafeteria, and you’re figuring it out, and it blurs that line.”
“In those moments, you look at the person and you go, ‘Maybe I could have superpowers in real life,'” he continues. “And it lets that bit of your imagination exist because it’s so close to reality.”
There’s something incredibly satisfying about watching an ordinary person slowly come to terms with extraordinary abilities, particularly when the process is as confusing and occasionally ridiculous as it is exciting. And for Tommy, whose newfound powers are so closely intertwined with his developing understanding of who he really is, those moments carry an additional emotional significance.
But what makes VisionQuest such a compelling continuation of WandaVision and Agatha All Along is that it never loses sight of the very human emotions underpinning its increasingly elaborate mythology. Despite the abundance of artificial intelligence, superpowers and familiar Marvel characters, the series is ultimately a deeply affecting exploration of grief, identity and the desire to belong, with both Vision and Tommy struggling to understand who they are without the people who once defined their lives.
And of course, it’s impossible to discuss either character’s journey without acknowledging the enormous legacy of Wanda Maximoff, whose relationship with Vision formed the emotional foundation of WandaVision. Played by Elizabeth Olsen in a phenomenal, deeply affecting performance that remains one of the strongest in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wanda has become one of the franchise’s most beloved and tragic characters, a woman whose extraordinary powers have repeatedly failed to protect her from the devastating losses that have defined her life.
Her absence looms large over VisionQuest, with both Vision and Tommy attempting to make sense of a family they can no longer fully remember, while the consequences of Wanda’s grief continue to shape their lives in ways neither fully understands. For Mollica, continuing her story is something he approaches with an enormous amount of affection and appreciation for everything that came before.
“I mean, beautiful,” he says when asked what it means to carry Wanda’s legacy forward. “I think she’s the beating heart of all of these shows, kind of the through line.”
He points to one of WandaVision‘s most memorable lines, “What is grief, if not love persevering?”, as something that continues to define the emotional journey of these characters and is even referenced by Tommy himself in the show.
“I think this show is about that battle with grief,” he explains. “We see it in WandaVision from her perspective. We see it in Agatha All Along. We see it in Vision from Vision’s perspective. And really, the loss of her is the life of the show.”
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for the VisionQuest finale.
It’s a particularly affecting observation when considering how the series eventually concludes, with Tommy’s journey towards self-acceptance culminating in a remarkable sequence in which he finally embraces his identity as Tommy Maximoff and puts his newfound superpowers to use in an attempt to rescue his father. Having spent much of the series struggling to reconcile the person he believed himself to be with the memories of another life, Tommy finally begins to accept that those seemingly conflicting identities are both an integral part of who he is, with Mollica delivering a wonderfully moving performance that makes his transformation feel entirely earned.
The finale also delivers one of the most anticipated moments in the WandaVision trilogy, as Tommy finally reunites with his twin brother Billy (Joe Locke), who was last seen attempting to find him at the end of Agatha All Along. It’s an incredibly satisfying reunion, particularly when the brothers combine their abilities to save Vision, bringing the three remaining members of the Maximoff family together in a deeply moving moment that feels like the culmination of everything these characters have been through over the past several years.
But the series saves its biggest surprise for its final moments, with a post-credits scene revealing that Wanda may not be quite as lost as her family has been led to believe. Revisiting her apparent death during the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the sequence sees Doctor Doom approach Wanda’s body beneath the ruins of Mount Wundagore, using his powers to awaken the Scarlet Witch before declaring his intention to claim her extraordinary abilities for himself.
It’s a jaw-dropping revelation, one that not only marks Olsen’s long-awaited return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe but also opens up an entirely new chapter for the Maximoff family, particularly with Avengers: Doomsday on the horizon. And while Wanda’s eventual reunion with her sons remains uncertain, there’s something incredibly moving about the possibility that these characters, whose lives have been defined by loss and separation, may finally have an opportunity to find their way back to one another.
For all the extraordinary circumstances surrounding them, that’s ultimately what makes the Maximoff family’s story so compelling: beneath the superhero mythology lies a deeply human exploration of love, grief and the desire to belong. And with Mollica at the center of that journey, VisionQuest has found a remarkable young actor capable of bringing genuine emotional depth to a character who could have very easily been overshadowed by the franchise’s elaborate history. It’s another phenomenal performance from an actor whose career has been nothing short of extraordinary over the past few years, and one that makes the prospect of whatever comes next for Tommy Maximoff all the more exciting.
VISIONQUEST is now streaming on Disney+.
