Let’s be honest: we didn’t need another reason to be excited for Vision Quest. The Disney+ series is already set to conclude the Marvel Cinematic Universe “trilogy” of fan-favorites WandaVision and Agatha All Along, which is enough to get parts of the Internet genuinely hyped.
Having seen the first teaser trailer for Vision Quest myself at this year’s New York Comic Con, I can attest that my excitement for the show is only growing — and now, the newest casting announcement for the series just somehow made things even more delightful.
On Tuesday morning, reports indicated that Diane Morgan, who is best known by her gloriously weird comedic alter ego of Philomena Cunk, has joined the cast of Vision Quest alongside newcomer Lauren Morais. Morgan, has been cast as a mystery associate of Paladin (Todd Stashwick). Morais, meanwhile, has been cast as Lisa Molinari, who is tied to Tommy Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica) and is also known in the comics by her superhero codename of Coat of Arms.
The cast of Vision Quest is also confirmed to include James Spader as Ultron, T’Nia Miller as Jacosta, Emily Hampshire as E.D.I.T.H., Orla Brady as F.R.I.D.A.Y., Henry Lewis as D.U.M.-E, Jonathan Sayer as U and James D’Arcy as J.A.R.V.I.S.. Terry Matalas, of Star Trek: Picard and 12 Monkeys, is serving as the series’ showrunner.
Pump up the jam!
If you don’t know who Morgan is, that’s okay… but also, you are missing out. Her tenure as Cunk — a suit-wearing, deadpan TV documentary host — began on episodes of Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe, before spinning off into her own array of specials. Cunk on Christmas, Cunk on Britain, and most recently Cunk on Life are some of the titles available to you… and they are all as gloriously weird as they sound.
Each special shows Morgan as Cunk presenting a topic, and interviewing real-life experts, as only she can. Sometimes, her knowledge on a subject is comically incorrect, or at least phrased in a way that sneaks up on you. Other times, her non sequiturs capture what a lot of us are probably thinking… often to the chagrin of the experts she is speaking with. There’s also a whole running gag involving Technotronic’s 1989 hit “Pump Up the Jam”, which is glorious every single time.
Even if you haven’t seen a Cunk special, you’ve probably absorbed something around it and not even realized it. Some of her lines, like “The ancient Egyptians believed the most significant thing you could do in your life is die,” and “Which was more significant, the Renaissance or ‘Single Ladies’ by Beyonce?”, have gone absurdly viral on TikTok. And a popular Twitter meme (at least on my feed) has become attaching her photo to unhinged tweets that sound like they could be one of her one-liners.
Once you watch enough of Morgan as Cunk, you start to feel like she deserves the world. A global fanbase, a Nobel Peace Prize, anything she wants. I might not have personally imagined “a role in the MCU” being on that list, which only makes me love the news of her Vision Quest casting even more. Even though we know next-to-nothing about her role in the show, her acerbic energy seems like an oddly-perfect fit for a show about multiple robots and forms of artificial intelligence.
(featured image: Netflix)
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