Raza? 18 Years Later, 'VisionQuest' Just Resurrected A Foundational 'Iron Man' Villain
The man who accidentally created Iron Man has returned. In VisionQuest Episode 6, Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar, as played by the incomparable Faran Tahir, has returned to the MCU for the first time since the MCU began. It may seem like a quick Easter egg, but when Vision briefly crosses paths with the Ten Rings in Madripoor, the MCU is going back to its 2008 beginnings. In fact, Vision himself might not exist without Raza’s actions nearly two decades prior.
Here’s who Raza is in the MCU, why this callback is so relevant to Vision and Iron Man, and why it’s oddly, accidentally, another connection to the larger Terry Matalas multiverse.
Warning! Spoilers ahead.
Who is Raza in the MCU and how is he alive?
In the first Iron Man, Raza is the Ten Rings terrorist leader in Afghanistan who kidnaps Tony Stark at the start of the film. We later learn that Raza was hired by Obadiah Stane. By the end of Iron Man, Raza was betrayed by Stane, and his soldiers were slain. However, we never saw a body, and Raza was not explicitly shown to have been taken out. Meanwhile, in a deleted scene — that was also a flashback — in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Raza’s activities were specifically made, retroactively, part of larger Ten Rings operations.
So, how is Raza alive in VisionQuest? The easy answer is that the show wanted a cool callback to the beginning of Iron Man’s origins, which eventually led to the creation of Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Famously, Obadiah Stane complained that others could not replicate what Tony Stark made “in a cave, with a box of scraps.” Raza was the guy who was supervising that all-important cave.
Raza’s return in VisionQuest connects the Matalas-verse
In VisionQuest Episode 6, Raza is in Madripoor because it turns out that the Paladin (Todd Stashwick) isn’t the only person hunting Vision (Pau Bettany). Again, this is a nice MCU full-circle moment, but there’s also an interesting sideways connection to the larger world of the Terry Matalas players. As the showrunner of VisionQuest, Matalas has brought in several actors who have worked with him before, notably Stashwick and Emily Hampshire, who both starred in the 12 Monkeys reboot TV series from 2015 to 2018. Orla Brady in VisionQuest marks her second time working with Matalas following her various appearances in Picard. And now, even though he’s an MCU alum, Faran Tahir’s VisionQuest return is also, coincidentally, another 12 Monkeys connection.
In Season 3 of 12 Monkeys, Tahir played Mallick, a member of the Army of the 12 Monkeys, who turns out to have a hidden motivation. As Mallick, Tahir is critical to everything that unfolds in Season 3 and remains one of the best recurring guest stars on the show, right behind Hannah Waddingham, James Callis, and Christopher Lloyd.
Of course, Trek fans are also aware that Tahir played Captain Robau in the 2009 Star Trek reboot film, one year after he appeared as Raza in Iron Man. Clearly, this guy gets around the multiverse, and now that he’s back in VisionQuest, it feels like the MCU should remember how important this guy is, not just to the past, but maybe to the future too.