James Spader Officially Takes Back #1 Streaming Spot 3 Years After Blacklist Finale

James Spader returned as Ultron in VisionQuest, and the Disney+ series has already topped the streamer’s charts. According to FlixPatrol, the MCU series is the number-one TV show in the United States. The eight-episode series launched with a two-episode premiere on October 13 and moved ahead of a crowded field of Halloween favorites.

This is a vindicating moment for Spader, who has been absent from TV screens since the finale of The Blacklist, which aired back in 2023. VisionQuest is his first television role since the two-hour finale, and fans have waited years to see him return. 

VisionQuest Puts James Spader Back on Top of the Charts

James Spader in VisionQuest | Credits: Disney+

Amidst many Halloween entries, Marvel’s VisionQuest, starring Paul Bettany and James Spader, sits on top of the United States top streaming charts on Disney+. The show premiered with two episodes on October 13 and is already the streamer’s most popular show of the week. The Nightmare Before Christmas holds second, followed by Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown, and Hocus Pocus 2.

Initially supposed to release on October 14, the follow-up to WandaVision and Agatha All Along released a day earlier. Episodes are set to arrive in pairs each week, with the final two episodes released separately. The eight-episode series still has a lot of time to defend its position on the Disney+ charts.

Spader was last seen on TV in the 2023 finale of The Blacklist. The show’s finale was lower compared to its peak seasons. The Blacklist finale drew about 2.7 million viewers on a summer Thursday night, and Spader then largely disappeared from screens (via The TV Ratings Guide).

Now VisionQuest leads the Disney+ chart in the United States just days after launch. Broadcast ratings and chart positions measure different things, so the numbers cannot be compared directly.

Why James Spader Took a Hiatus from Acting Before VisionQuest

James Spader in The Blacklist | Credits: NBC

James Spader’s last film appearance was, coincidentally, as Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron. While he has reduced his screen time since then, he was still the lead in his TV show, The Blacklist till its finale in 2023. The show lasted ten seasons, and the two-hour finale drew in millions of viewers. However, Spader disappeared after that.

While the show could have gone on for more seasons, Spader revealed that he had a reason for ending it at ten and that he did not want to stretch it out any longer. He said (via NBC),

And I think that the thing that has been nice about this show was that we’ve never really had a really clear paradigm for the show. Tonally the show shifts a lot from episode to episode, and I think that even the show has taken strange turns, and I suspect that the show, if it went much further, would just become something that would be less recognizable to me.

The hiatus that followed also fits his habits. Spader has said he prefers to avoid the business side of acting unless he is on set, and he dislikes developing projects and planning ahead (via The Guardian). That helps explain why The Blacklist was the main place to see him in new stories for almost a decade, and he rarely worked outside it. His film career had already slowed.

Spader had previously taken another hiatus to focus on his family and had declined any offers and projects. So, it is quite telling that he came back for VisionQuest, especially in a role that he had just voiced. The actor has not revealed why he left the business after The Blacklist, but it could be to focus on his personal life again. It is nice to see him back on screen, though.

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