Joss Whedon has found his Ultron – the robotic big bad who will face off against the Avengers in 2015’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
He will be played by Stargate‘s James Spader, who has scooped three Emmy Awards for his role as Alan Shore on Boston Legal and The Practice, and will return to television this fall in NBC’s series The Blacklist. He’s no stranger to movies either, recently appearing in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln biopic.
Marvel hasn’t announced whether Spader will be voicing the character or putting in a motion-capture performance, too. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, director Joss Whedon said: “As a character I love [Ultron], because he’s so pissed off. I knew right away what I wanted to do with him.”
Whedon added: “He’s always trying to destroy the Avengers, goddamn it, he’s got a bee in his bonnet. He’s not a happy guy, which means he’s an interesting guy. He’s got pain. And the way that manifests is not going to be standard robot stuff. So we’ll take away some of those powers because at some point everybody becomes magic, and I already have someone [a new character, Scarlet Witch] who’s a witch.”
We’re yet to discover who Ultron’s maker will be. In the comic books it was Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man, but since his solo movie is still in the works, Whedon has confirmed that he will be altering the origin story to fit in with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Speculation points the finger at tech-whiz Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr).
But be warned – when we recently spoke to Iron Man 3 screenwriter Drew Pearce, he said: “There are a hell of a lot of rumours, though. Ultron may be something that appears in Guardians Of The Galaxy, or it might appear in the Thor universe… I’ve read a lot of stuff online and I don’t think anyone has got close to the real plan yet.”
Avengers: Age Of Ultron will be released in cinemas 1 May 2015. You can buy Avengers Assemble on DVD for £10.99 or on Blu-ray for £14.99 from Amazon.co.uk.
