In the comics, the villain Ultron has lots and lots of powers, and I doubt all of them will be making it into Avengers: Age of Ultron. But beyond his superpowers, there's the question of his personality. Writer-director Joss Whedon is clearly relishing the chance to bring this unique baddie to the screen, and he spoke with Empire about the experience. "I'm having a blast with Ultron," Whedon said. "He's not a creature of logic - he's a robot who's genuinely disturbed. We're finding out what makes him menacing and at the same time endearing and funny and strange and unexpected, and everything a robot never is." When Whedon lays out the character like this, it makes me even more excited that they got James Spader to do the voice.
Hit the jump for more on what Whedon had to say beyond talking about the Avengers 2 villain. The film also stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Thomas Kretschmann. Avengers: Age of Ultron opens May 1, 2015.
Whedon reiterated that bringing in new characters wasn't just a matter of fan-service or a "bigger-is-better" mentality. He explains to Empire:
"I fiercely dislike the idea of just throwing in more people for the sake of doing that," he stressed. "But last time I had all of Earth's Mightiest Heroes versus one British character actor, and I needed more conflict."
True, but when the British character actor is Tom Hiddleston, that's a pretty tough foe. At that point, you really have no choice but to go with a superpowered, insane, killer robot.