Now that Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy have made 2014 the best year yet for Marvel, all eyes are on Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon to follow suit and bring an exciting end to Phase Two of the MCU.
He promises to do that with the biggest Marvel film yet, featuring the familiar roster of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as well as some new faces like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as “The Twins,” Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, respectively.
In a new interview with Empire, Whedon talks a bit about how Age of Ultron differs from its bar-raising 2012 predecessor, saying:
“It’s more epic and in other ways it’s more noirish and suspect and devious and specific. Ultron, he’s got a touch of the apocalypse in him.”
The inclusion of Ultron in the Avengers sequel came as a bit of a surprise for fans, who were expecting the Mad Titan Thanos, who appeared in the first film’s post-credits sequence, to take on the superhero team next time around. We now know that Thanos is being saved for a future film (likely Avengers 3), and according to Kevin Feige, that was the plan all along:
“Ultron was the villain Joss wanted, from midway through production on the first film, to have serious repercussions for the Avengers.”
Ultron won’t be the only one the team fights in their next adventure, as they’ll also come to blows with each other. Concept art released back in March shows the iconic Hulkbuster armor engaging in fisticuffs with The Hulk. Feige describes the armor as “the back-up plan in case things go awry,” while Whedon elaborates by saying:
“The Hulkbuster is from after my time [as a reader], but even I knew what a big deal it was. It makes sense because there’s no one who can really go up against Hulk. But more importantly, those guys are best friends, so what that battle is and what it means is fascinating to me.”
Accompanying the interview were three new stills from the film, featuring “Science Bros” Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (obviously in a pre-Hulkbuster deployment scenario), Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, and Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye learning a few archery tips from Whedon himself.
Avengers: Age of Ultron hits cinemas on May 1st, 2015.
