Interesting Movie News – August 29, James Spader to play Ultron

The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron

It’s day one of the college football season, but I can still make some time for some entertainment news. I saw on Reddit this morning where they cast James Spader to play Ultron in the new Avengers movie.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like James Spader, he plays a hell of a lawyer on TV, and I liked his appearances on The Office as well – but he’s not super villain material in my opinion. I have faith that Joss Whedon can get it done once again with The Avengers: Age of Ultron, I’m just slightly disappointed that he didn’t cast Paul Bettany in this role. For those who don’t know, Bettany plays the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S in the Iron Man movies and in the first Avengers movie.

There were a few possibilities that people thought were going to happen to bring about Ultron. First, if you read the quick summary of the movie on IMDB, it goes like this:


This makes me think that either they commission Tony Stark to make something for them (Ultron is a robot, FYI), or get someone else to do something similar to what Stark could do. A lot of people think that Hank Pym might do it. Pym’s superhero persona is Ant-Man, and they have announced that in the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they will make an Ant-Man movie. However, do they introduce him here as the creator of Ultron? After all, he did create him in the comic books.

Joss Whedon said this at Comic-Con:

“We’re doing our own version of the origin story of Ultron….We were crafting our own version of it where [Ultron’s] own origin comes more directly from the Avengers we already know about. The other thing is in the origin story there was Hank Pym, so a lot of people assumed he was going to be in the mix, but he’s not. We’re basically taking the things from the comics for the movies that we need and can use. A lot of stuff has to fall by the wayside.”

So that answers that. No Ant-Man, so how does he get made? A lot of people were looking to see J.A.R.V.I.S. go rogue and use Tony Stark’s technology to create Ultron. I’m not much of a comic book nerd, but I do like to really dig into the story lines after seeing the movies and try and figure out what happens next. Apparently the human version of Jarvis did play some type of role with Ultron in the comic books, so a lot of people, including myself, were imagining that the virtual J.A.R.V.I.S. would follow a similar route, and that Paul Bettany would end up “being” Ultron.

Now, just because James Spader is playing Ultron, doesn’t mean this still can’t happen. I’m just curious to see how he plays a villain, even if it is just a voice over.

Although the same goes for Paul Giamatti playing The Rhino in Spider-Man 2. He always seemed too fat and lumpy to be a hulk of a villain like The Rhino is. You have to love this picture though:


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