With the announcement that Joss Whedon's Avengerssequel will be known as Avengers: Age of Ultron (you can read all about that historic Comic-Con panel right here), it's led to all kinds of speculation about how closely it will tie in to Edgar Wright's Ant-Man film. After all, the origin of Ultron is tied rather closely with that of Ant-Man. The answer, it would appear, is not all that closely. There's been a flurry of news about these projects in the last few days, and we've got a few of the more pertinent bits of information for you right here!
When Joss Whedon recently revealed that Hank Pym (the man who would be Ant-Man) wouldn't feature in Avengers: Age of Ultron, that kind of put a question mark around the origins of the film's villain. In the comics, Ultron was a creation of Hank Pym. Of course, this also led to speculation as to whether it would even be Hank Pym under the Ant-Man helmet.
"We're doing our own version of the origin story for Ultron," Whedon told Marvel Live. "In the origin story, there was Hank Pym, so a lot of people assumed that he will be in the mix. He's not. We're basically taking the things from the comics for the movies that we need and can use...it's a little bit darker than the other film because Ultron is in the house. There's a science fiction theme that wasn't there in the other one."
You can check out the complete interview here!
Nevertheless, while promoting The World's End, Ant-Man director, Edgar Wright, confirmed to io9 that the incredible shrinking man will indeed be Hank Pym. And since Ant-Man doesn't hit theaters until several months after Avengers: Age of Ultron, it means that another superheroic scientist is probably going to be responsible for creating the world's most dangerous piece of artificial intelligence, and from the sound of that Comic-Con video, it's going to be Tony Stark.
Also, it would seem that those Vin Diesel as Ultron (or possibly the Vision) rumors are somewhat premature. Speaking to Geek Tyrant, Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige said that any casting talk between them is "so far ahead that it may not even exist. So there's nothing to announce." Mr. Feige then went on to praise the Riddickand Fast and The Furiousfranchises before hinting "Could someday we do a Luke Cage: Hero for Hire franchise in that kind of vein? Possibly."
This is quite a lot to absorb! The Marvel movie universe is now evolving at a rate almost comparable to that of the comics! We'll keep you posted as we learn more...