Avengers: Age of Ultron - Everything You Need to Know

Avengers: Age of Ultron is now quite firmly the most anticipated superhero movie of 2015 (with apologies to Ant-Man and 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot). The sequel to the most successful superhero movie of all-time (and one of the highest grossing films ever) will arrive on May 1st, 2015, and will see the return of most of the original cast, director/writer Joss Whedon, and include a host of new characters.

We've got everything you need to know about Avengers: Age of Ultron right here. Some potential spoilers will follow, so beware! We'll start with the good stuff, though...the trailers.

Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailers

And just for comparison, here's the first teaser that was unveiled back in 2013:

The Story

Here's the official plot synopsis, courtesy of Disney:

Marvel Studios presents “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision. 

Now, we can get into the other details...

The Villains

As the title suggests, the primary villain of Avengers: Age of Ultron is...Ultron! Who is Ultron? He’s a malevolent artificial intelligence (created with the best of intentions) that wants to see biological life eliminated. For anyone who has never read an Ultron story, we can refer you to some of our favorites. Recently, Joss Whedon had some interesting things to say about Ultron's characterization in the film, describing him as "a robot who's genuinely disturbed."

Basically, imagine something far worse than Skynet, able to produce a limitless number of drones for the Avengers to clobber. And who is going to play Ultron? None other than Red Reddington himself, James Spader, who will not only provide the voice of Ultron, but actually portray the malevolent robot via motion capture.

Recently, Ultron's true purpose and origin was revealed, with Joss Whedon saying that"Ultron sees the big picture and he goes, ‘Okay, we need radical change, which will be violent and appalling, in order to make everything better. He’s not just going ‘Muhaha, soon I’ll rule!’”

Ultron's origins will be altered slightly for the film. In the comics, Ultron was created by Hank Pym/Ant-Man. Pym will be played by Michael Douglas in the Ant-Man movie but won't be showing up in Avengers: Age of Ultron. We now know that it's Tony Stark who creates Ultron, in order to help the heroes of the Marvel Universe deal with their increased workload in the wake of the dissolution of SHIELD. Of course, this doesn't go as planned.

But there will be at least one other bad guy joining the proceedings, in the form of Thomas Kretschmann as Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Baron Strucker is the head of HYDRA, and is generally known as a Captain America and SHIELD antagonists. Thanks to recent events on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD television series, HYDRA is once again a force in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it's unlikely they will be central to the plot of a movie called Age of Ultron, We can expect that Baron Strucker will be a quickly dispatched secondary threat.

There's also the possibility, however slight, that we'll see Thanos make another appearance. The Mad Titan, famously teased at the end of the first Avengers movie, made a brief appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy and seems to be the logical antagonist for Avengers 3. However the recent Captain America 3news makes us wonder how this will all work). 

The Heroes

In addition to the return of the original team, the Avengers are getting some reinforcements in the form of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Elizabeth Olsen is Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson will play Quicksilver. It looks like their mutant roots will be downplayed considerably, since the issue of their parentage (namely, Magneto) is tied up at another studio. They recently had a brief appearance at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, along with secondary baddie Baron Strucker.

We don't yet know exactly how large their roles will be, or even if they'll be full-blown Avengers allies, but these are two characters with deep roots in Avengers lore, so it's safe to say they'll be quite visible. Producer Kevin Feige, speaking to Empire Magazine, promised that "They're not very happy with the Avengers, their powers are not insignificant and they're quite different from what the Avengers have faced before." 

We also know that the Vision will appear in the film, played by Paul Bettany. Mr. Bettany was the voice of JARVIS in the Iron Man films and the first Avengersmovie, but will make the jump from disembodied voice to full blown superhero in this one.

Mr. Feige has also promised larger roles for both Hulk and Hawkeye in Avengers: Age of Ultron. For Hulk, we do have at least one piece of evidence for this, as the trailer showcased "Hulkbuster" Iron Man armor, complete with Hulk wrestling with Iron Man. What this means for the film or their relationship is unclear, although it's probably not a good thing for anyone involved. The good news is that Lou Ferrigno will once again provide the voice of the Hulk. The even better news is that Andy Serkis is helping Mark Ruffalo with the motion capture aspects of the performance, and even shows up in an unspecified role.

Scarlett Johansson has let slip that "you'll see some pretty strong female characters in Avengers 2." The key word here is characters, plural. In addition to Black Widow and Scarlet Witch, we know that Cobie Smulders will make an appearance as Agent Maria Hill. But what about all those rumors of a Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel movie? Surely, setting up Carol Danvers in Avengers 2would help pave the way for a solo film. Sadly, Katee Sackhoff told us that there have been no talks with her and Marvel about the role.  

The Rest

Avengers: Age of Ultron has wrapped principal photography and is now in post-production. There’s nothing to indicate that the film will share anything with the comic of the same name (which dealt with time travel, alternate realities, and other heavy subjects that the Avengers film franchise might not be quite ready for) other than the title. Joss Whedon is back as both writer and director. Brian Tyler (Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World) is composing the score.

Avengers: Age of Ultron opens on May 1st, 2015