Marvel’s Kevin Feige on why Ultron was picked to be the main villain in The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Marvel Head Kevin Feige recently spoke with SFX (via CBM) and shared a few details on THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. In the comments below, Feige talks about the new additions to the superhero team, and why Ultron was chosen to be the main villain. Let's get right to it.

Kevin Feige on Ultron:

Joss Whedon had a great idea for the character and how to use him to unify the Avengers again and acquire their services once more. He was a favorite. Joss and I were on the production of the first Avengers movie and we started having conversations about Ultron, and how he could come about and how we could adapt his origin to the continuity of the cinematic universe. It literally was just little discussions between takes but thankfully Joss files all that kind of stuff away in his brain. Then when the time arrived, he started outing it, so he went back to that and built a very good story.

Feige says THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON is only the title of the movie, and won't be connected to the ongoing comic book series:

We didn't want to merely have a '2' after Avengers so we wanted to give it a subtitle. We have various things that we were looking at and Age of Ultron – which just happened to be a the name of a comic book series as well – was our favorite.

Kevin Feige on casting James Spader for Ultron:

I first met James Spader two or three years ago. I thought it would be great to have him in our universe and we finally found the right role with Joss's version of Ultron.

Feige on adding Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, and if there are too many protagonists in the film:

It's always a balance with any movie, not to overwhelm it with too many story elements.Certainly when it comes to comic book movies, you can fall into the trap of having too many villains and in the case of team-based movies, having too many heroes. But what Joss has in mind to bring those characters into the story happens in a very natural fashion over the course of the story. It's also the tradition of the Avengers to switch up the roster every now and again and to have new characters coming in. It's just part of the fun, but we wouldn't have included them if it had just been a case of 'Oh, we want two new figures, two new costumes.' It very much flows with the story that Joss is creating.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you guys how psyched I am for THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. It's going to be an absolutely huge movie, and I can't wait to see the superhero team back in action. Some might be worried there will be too much going on in the new film, but with Joss Whedon behind the wheel, I'm extremely confident that we'll be getting another awesome Avengers movie.

THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON will be in theaters on May 1st, 2015.