After putting on yet another legendary panel, Marvel had one last ace up its sleeve before Hall H closed the doors on their feature film presentations with Marvel’s Kevin Feige introducing director Joss Whedon onto the stage after the audience (myself included) literally begged for more. Whedon made his way quickly to the podium and with a sly smile said, “I know it’s time to go and I don’t have a lot to say. But, I do have something to add.” And with that, Whedon exited the stage as the lights went dark and footage began to play.
The image of Iron Man’s armor is seen in CGI very up close being smashed and destroyed, as if someone were taking a really big hammer to it. As the camera zooms around various pieces of the armor, the reflection of THE AVENGERS can be seen in various places, while the armor continues to be destroyed and a series of quotes from the various members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes play underneath. This builds to a slow and steady pull back reveal of the armor, which is now taking on a vary familiar and unmistakable shape: The head of Ultron.
Then, the title banner for the film is unveiled as THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, at which point the crowd went about as insane as they did when Zack Snyder introduced SUPERMAN/BATMAN as the next DC comics film. Now, when you’re in a place like Hall H, people know who Ultron is and get the significance of this, especially when that cliffhanger in the first film showed Thanos. However, we’ve since learned that Thanos is going to play a bigger role in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, which leaves our schawarma-loving heroes plenty of time to tussle with another big-name baddie.
Ultron, for the uninitiated, was created in the comics by none other than Hank Pym/ANT-MAN, and after creating the superhero known as The Vision, becomes “self-aware” and rebels against Pym and THE AVENGERS, before ultimately being defeated. The title “Age of Ultron” however, comes from the recent 10-issue event series that recently wrapped. That story, however, involves a number of characters that Marvel does not own, especially Wolverine and Invisible Woman, who play significant roles in the event. It’s likely that they’re just using the title, because it fits whatever Ultron tale they’re weaving. Either way, it’s a bold direction, and one that die-hard fans have been hoping for.
THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON is set to open on May 1, 2015.
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