Director Joss Whedon unleashes Ultron on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Many longtime readers consider the evil A.I. the greatest in the Avengers rogues gallery.
But the director admits he altered the story of the monster and his maker for Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Ultron will be a huge challenge for our heroes but as Whedon explains, he had to take the ultimate robot down a notch.
“The powers in comic books – they’re always like, ‘And then I can reverse the polarity of your ions!’ – well, we have to ground things a lot more. With Ultron, we have to make him slightly less omnipotent because he’d win. Bottom line. Also, having weaknesses and needs and foibles and alliances and actually caring what people think of him, all these things, are what make him a character and not just a tidal wave. A movie about a tidal wave can be great, but it’s different than a conflict between one side and the other,” Whedon told Empire.
“When Ultron speaks, he has a point. He is really not on top of the fact that the point he’s making has nothing to do with the fact that he’s banoonoos. And that he hates the Avengers for bringing him into this world, and he can’t really articulate that or even understand how much he hates humanity. He thinks he all that. That guy is very fun to write. He combines all the iconic stuff. The powers he has are slightly different – he can control certain things, he’s not just firing repulsors.”
In the comics Hank Pym created Ultron. Whedon explains why he diverted from comics canon in bringing Ulton into the Marvel movies.
“Of all the heat I’ve ever taken, not having Hank Pym was one of the bigger things. But the fact of the matter was, Edgar (Wright*) had him first and by virtue of what Edgar was doing, there was no way for me to use him in this. I also thought it was a bridge too far. Ultron needs to be the brainchild of the Avengers, and in the world of the Avengers and the MCU, Tony Stark is that guy. Banner has elements of that guy – we don’t really think of him as being as irresponsible as Tony Stark, but the motherfucker tested gamma radiation on himself, with really terrible, way-worse-than-Tony-Stark results.
It didn’t make sense to introduce a third scientist, a third sciencetician, to do that. It was hard for me, because I grew up on the comics, to dump that, but at the end of the day, it’s a more interesting relationship between Tony and Ultron if Tony was once like, ‘You know what would be a really great idea?’ They’re doing what they always do – which is jump in headfirst, and then go, ‘Sorry, world!’ But you have to make it their responsibility without just making it their fault.”
Michael Douglas will play Pym and Paul Rudd will be Scott Lang in Ant-Man. Peyton Reed directed the film after Wright departed.
Avengers: Age of Ultron opens May 1.
More of Whedon’s interview can be found in the new issue of Empire.
By Editor