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! 

Avengers: Age of Ultron Easter Eggs and Marvel References

Want to know all the Marvel Universe secrets of Avengers: Age of Ultron? Then check out these articles!

Complete Guide to Marvel Comics References and Easter Eggs in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

These are the comic book Ultron stories you’ll want to read next.

Want to know who the minor villains are?

If you want to know more about newest Avenger, The Vision…

And just for fun, a list of Avengers who will never be in the movies. 

Avengers: Age of Ultron review

After $1.5 billion at the box office and one immensely entertaining film later, Whedon succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. So naturally, those expectations have been raised for Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is almost obligated to be bigger and more spectacular while serving the characters and story, putting a bow on Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and pointing the way to the franchise’s future.

Does it do all these things? Yes and no. Avengers: Age of Ultron is a larger movie with probably triple the action sequences of The Avengers, but it also feels like a shaggier one that doesn’t capture the exhilaration of seeing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes together for the first time…

Read the rest of our review right here!

Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailers

Here’s the first trailer…

And then there’s a second trailer…

And last but not least, the third and final trailer:

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

Check out some TV spots for Avengers: Age of Ultron, too…

This one is a favorite, since it heavily features Don Cheadle as War Machine, complete with comic book accurate black and silver armor and shoulder cannon! 

Check it out:

And then, of course, there are clips from the film. Beware of spoilers, though. At this point, you could almost just wait for the movie.

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. 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 moviebut 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. Or maybe he’s not even secondary.

We haven’t seen much of him in the trailers, but you know who we have seen?

That’s Andy Serkis, who is playing Fantastic Four/Black Panther villain Ulysses Klaw. We’re willing to bet that we get a trip to Wakanda out of this movie, and Ulysses is just the guy to annoy that country’s population.

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 is certainly going to be the center of both Avengers: Infinity War movies.

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.

Their mutant roots will be downplayed considerably, since the issue of their parentage (namely, Magneto) is tied up at another studio. They had a brief appearance at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, along with secondary baddie Baron Strucker.

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 Avengers movie, but will make the jump from disembodied voice to full blown superhero in this one. He hasn’t shown up in the trailers just yet, but some concept art has surfaced that shows off his very comic book faithful look:

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.

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. Julie Delpy and Linda Cardellini are in the film in mysterious roles. 

It was recently revealed that there were plans to include Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel in the movie in some capacity, but that ended up not happening. Sadly, Katee Sackhoff told us that there have been no talks with her and Marvel about the role.  

There is also a huge stack of spoiler-y new official character details up over at Inquirer News. 

The Rest

Avengers: Age of Ultron has no post-credits sequence. Don’t panic, though, because it has the traditional mid-credits sequence…just don’t expect to see the team hanging out and eating shwarma or anything.

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