When James Spader was announced as Ultron in August, it was also revealed that he was Joss Whedon’s first choice for the role. Most people attributed that to the control and range of Spader’s voice, but Kevin Feige says that the studio selected him to play the villain in Avengers: Age Of Ultron for much more than that.
Over the weekend, Feige was being interviewed at a press junket for Thor: The Dark World and was asked about Spader’s involvement in the upcoming Avengers sequel.
Check out what he had to say below:
Well, I think it will be more than a voice role — we’ll be capturing his face and his body to create a whole performance. He’s a very unique and incredibly exciting and unpredictable actor. And Ultron in the comics is a robot, but what’s cool about him in the comics — and certainly how Joss Whedon is interpreting him for the movie — is that he is much more than just a robot. That he’s infused withmuch character. And I don’t want to say too much, but you can imagine James Spader will be very dynamic in his portrayal of this character… We did not hire James Spader to do a robot voice.
The way Feige phrased that will likely lead to many fans worrying that Ultron is going to be a human, or at least part-human. I certainly agree that I don’t want to see Ultron with a human face, but I think it’s important to not read too deeply into the comments, at least not quite yet.
Feige could simply be saying that Whedon has created a deep, complex character, and its movements will be modelled off Spader, not necessarily that it will look like Spader. But talking about capturing his face is interesting when you consider how Ultron’s face never really changes.
Regardless of how they craft Ultron, I am glad that it won’t just simply be Spader doing a robot voice. If that was the case, Whedon could’ve done the voice himself. Or just had the caterer do it. It was obviously going to be more than that when you’re bringing in someone as established as Spader. Still, it’ll be interesting to see just how different the character in the movie is from the character in the comics.
What do you think of Feige’s comments? What sort of Ultron do you think we’ll see in Avengers: Age Of Ultron? Head down to the comments section to share your thoughts below.