Joss Whedon explains his choice of villain for Avengers: Age of Ultron

Since taking to the stage at Comic-Con to reveal that the follow-up to last year's mega-blockbuster The Avengers is going by the name of Avengers: Age of Ultron, writer-director Joss Whedon has been doing a lot of talking about the 2015 sequel. We've already heard the fanboy favourite explaining that the movie will be an original story [see here], as well as promising more screen time for Hawkeye and Black Widow [see here] and indicating that new Avenger Scarlet Witch will be undergoing a bit of a revamp costume-wise [see here]. Well, now he's at it again, this time offering an insight into his choice of villain.

"I was pitching Ultron before I took the job on the first movie," Whedon tells Total Film, referring to the misanthrophic artificial intelligence who is set to menace Earth's Mightiest Heroes. "I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this, but for the second one, you should totally do Ultron... He’s been a thorn in their side as much as any other character over the years and particularly back in my history. He was great. He’s somebody who can juice things up and he’s a real problem for the Avengers. That’s not always easy to find. It’s not like the Vulture is really going to give them a hard time for 20 minutes."

Avengers: Age of Ultron is set for release on May 1st 2015, with Robert Downey Jr. confirmed to return as Tony Stark and Chris Evans (Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) and Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill) all expected to reprise their roles.