Joss Whedon plans to power Ultron down in The Avengers 2

As Joss Whedon continues to put the finishing touches to the script for The Avengers: Age of Ultron, the geek favourite filmmaker has spoken to Entertainment Weekly about his plans for the eponymous villain, stating that he plans to strip back some of the artificial intelligence's abilities when he goes up against Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the sequel to last year's mega-blockbuster.

"I knew right away what I wanted to do with him. He’s always trying to destroy the Avengers, goddamn it, he’s got a bee in his bonnet. He’s not a happy guy, which means he’s an interesting guy. He’s got pain. And the way that manifests is not going to be standard robot stuff. So we’ll take away some of those powers because at some point everybody becomes magic, and I already have someone [a new character, Scarlet Witch] who’s a witch."

When then went on to admit that he needs "to ground [the character] while still evoking that guy" and while the robot killing machine will be powered down from his comic book counterpart, it sounds as though he'll still be more than a match for The Avengers: "As a character I love [Ultron] because he's so pissed off."

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is set for release on May 1st, 2015, with Robert Downey Jr. expected to reunite with Avengers stars Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson. Kick-Ass star Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been strongly tipped to join the cast as Quicksilver while Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) is the latest name to be linked to the role of Scarlet Witch.