With all the rumors circling around in reference to who will be landing the title role in Edgar Wright's upcoming Ant-Man film (Which have been ranging from Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Paul Rudd), it's nice to at least hear confirmation of one casting in an upcoming Marvel film. While it's been speculated for months that Kick-Ass and Godzilla star Aaron Taylor-Johnson was the top contender for the role of Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, it's now official that the actor has indeed landed the part. Although it may not come off as much of a surprise to many, taking into account the long casting process and numerous candidates Marvel looks over for the onscreen portrayal of their iconic characters, it's indeed pretty rare that the first actor rumored for the part ultimately ended up being cast.
The Wrap brings the news of Johnson's casting, which reportedly wasn't confirmed sooner due to the actor's promotional schedule for Gareth Edward's Godzilla, which originally interfered with filming for Age of Ultron. Johnson is now the second new addition for The Avengers sequel, with just a few months ago James Spader (Blacklist) having been confirmed to portray the film's titular villain; Ultron. All of the first film's cast members including Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Scarlet Johansson, Jeremy Renner, and Samuel L. Jackson have all been confirmed to return as well.
As if the fact that Johnson was seemingly the only candidate up for the part (At least as far what was publicly known) wasn't weird enough, Johnson will now be sharing the screen once again with his Godzilla costar Elizabeth Olsen. Olsen has yet to be confirmed as Quicksilver's sister Scarlet Witch in the film, but just a few weeks prior to a rumor that she was up for the part, Samuel L. Jackson (Whose her costar in Spike Lee's Oldboy) named dropped Olsen as one of Age of Ultron's cast members. It's safe to say it'll be a bit odd for audiences to see the two as sibling just one year after they've played love interests in Godzilla, but hopefully the film's script will be able to make the character's relationship feel like a realistic depiction of that of their comic book counterparts.
Details on how the two characters will fit into the film are still very vague, but from what we've gathered, Whedon has already stated that the duo will be starting out as antagonists and slowly develop till they eventually join forces with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Whedon will still of course be presented with the challenge of explaining the origins of the characters powers, as in the comic books they are both mutants and children of Magneto. Due to the fact that Fox still owns the rights to the X-Men including Magneto and the actual term "mutant", many have hypothesized that Whedon may make the two characters past members of the group of super humans known as the Inhumans. Marvel's own Kevin Feige has expressed much interest in bringing the Inhumans into the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Phase 3, so making Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch members would not only explain their origins, but it would introduce audiences to the Inhumans team for a future film.
The inclusion of the two characters has stirred up quite some controversy from fans, as the character of Quicksilver will not only be featured in Age of Ultron, but will also be in Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past next year. Coincidentally, Johnson's Kick-Ass costar Evan Peters (American Horror Story) will be the one portraying the Days of Future Past version of the character, yet there has been no word on whether Scarlet Witch will be making an appearance as well. Judging from Singer's comments on Peters casting, and his lack of inclusion in the film's recent trailer, it's safe to assume that the character won't be as heavily in Future Past as he will be in Age of Ultron. We can only hope that Peters and Johnson's versions of Quicksilver don't turn out to be too similar to each other in the final product, and we'll instead be seeing to fresh takes on a relatively less known hero.
So are you happy with Aaron Taylor-Johnson playing Quicksilver? Do you think Johnson and Olsen can pull off the brother-sister act?
