Now that Warner Bros. has moved their Batman Vs. Superman release date back to 2016, and Marvel's Ant-Man has moved up to July 17, it's safe to say the superhero movie genre will be dominated by Marvel Studios come summer of 2015. While the recent accusation of star Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas will surely draw a larger crowd than originally expected for Edgar Wright's Ant-Man, Joss Whedon's long awaited sequel to The Avengers will really be the major hitter for the studio once 2015's blockbuster season kicks off. As we learned just a few months back, the film will be adding two new members to the team this time around in the forms of Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), but now it seems we can add yet another member to the mix; classic Avengers member Vision.
The Daily Mail had initially been the one's to report that actor Paul Bettany (Transcendence), who currently has been providing the voice of Tony Stark's A.I. program JARVIS in the Iron Man series, had gone in for costume and make-up test for the role of Vision, with the casting now being further confirmed by Variety. The inclusion of the character doesn't come as much of a surprise, considering the fact the the android Ultron (Played by James Spadar) will be the primary villain of the upcoming film, who is in fact the creator of Vision in the comics. While the character originally starts out as an ally to Ultron against The Avengers, he eventually is able to break away from Ultron's control and join the team's fight against him.
It make sense that Marvel and Whedon would chose to go with the character, considering how heavy he plays into the mythology of Ultron's creation, as well as his relationship with new addition Scarlet Witch in the comics. That being said, there's been several rumors claiming that the character would be showing up in the sequel, with earlier reports hypothesizing that Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson could be revived as the android following the events of the first Avengers film (A conflict that has since been resolved on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). There had also been several rumors that Vin Diesel (Fast and Furious 6) had been interested in playing the part, but he's since gone on to land the role of Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy. Given that Bettany himself was rumored to play the role of Ultron, it's interesting that he's now been cast as Vision, and may further indicate that Tony Stark will be the creator of Ultron (And possibly Vision) considering the fact that Vision will share the same voice as his own A.I. system.
Now for those curious about how Vision will look in Age of Ultron, Comic Book Theory has reportedly seen concept art and the actual suit that Bettany may be sporting in the film which they've given a detail description of: “It has a helmet akin to the Iron Man armor, but it’s designed more like a face than a smooth Stark helmet. The iconic yellow and green are present in the design, but it’s more metallic shades than bright ‘comic book colors.’ They said it reminds them somewhat of the T-100 from Terminator 2 but it’s not as shiny. The yellow metal “liquid” bits seem to light up. This may or may not happen since there are two designs for that section. One lights up the other doesn’t. That’s the only difference. The cape is present, but they say it appears to only “pop out” when in flight mode. The cap sports some similar shades of yellow as the body. The “neck pieces” are the same yellow but they seem to shift positions from “standing” (for lack of a better word) to “flight mode.” So basically, if this description is anything to go by, we can expect a costume very reminiscent of the design used in the comics, as well as some similarities between Vision's face and the Iron Man helmet (Similar to the design being used for Ultron's face).
Now there's also been a rumor surrounding Age of Ultron circulating courtesy of Latino-Review, and that's the possible edition of Carol Denvers aka Ms. Marvel. The site mentions that the role will be the last major casting addition Whedon and co. will making, and will eventually lead into a solo film sometime in Marvel's Phase 3 (Which is rumored to already have a script in development). Whether's there's any truth to the rumor or not still remains to be seen, but it seems like a likely possibility considering how strongly Whedon feels about having female heroines in his films and TV shows (See Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and with the film's current roster only consisting of two female characters, an extra one doesn't seem out of the cards.
Director Joss Whedon is clearly taking a different route with the upcoming sequel, presumably keeping things much closer to the original source material. Bringing classic Avengers members such as Vision, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch certainly wasn't what most fans were expecting, yet it seems like the perfect point in the series to introduce these characters. While the rumor that Whedon will be adding Ms. Marvel to the current ensemble shows he's still taking certain things from the more recent Avengers comic storylines, the recent casting of Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist, Valkyrie) as classic villain Baron von Strucker as well as the possible inclusion of his organization Hydra (Previously headed by the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger) shows that Whedon's primary focus is to use Age of Ultron to pay tribute to many of the classic aspects of the team left out of the first film. We can only hope that the appearance of Kretschmann's Strucker ties in with events that we'll see take place in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
So what do you think of Paul Bettany's Vision joining The Avengers line-up? Would you be happy if Ms. Marvel has a part in the film? Sound off below!
