Avengers: Age of Ultron is a little more than two months away and the mastermind of The Avengers franchise, writer and director Joss Whedon, was visited by Empire while shooting the upcoming sequel. The details of the the interview were recently released and Whedon candidly talks about his highly-anticipated superhero extravaganza.
We are in uncharted film territory with the second Avengers film. When The Avengers was released in 2012 there had never been as ambitious a project in Hollywood history. The cumulative effects of Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and the two Iron Man movies, had created a wave of anticipation that was unprecedented. Whedon managed to turn the momentum into the largest grossing superhero film of all time. So when he went into production on Age of Ultron, Whedon truly was exploring new ground. He was asked if there were any sequels that he looked to as an influence, he responded:
I know I reference Godfather Part II a lot. ‘Don’t reference the greatest movie ever made because that’s Icarus, you moron!’ But at the same time it is a huge touchstone for me because you get everything you got from the first Godfather movie in a very different movie, in a movie that structurally couldn’t be more different, and thematically and in intent and in mood, and yet nobody ever goes, ‘It wasn’t Godfathery enough.’ I need to give people an exciting ride about heroic people, and that’s certainly part of why I signed on, but at the same time a richer, deeper, darker movie is not a bad thing.
A huge part of the success of the second Godfather film was how Francis Ford Coppola utilized flashbacks, to gain a fuller understanding of the characters and the original film. Whedon was asked if he was inspired by that structure and if we would be getting any flashbacks of the Avengers.
We see the early days, young Nick Fury in Sicily… I don’t know what the hell he’s doing in Sicily. ‘I can’t wait to see this 3D technology, all these amazing bifocals, and the things I can do with both of my eyes…’ It’s very poignant, actually.
There hasn’t been much mention of how Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) will fit into Age of Ultron. Fury went “off the grid” during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, however getting a glimpse of a young Nick Fury could also give insight into the events of Agent Carter or Ant-Man. Plus, judging from Whedon’s humor, we may get to see a young Fury…with both of his eyes. Will we see how the eye patch came about? We may have to wait until May to find out.
Empire managed to get a confirmation that the Age of Ultron would begin with a James Bond inspired action sequence before the credits. For those unfamiliar, many of the older Bond films began with a non-linear action sequence that set the tone and bar for the adventure to come after the titles. This is what Whedon had to say about the opening of the movie.
My instinct was, ‘Let’s just come out of the gate saying there is an Avengers.’ So we can have more time to pick at them and tear them apart and hurt them and ultimately destroy them. I’ve been working on a lot of Ultron scenes, so I’m very anti-Avengers right now…There is a pre-credit Bondian blow-out. The James Bond theme has come up more than a few times, mainly because the locations are so beautiful and in particular the opening location is really stunning. There was a moment where there were soldiers and different kinds of people fighting them, and these guys in winter camo come up on a castle in one of those mountain resort elevators that goes side-to-side and looks like a gumball machine, and I was looking at the Italian Alps and the mist and the castle, and this weird thing rises up, full of soldiers in winter camo, and everybody was like… [sings the Bond theme].
A superhero is only as good as the villain that he faces. So when there is an entire superteam, the advesary has to be extraordinarily capable. Whedon was asked when he decided on Ultron as the villain of the second movie and what about the maniacal robot intrigued him.
Before I took the first movie. For me what was interesting is that he is this angry, and I hired the smoothest talker in Hollywood to play him. I did it on purpose. I needed a guy who can give you the Morpheus but then can just LOSE HIS SHIT. Spader’s really good at that and he’s really good at finding the darkness, but also the comedy. The comedy is always a huge thing for me. Tom Hiddleston is hilarious. Hiddleston can turn on a dime, which is my favourite thing. He can be absolutely apocalyptic and then, ‘Um, point of order?’ Ultron has the same thing. He is very different, obviously, in his rhythms and his concepts, but for me it’s a guy who’s that angry and who hates the Avengers that much and is also a robot and is therefore going to have every issue that a robot’s going to have with humanity anyway… there’s a lot to play there. For me, he’s an iconic figure.
Many feel that Marvel’s films biggest weakness lies in the way that they have depicted their villains. With the exception of Loki and the Winter Soldier, most of the bad guys have been underwritten and one-dimensional. Whether it is Obadiah Stane in Iron Man or Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy, they have failed to find a way to consistently make their rogues compelling to audiences.
However, that perception may change this summer in the Age of Ultron. With the universal excitement over Spader’s portryal of Ultron and a character whose powers continue to evolve over the course of the story, the Avengers will confront their first individually formidable opponent. Whedon was asked about the full potential of Ultron’s capabilities and if he had to modify his abilities from the comic books.
Yeah, I did. The powers in comic books – they’re always like, ‘And then I can reverse the polarity of your ions!’ – well, we have to ground things a lot more. With Ultron, we have to make him slightly less omnipotent because he’d win. Bottom line. Also, having weaknesses and needs and foibles and alliances and actually caring what people think of him, all these things, are what make him a character and not just a tidal wave. A movie about a tidal wave can be great, but it’s different than a conflict between one side and the other.
When Ultron speaks, he has a point. He is really not on top of the fact that the point he’s making has nothing to do with the fact that he’s banoonoos. And that he hates the Avengers for bringing him into this world, and he can’t really articulate that or even understand how much he hates humanity. He thinks he all that. That guy is very fun to write. He combines all the iconic stuff. The powers he has are slightly different – he can control certain things, he’s not just firing repulsors.
There will be at least three new Avengers before the end credits roll. (It hasn’t been revealed how War Machine and other rumored cameos will fit into the picture quite yet). Among those are Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who were expected to have a complicated introduction. However, Whedon feels that they will fit into the narrative naturally.
They have an origin but it’s largely described. They’re already good to go by the time we’re up and running. You don’t want to fall into Spider-Man 3 territory – and I say that as a guy who actually thinks pretty well of that movie, there’s some great stuff in that movie – but there comes a point where you’re overloaded with frontstory, backstory, origin story and it becomes very hard to juggle. My instinct is always, ‘Don’t put in more, work with what you have.’
But I insisted on putting in more in this movie because I felt I needed more villains. I needed someone for Ultron to talk to, and I need more trouble for the Avengers. As powerful as Ultron is, if he builds more Ultrons, they’re Ultrons. There’s no reason for him to ever to talk to them because they’re him. ‘I need you to – I KNOW! I AM TOTALLY YOU! I DID IT EARLIER! I know that because I am also me.’ That’s not a good conversation. Actually, it sounded pretty good there. I think I’m onto something.
Whedon is both a comic book writer and historian, so it would be hard to find someone who understands the material better than him. He was asked how he approached Ultron’s origin in the film and how he decided which Avengers would be responsible for his creation.
Of all the heat I’ve ever taken, not having Hank Pym was one of the bigger things. But the fact of the matter was, Edgar had him first and by virtue of what Edgar was doing, there was no way for me to use him in this. I also thought it was a bridge too far. Ultron needs to be the brainchild of the Avengers, and in the world of the Avengers and the MCU, Tony Stark is that guy. Banner has elements of that guy – we don’t really think of him as being as irresponsible as Tony Stark, but the motherfucker tested gamma radiation on himself, with really terrible, way-worse-than-Tony-Stark results.
It didn’t make sense to introduce a third scientist, a third sciencetician, to do that. It was hard for me, because I grew up on the comics, to dump that, but at the end of the day, it’s a more interesting relationship between Tony and Ultron if Tony was once like, ‘You know what would be a really great idea?’ They’re doing what they always do – which is jump in headfirst, and then go, ‘Sorry, world!’ But you have to make it their responsibility without just making it their fault.
There is an entirely separate continuity in the cinematic universe from the comic books. Whedon is taking the characters and events that have already been established and coming to the same conclusions that are on the page. In other words, he is taking a different route to the same destination.
His comments about Banner being irresponsible is an often overlooked element of his character. Typically Banner is portrayed as timid or flighty, however he must have a high level of scientific arrogance in his work, to feel that he could experiment on himself without repercussions. It seems that Whedon is planning on taking a more nuanced and complex look at the characters that met for the first time in The Avengers. We can’t wait to see what we discover about them in May.
Avengers: Age of Ultron releases May 1st, 2015.
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