Underrated Villain From Joss Whedon’s Poorly Received Avengers Movie Can Return to MCU With a Rare Concept From Marvel Comics

Directed by Joss Whedon, 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron starred Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, and more. The movie follows Avengers fighting Ultron, an artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Actor James Spader voiced the character of Ultron.

The eleventh movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, upon its release, received positive responses from the critics as well as the audience. It became the fourth highest-grossing movie in 2015. James Spader was reportedly the only choice for Ultron, and his face and body were motion-captured to create the performance. He was highly appreciated for his performance in the movie, and now he returns to play Ultron once again.

James Spader to join Paul Bettany for Marvel’s Vision Series

According to reports by The Hollywood Reporter, actor James Spader, who voiced the role of Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, is set to reprise his character for Marvel’s upcoming Vision series. The actor is going to join Paul Bettany, who plays Vision in the Marvel Universe.

Vision returned in 2021’s WandaVision after Wanda brought him back through magic powered by grief. Towards the end of the series, the audience saw another version of Vision, a nuts-and-bolts android with a ghostly appearance and zero memory of the past.

The two Visions battle in the finale episode, and Wanda’s Vision restores the ghost Vision’s memories, and then Wanda allows her vision to fade away. The upcoming untitled show is going to follow the events after the events of the finale as the ghost Vision explores his new purpose in life.

Spader’s Ultron had a hand in creating Vision, but before Vision became conscious, the Avengers took his body from Ultron. Vision was later given consciousness courtesy when Bruce Banner and Tony Stark uploaded what was left of Stark’s AI J.A.R.V.I.S. into Vision. He eventually helped the Avengers in defeating Ultron, who wanted human extinction to have world peace.

Upon pointing out how Ultron would return to the world in the upcoming series as he was destroyed towards the end of the 2015 movie, the publication mentioned,

It’s unclear whether Ultron will be returning as a robot or in human form.

According to Fiction Horizon, Ultron’s human form is a rare concept, which is explored in a few storylines in Marvel Comics. There have been instances where Ultron has managed to take on more human-like appearances.

It has also been mentioned that in some stories, Ultron is obsessed with humanity, which leads to him adopting various human or pseudo-human forms. If Spader’s Ultron returns to a human form, he might use this form to dominate his son, Vision.

James Spader on playing a villain in Marvel Cinematic Universe

Actor James Spader, who is known for his work on Blacklist, spoke to The Independent U.K. back in 2013, where he revealed why he signed up to play a villain in the MCU.

The unknown is very appealing to me. I like to be surprised. I love the idea I might know less at the end of reading something than I do at the beginning. I like to try something different, to just see what happens.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, back in 2015, shared with HuffPost about James Spader being the voice of Ultron. He added that he captured the actor’s face and his body to create a whole performance, noting that he is a very unknown incredibly exciting, and unpredictable actor. Feige mentioned that Ultron in the comics is a robot, but Joss Whedon’s interpretation of him in the movie is very interesting.

Feige concluded that they did not hire James Spader to do a robot voice. For the upcoming Vision series, actor Todd Stashwick is also going to join Spader and Bettany in a significant role. The series is scheduled for filming in early 2025 in England.

WandaVision is streaming on Disney+.