Marvel have announced that Emmy-award winning actor and king of creepiness James Spader will play supervillain Ultron in “Marvel’s The Avengers: Age Of Ultron”, due for release in 2015.
According to the Marvel Universe Wiki, Ultron is a “criminally insane rogue sentient robot dedicated to conquest and the extermination of humanity.” Eep. His powers include “superhuman strength and durability, the power of flight, and various offensive weapons”, but he’s surely nothing a billionaire Playboy, a military experiment, an angry green giant, a Norse god, a guy with a bow and arrow and Samuel L. Jackson can’t take care of.
Spader has garnered critical acclaim for his roles in TV series The Practice, Boston Legal and The Office, and films like Lincoln, Sex, Lies and Video Tape, Secretary and Stargate. While Ultron is a robot built of indestructible adamantium (not a real thing), it is expected that Spader will “play” the character via motion capture, not just provide his voice.
Avengers writer/director Joss Whedon tweeted today that he was #madthrilled at the casting decision, throwing in a cheeky reference to forgettable 1985 action/drama “Tuff Turf“ that starred Spader and Robert Downey Jr (shortly before he left the film world to concentrate on his side project, doing copious amounts of drugs).
All these old Spader & Spader/Downey references and NO LOVE FOR “TUFF TURF”?!?!?! Step up your game, people! #madthrilledbtw
— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) August 29, 2013
The first Avengers movie was released in 2012 and made approximately all the money. We’ll have to wait until 2015 to see if Spader manages to give Iron Man and his buddies a spankin’.
