Joss Whedon shared some details for the forthcoming The Avengers sequel at the San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, shedding further light on the films plot and characters. The sequel entitled Avengers: Age Of Ultron was revealed in the convention's Hall H, and is slated for release on May 1, 2015. However, the writer-director has chosen to take different tact to the recent book edition of the same name, revealing that the plot involving Ultron will be different in his adaptation and the movie won't include Ant-Man.
A lot of people, because we called it Age of Ultron and there was a book called Age of Ultron recently, assumed that was the storyline we were doing which is not the case, he said, speaking to Movieweb. Were doing our own version of the origin story of Ultron. The other thing is in the origin story, there was Hank Pym, so a lot of people assumed he was going to be in the mix, but hes not because were basically taking the things from the comics for the movies that we need and can use a lot of good stuff has to fall by the wayside.
Whedon admitted he had chosen Ultron as the sequels villain before he made the first film, and that he couldnt believe how surprised people were when he unveiled the title in Hall H.
Ultron was their chief villain when I read the book and he has been THE Avengers villain for so long I was amazed anybody was surprised it was going to be him in a movie, he said. But were sort of crafting our own version of it, where his origin comes more from The Avengers that we already know about it. Since before I even took the job of making the first one, I thought Well I don't know if I want to make this movie, but the second one should have Ultron in it.
When asked about how the film would differ from the first movie, Whedon elaborated far more than he has in the past, saying Ultrons involvement will mean a slight tonal shift.
It's a little bit darker than the other film, because Ultron is in the house, there's a science fiction element that I think is a little bit stronger than the other film. Getting the team together was so rousing, but seriously, keeping the team together is a completely different problem.
The man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer said he was enjoying writing the film, finding himself spoiled for choice by how to write the villain because of the wealth of differing source materials available. He said:
Ultron is definitely somebody who evolves so we're going to get a couple of iterations, it's going to be cool.
Yet though the former Serenity helmer said he was having fun writing new characters, its one of the older ones who caught his eye for the second Avengers script namely, Jeremy Renners Hawkeye.
Part of the fun for me, definitely, this time around is writing Hawkeye, because he did get possessed pretty early by a bad guy and sort of had to walk around scowly for most of the movie last time," he said. So now it's nice to actually have the character there and really see him interact with the other guys.
When asked by a fan whether the Avengers would be going aborad after the last films extended stint in America, the creative mastermind replied in the affirmative.
It's very much a global Avengers film, a lot of the movie has to do with their place not only in America but in the world.
In-keeping with the global theme, he then revealed when production for the highly-anticipated film would begin, stating that filming would begin on British, not American shores.
End of February, beginning of March, he said. We'll be shooting in London, London will be the base for Avengers 2.
Avengers: Age of Ultron, directed by Joss Whedon, will be released on May 1, 2015.