Avengers: Age Of Ultron is almost three months away. That means that another mighty Marvel press tour will be ramping up soon enough. In the meantime, Empire‘s published some bits from an interview with Joss Whedon from last April. He talks about Hank Pym and dimensionalizing Ultron.
For one, he’d like everyone to know that he heard the criticism around changing Ultron’s origins but that it just had to be done, for time and space and cinematic impact. He’d also like everyone to know that yeah, he was bummed about it, too:
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 motherf***er 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.”
And on the subject of Ultron, Whedon also talked about tweaking the character for the film:
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’s 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.
Elsewhere in Avengers-related interviews, Robert Downey Jr. told Empire his feeling about Whedon potentially not coming back for the third Avengers film:
More than I would miss him, I would be remiss to say that these are such Herculean gigs, so it’s important for Joss to take all the leverage he’s earned and to apply it to something else. Ultimately he’s a creator, and I think what he did is he’s very aptly taken pre-existing material and spun it into something that feels like a creation.
And on the Marvel bond:
It’s funny, nobody really ever goes away entirely from the Marvel universe. ’m sure whatever’s going on in ten years, whether I’m receiving a red cent or whether anyone still associates me with the product, there’s still always going to be a level as long as anybody from the original team is there, where you’re connected.
What do you think about the comic-book-to-MCU changes?
(Image via Marvel)
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