Preparing for War

It appears that the cast for The Avengers sequel is set to get even bigger.

Seems like The Avengers will have to make room for one more in their upcoming film as it appears Don Cheadle could be reprising his role of Colonel James Rhodes, AKA War Machine, in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Originally mentioned in passing at USA Today, Bleeding Cool reported the story as a rumor followed by a "confirmation" from HitFix on the actor's return for the film.

In addition, Bleeding Cool reports that British actor Simon McBurney is in line for a role in the film that they are hearing will be the "new Jarvis," which isn't a replacement computer but the actual butler named Jarvis.

This all remains unconfirmed by Marvel Studios, but check back here for official confirmation on the matter as we learn it.

Avengers: Age of Ultron will bring the Marvel Universe's biggest heroes together again to face one of their biggest villains, with Marvel's The Avengers director Joss Whedon returning to write and direct the sequel. The film is set to open May 1, 2015.

Winter is coming

As we count down the days until the Thor sequel hits theaters, the first trailer for a sequel to a different Avenger has hit the Internet. Here's your first look at Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Bad robot

We've got some cool Avengers 2 casting news today, courtesy of EW.com:

Avengers: Age of Ultron has its psycho robot.

James Spader has signed on to play the villain in writer-director Joss Whedon’s upcoming superhero sequel, Marvel announced today.

The film is set to open May 1, 2015.

Marvel’s announcement didn’t specify whether the three-time Emmy winner Spader (Boston Legal, The Practice) will perform motion-capture to play the mechanical being (as Mark Ruffalo does for his scenes as The Hulk), or simply provide the character’s voice.

Smart money says Spader’s commitment won’t be too intense. He’s starring in the NBC series The Blacklist this Fall, as an ex-government fugitive now helping the FBI track down the world’s most wanted criminals. That probably won’t give him a lot of time to go galavanting in a robot suit.

Whedon recently told EW’s James Hibberd about his plans for the character, an artificial intelligence with a heavy-duty god-complex, overwhelmed with rage toward his creators and longing to overtake the planet with his own spawn.

Think of him as a droid with one hell of a set of daddy issues. “As a character I love [Ultron],” Whedon says, “because he’s so pissed off.”

“I knew right away what I wanted to do with him,” Whedon added. “He’s always trying to destroy the Avengers, goddamn it, he’s got a bee in his bonnet. He’s not a happy guy, which means he’s an interesting guy. He’s got pain. And the way that manifests is not going to be standard robot stuff. So we’ll take away some of those powers because at some point everybody becomes magic, and I already have someone [a new character, Scarlet Witch] who’s a witch.”

In Marvel comics lore, Ultron is the creation of scientist Hank Pym, a.k.a. Ant-Man, a hero who has a suit that allows him to shrink to tiny proportions and a transmitter that can manipulate insects to do his bidding. Pym is a genius R&D guy, and Ultron is one of his greatest creations. But since the machine is designed to be self-aware and self-teaching, it quickly develops a narcissistic quirk in its programing that sends it off the rails into murder and mayhem.

Ultron begins rebuilding himself into more and more powerful iterations and seeks to create artificial life on his own in a twisted desire to become a parent — especially important since he feels betrayed by his own builder, Pym, when he doesn’t support his programming’s new murderous bent.

But Ant-Man, a film being co-written and directed by The World’s End filmmaker Edgar Wright, won’t be out until after the Avengers sequel. So there is a question about whether Ultron’s origin story will be changed, or if Pym will show up a little early. (Whedon has told Annalee Newitz of io9.com that he won’t.)

In footage shown at Comic-Con in July to announce the title and reveal Ultron as the new villain, it begins with a close-up of what appears to be Iron Man’s mask. We hear various lines from the assorted Avengers that were spoken in previous Marvel movies. As they bicker, the Iron Man helmet revolves and is pulverized by an unseen force.

At the end, we see the title reveal — and Iron Man’s mask has become Ultron’s grinning, fang-like metallic skull.

That has led to a lot of speculation that Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, no slouch in the Research & Development field for new technology, may be rewritten as the creator of Ultron, whose mission is to eradicate organic life from Earth and replace it with his own mechanical offspring.

Right now, we can only guess. But one thing is for certain — this pairing of ’80s Brat Packers Downey Jr. and Spader is the most unlikely Less Than Zero reunion anyone could have imagined.

Maybe Ultron just wants Stark to give him his 50K?

UPDATE: Even Whedon has gotten in on the action, tweeting this out to his followers…

All these old Spader & Spader/Downey references and NO LOVE FOR “TUFF TURF”?!?!?! Step up your game, people! #madthrilledbtw

Red Skull out, Redford in??

From EW.com

The new Captain America film is probably the most unusual of the upcoming wave of Marvel sequels, since — thanks to the first film’s climactic time-jump forward — most of the original supporting cast probably won’t be returning. (Although since the movie is subtitled The Winter Soldier, there’s probably at least one supporting cast member returning, NO SPOILERS.) But the film could be adding a genuine film legend to its cast. EW has confirmed the news, initially reported by the Hollywood Reporter, that Robert Redford — Oscar winner, Sundance founder, Sundance Kid — is in negotiations to join the cast of the Star-Spangled Sequel.

It’s unclear at this point who Redford would be playing, though THR indicates that he’d be playing Nick Fury’s boss. (Combined with the Variety report that the film would prominently feature Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill, Cap 2 is shaping up to be a stealth S.H.I.E.L.D. movie.) Presumably he’s not playing the President, unless there’s an election in the Marvelverse after Iron Man 3 (with President William Sadler.)

A thing to Marvel

I'm in nerd-vana over here checking out this latest trailer for The Avengers. If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, do so now below.