James Spader as Ultron

While I am a huge James Spader fan, he doesn’t strike me as the Ultron type.

Spader’s always played the cocky misfit who introduces himself with some kind of banality before he amiably throws the hammer down. As Reddington, he simmers on long-term plans to destroy his enemies, and is fond of undermining them by appearing in their homes uninvited and warming up to their loved ones.

Ultron is much more brutal. He might toy with his enemies a bit, but he’s more fond of crushing them and gloating about it. I just never got that Spader-smarmy vibe out of him. He’s a machine. There’s zero hope of appealing to his better nature. Spader’s villains always have some kind of heart, and he’s generous to his friends. Ultron just wants his cohorts to be tools and doesn’t care about their well-being.

Of course, Spader’s voice is going to be filtered to sound more robot-like, but I’m still going to be skeptical until I see Avengers 2, then promptly change my mind. :slight_smile:

It’s essentially a voice-over gig, isn’t it? From what I’ve heard his physical performance will be entirely motion captured and put on screen as a CGI.

I never would have though Mark Hamill would make a great Joker, but he was.

I never understood Ultron at all, really. He (it?) is eager to slaughter humans, but never does so in a manner approaching efficiency.

He’s got a huge Oedipus complex. His goal is to embarrass/humiliate Hank Pym (daddy) and boink Janet (The Wasp–by transferring her soul/brain/mind into a female robot named…get this: Jocasta*). Killing humans is really just a secondary hobby for him (because it bugs daddy that his “son” is killing people). The one or two times he’s ever really tried to take out humanity (Age of Ultron 1-10, and an early run of Avengers by Perez/Busiek) he’s wiped out almost everyone in the entire world (in Age of Ultron) or the entire country he was in (in that Avengers run) in a matter of minutes. In Age of Ultron, maybe a couple thousand people in the entire world (supers and normals combined) survived the first 3 or 4 minutes and to save the day the heroes had to


break time…go back in time and fuck with things so much that time and space shatter…to undo the damage. And if Ultron tries again, they can’t use that tactic again or they’ll break time so badly that the universe will essentially end

The only thing that stops him from winning instantly is A) that Ultron is nuts and fucking with daddy is far higher on his to-do list than “win” is and B) occasionally The Scarlett Witch who can twiddle her fingers at him and he short circuits. Recently he’s gotten smarter and taken out Scarlet Witch first.

*Oedipus’s mommy.

Hmmmm… maybe they’ll have Jocasta in the movie. I can see Spader getting into character as a megalomaniac infatuated with his father’s wife. I’m sure he can inject enough sliminess and silver-tongued wrongness to the role.

You know, if Ultron had a tongue, it would be silver. That could be scary.

megalomaniac sex deviant? Spader can phone that in.
Not that I disrespect him for it.

Took a look at the IMDB page and don’t see Jocasta on there. Wasp and Pym aren’t on the cast list either. So much for the Oedipal angle.

I guess no one is going to supplant Tom Hiddleston for slimiest Marvel movie villain, but maybe Spader will capitalize on some other form of psychosis.

In the comics, Ultron’s personality is based on the “brain pattern” of his creator, Hank Pym. Given Pym’s long-term mental problems (inferiority complex, paranoia, dissociative personality, psychotic breaks etc) I think Ultron’s less-than rational behaviour can be accounted for.

In the movie, he’s the brain-child of Tony Stark – and I don’t know about anyone else, but I can see James Spader playing “evil Robert Downey Jr” (if that’s where they’re going with it, and why not).

Also, with Pepper Potts in there, we get the Oedipal angle back – potentially, at least.

See, now I’ve got this image in my head of Scarlett Johansson dressed up in the Scarlet Witch costume. le sigh

Oh is that so? Yes, that can totally work. Makes sense, since the upcoming Ant Man movie is not about Hank Pym. With Tony Stark as the father figure, the personality abomination is just begging to be born. Stark already has a huge ego, enough to face down Loki without his armor (even if it is instantly available). Imagine how a Spader/Ultron will develop from that. Hubris abounds!

As far as Jocasta goes, I wouldn’t take the lack of a credit to mean too much. If she’s in the movie, she’s either never going to be fully activated (and as such, not have any lines) or she’s going to get Pepper’s mind transferred into her, in which case she’d be voiced by Gwyneth Paltrow.

I have to agree. Whenever I read the comics, I always imagined Ultron speaking with a voice roughly similar to the Daleks. Maybe a little butcher, and with an American accent. Spader always seems too cool and subdued to voice a character who always seems to be shrieking hysterically.

Of course, I’m willing to with-hold judgement until the movie comes out. I’m holding out hope of being pleasantly surprised. (I had no high hopes for Iron-Man, Thor and Captain America’s initial films, but liked all of them pretty well.)