Today Marvel announced that James Spader has been cast as the villian Ultron in the 2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Spader earned three Emmy Awards for his role as Alan Shore on “Boston Legal” and “The Practice,” and will return to television this fall in NBC’s highly anticipated series “The Blacklist.” Most recently Spader was seen in the critically-acclaimed film “Lincoln” directed by Steven Spielberg and has previously worked with a long list of accomplished film directors including David Cronenberg, Curtis Hansen, Sidney Lumet, Mike Nichols, Tim Robbins, Robert Rodriguez, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone. David Mamet also directed Spader in the Broadway play Race.
In the comics the character Ultron was created by Henry Pym but Joss Whedon said in an interview that Pym won’t make an appearance. Whedon has has indicated that he plans to do away with some of Ultron’s superpowers in order to make the character feel more human.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is scheduled for theaters on May 1, 2015.
