For anyone who doesn't know, Age of Ultron is a 10-part comic book series that just took place in the Marvel Universe. It finished up last month, and the consequences of the story have not even been fully explored yet.
So when Joss Whedon announced that the next Avengers movie will be called 'Age Of Ultron' at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, excitement was high. But in a later interview comicbookmovie.com, he said this:
“Well, because there was a book called 'Age of Ultron' quite recently, a lot of people have assumed that is what we're doing, but that is not the case...we're doing our own version of the origin story for Ultron. In the origin story, there was Hank Pym, so a lot of people assumed that he will be in the mix. He's not. We're basically taking the things from the comics for the movies that we need and can use. A lot of stuff has to fall by the wayside...we're crafting our own version of it where his origin comes more directly from The Avengers we already know about...it's a little bit darker than the other film because Ultron is in the house. There's a science fiction theme that wasn't there in the other one. Ultron is definitely something that evolves, so we're going to get together a couple of different iterations. Nothing can be translated exactly as it was from the comics; particularly Ultron."
Hank Pym (the original Ant-Man) is the superhero/scientist who created the Artificial-Intelligence-gone-bad known as Ultron way back in the 1960's. Ultron's creation is arguably Pym's biggest and most important contribution to the the Marvel Universe, so it is no surprise that there has been somewhat of an internet backlash at Whedon's proposed changes to Ultron's origin.
Avengers 2 could never have been a direct adaptation of the Age of Ultron comic series, since Marvel Studios do not currently own the film rights to many of the characters featured in the books, and the story involves time travel, which might feel out of place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If it had been an adaptation, fans would have accepted unavoidable changes, but Marvel already have an Ant-Man film planned for release after the Avengers sequel, and the writers have confirmed that Hank Pym is in it, so if you're doing Ultron's origin, why is it necessary to take Pym out of the story completely?
Here are my thoughts. I reckon Disney/Marvel have rushed Joss Whedon into making this announcement, with nothing set in stone. DC and Warner Bros. announced their Superman/Batman movie project on Friday night, and whether you loved Man Of Steel or hated it, that announcement was pretty much the biggest movie story coming out of Comic Con. The Marvel Studios panel on Saturday was clearly entertaining as hell, but there was nothing major going on there apart from the con-exclusive footage that no-one else gets to see. Nothing to speculate on, nothing to keep people gossiping about Marvel, and I can't help but wonder if Whedon's appearance was a last minute publicity move that was forced on him.
As of April this year, he had supposedly only just finished the first script outline, and it is obviously subject to change, and Whedon seems to be the kind of guy who appreciates the source material and takes fans' views on board. I have no doubt Avengers 2 will be brilliant, I just don't see the need for the changes when you consider Marvel's long-term movie plans include Hank Pym anyway, and I definitely don't see the point in naming the movie after a major recent comics event when the film has nothing to do with it at all.
Wait, what was that? The upcoming collected edition of the Age Of Ultron story just rocketed up the Amazon bestseller chart by about 60,000 places after the announcement was made?
Oh, good move, Marvel.
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