The Avengers is probably one of the few truly beloved popcorn movies to hit theaters in recent years, and it made a billion dollars as a result. So, who’s coming back, and who’s new, for the sequel? More people than you might think.
Stitch Kingdom got the official synopsis from Disney, and it’s not spoiler-heavy… but there are more than a few interesting tidbits:
Marvel Studios presents Avengers: Age of Ultron, the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.
Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.
First off, some of what we suspected turns out to be true: Tony’s the jerk who gets this all started, while Hank Pym is off palling around with Paul Rudd. And it appears the Vision will evolve from JARVIS as most fans speculated; how much you want to bet he hijacks an old set of Tony’s armor and reconfigures it?
What’s interesting, though, is that Nick Fury and Maria Hill are back in action. Fury, you might remember, was last seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe giving Coulson the directorship of SHIELD that should have been Hill’s. Sorry, Phil, but she’s a bit more qualified than you are. Hill we also last saw on TV, and was working for Tony, or at least availing herself of his legal department. So it’s interesting that they’re both in play. Coulson, apparently, has to settle for his own TV series.
This is just the start of the shenanigans. The movie comes out in seven months, so expect a trailer before the end of the year, and a massive hype machine soon after.
