The age of Ultron is about to hit the Avengers. The highly-anticipated sequel by writer-director Joss Whedon is now one step closer to cinemas. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron second unit just arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa to start their gigantic production this week. The mammoth sequel is also expected to film pieces in northern Italy as well as South Korea, with most of the shooting taking place in Sepperton Studios in England.
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron features the return off all the heroes from the previous instalment as well as several new characters to the Marvel cinematic universe. The most recently announced was Paul Bettany as the android The Vision who had voiced the role of Tony Stark elaborate A.I. system J.A.R.V.I.S. in previous films. Also joining the superhero squad are Elisabeth Olsen as The Scarlet Witch and Aaron Talyor-Johnson as her brother, Quicksilver. Their allegiance to the team may be suspect, however, if rumors are to be believed. Together, The Avengers will face off against their most deadly foe yet, the sentient robot known as Ultron. Voiced by James Spader, Ultron was built in the comic book universe by Hank Pym, a.k.a Ant-Man, to be a force of good. Its programming, however, evolved into thinking that the only way to protect the earth was to control it. Thomas Kretschmann also joins the cast as the villainous Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker.
With the start of production on The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Marvel Studios will complete what they refer to as phase two and naturally launch Phase three. So far, the studio has been incredibly successful with their cinematic universe that first began in 2008 with the original Iron Man. Barely a month later, Marvel would release The Incredible Hulk and their game plan became very clear in an exciting way few had ever attempted on the big screen before. The studio released Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and a sequel to Iron Man before the 2012 big screen team-up. The Avengers grossed $1.5 billion globally at the box office and is the third highest grossing film of all time worldwide.
The Avengers led into the equally successful phase two. Iron Man 3 kicked things off last May and became the highest grossing entry in the trilogy. Thor: The Dark World also surpassed its predecessor in box office sales when it was released back in November. On April 4th, Marvel will release Captain America: The Winter Solider. The film is already generating huge buzz and the studio feels confident enough with the final product that they want the directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, to return to helm the third part in the series. The final film of Marvel’s phase two might be their riskiest venture yet as it features both an anthropomorphic tree and a walking-talking-gun-toting raccoon. The Guardians Of The Galaxy is set to launch on August 1st and stars Chris Pratt (The Lego Movie, TV’s Parks And Recreation) as Peter Quill, a man who becomes involved in an inter-galactic manhunt after he steals a mysterious and powerful orb from the evil Ronan. Quill will receive help from Rocket Raccoon and the aforementioned tree by the name of Groot as well as the alien bounty hunter known as Drax The Destroyer and Gamora, the adopted daughter of The Avengers’ rumored future villain, Thanos.
The start of production on The Avengers: Age Of Ultron signifies the end of phase two for Marvel but the beginning of even more exciting things. To date, the studio has only announced one project for phase three, Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man, which is due out just a few weeks after on July 17th, 2015. While the studios has many dates booked, they have yet to released the titles to any of the eagerly anticipated films. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron will crash into cinemas on May 1st, 2015
By Benjamin Murray
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