Rumors have been swirling about British actor Paul Bettany ever since news broke that he was signing on to Joss Whedon’s hotly anticipated Avengers sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron. While Bettany has established himself as the voice of Jarvis, the Samantha to Tony Stark’s Theodore Twombly, many speculated that he would be taking on the menacing mechanical mantle of Ultron, which as we know now is the purview of James Spader. Now, thanks to some sleuthing by the Daily Mail (and confirmed by other outlets), we know that Bettany will be playing The Vision, the iconic android Avenger. I don’t know about you guys, but I couldn’t be more excited by this news.
It’s fitting that The Vision is a part of Joss Whedon’s sprawling sequel, especially given the hero’s ties to Ultron. Originally created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Timely Comics, the Vision as we know him today rose to prominence in comics’ Silver Age thanks to Roy Thomas and John Buscema. Created by Ultron as a weapon against the Avengers, The Vision was imbued with the personality of the deceased Wonder Man (Simon Williams) and given shape with a cloned body of the original Human Torch. I imagine Whedon’s version of the Vision’s origin will be a bit less esoteric, but here’s hoping that he’ll still wind up getting together with Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).
At long last, Bettany will get to be more than a glorified Siri for Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. That isn’t to diminish the excellent work he did as Jarvis, but rather to express how unreasonably excited I am that one of my favorite Avengers will be making his way to the big screen. Given that production is starting next month, there’s still plenty of time to rewrite the post-credit sequence to have Bettany’s Vision interacting with the Tupac Coachella hologram. Virtual shawarma, anyone?
What do you think of Bettany playing The Vision? Sound off in the comments below.
HT: Daily Mail
I just watched the leaked age of Ultron trailer, it looks good, I was a big fan of the first movie.
I watched the leaked trailer here in case anyone was wondering http://watchavengersageofultron.blogspot.ca/2014/02/watch-avengers-age-of-ultron.html
Bettany doing anything is a joy to the eyes and imagination (acting/movies) “Gangster #1 is fantastic, but his cameo in Bent, and you have to see that just to see Mic Jagger in drag, is electric and bent……
Just watch “Gangster No. 1”. Bethany could do soap commercials and I’d be excited to see them.
Paul Bettany IS a great actor. And A Knight’s Tale isn’t a bad movie, it’s just historically inaccurate. I think people have lost sight of the fact that movies don’t have to be historically accurate. They’re there to entertain us, and A Knight’s Tale does just that, it entertains. Just like all the comic book movies. I’m not a huge comic book buff, but I know enough to know that the movies aren’t accurate in the least, sometimes even regarding original character designs (see Daredevil’s Kingpin). These things don’t tick me off about them because they keep me entertained…
He’s fantastic in the Master & Commander movie which I thought was really underrated. Also in A Beautiful Mind and A Knights Tale. He’s got a good blond man creepiness that I remember Rutger Hauer having in the 80s. I hope he’ll be good in this one.
Nich, though probably not the most credible movie to cite great “acting,” he is Chaucer in one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies, “A Knight’s Tale.” He is by far the best thing about that movie, which gets a bad wrap because of the unnecessary anachronism in the script. it is a fun movie though.
I was still kind of hoping for Coulson to end up becoming Vision, but this will do.
I called it! I knew Jarvis would become the Vision!
Suck it everyone who disagreed with me! Which is no one. Because no one else cares.
Wow, no love for Paul Bettany from Nich, apparently.
Well, Nich, maybe you didn’t see a little movie called ‘Wimbledon’. If you had, you wouldn’t be so snarky!
I am wondering if they will Make Vision Stark tech. THAT would be an interesting twist.
Bettany is a great actor, and is capable of monotonic sound of Vision, with outbursts of emotions.
More interesting is how JARVIS becames Vision? Ultron might have his hands in this…dammit! I’m even more hyped about this!!
Is there something this guy has done that maybe isn’t on his IMDB that is the reason you are excited Dan? Or maybe I over looked something. Could you point me in the right direction here?