James Spader has been cast as the mechanical villain of the Avengers sequel Age of Ultron, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Joss Whedon's followup to last year's $1.5bn Avengers spectacle will reunite Marvel comics superheroes Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Hulk, and install newcomers Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Spader will voice the titular robot.
The character of Ultron debuted in the 1968 comic books and was later revealed as the accidental creation of Henry Pym, aka Ant-Man. Whedon and Marvel Studios said the new iteration will be more closely related to the current members of the big-screen Avengers, an ensemble that does not include Pym. The latter will get his own solo outing in a film by Britain's Edgar Wright that will be released in 2015 – the same year the Avengers sequel will hit cinemas.
In other comic-book movie news, Ben Affleck's casting as the caped crusader in the forthcoming sequel to this year's Superman reboot, Man of Steel, has inspired Justin Timberlake to propose himself for a role in future movies. "I'll tell you the villain I want to play more than anything – because I grew up loving Batman, funnily enough – is the Riddler," The Social Network star said in a US radio interview. "The Riddler was like a sociopath. He was proper crazy. So if I'm gonna play crazy, I'm wanna play proper crazy."
The Riddler was previously played by Jim Carrey in 1995's Batman Forever, but was not featured in Christopher Nolan's recent Dark Knight trilogy. Warner Bros studio has not revealed plans for standalone Batman movies that might feature the character, but reports suggest Affleck has signed on for multiple films.
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