The much-awaited "Avengers 2: Age of Ultron" is coming in cinemas on April 24 in the U.K. and Ireland, and on May 1 in the U.S. The powerhouse main cast from the previous films will all be returning and will be joined by a few new faces, two of whom were first glimpsed in the stinger after the credits of "Captain America: the Winter Soldier":

  • Robert Downey, Jr. is Tony Spark, Iron Man
  • Chris Hemsworth is Thor
  • Mark Ruffalo is Dr. Bruce Banner, the Hulk
  • Chris Evans is Steve Rogers, Captain America
  • Scarlett Johansson is Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow
  • Jeremy Renner is Clink Barton, Hawkeye
  • Samuel L. Jackson is Nick Fury
  • Elizabeth Olsen is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, who can move objects and alter probability with her mind.
  • Aaron Taylor-Johnson is Pietro Maximoff, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch's twin brother, who has super-human speed.
  • James Spader is Ultron, a powerful artificial intelligence with a god complex, who wanted to rule the Earth.

Joss Whedon, of Avengers fame, will also be returning as writer-director for this sequel. He has said in an interview with Empire that he only had Spader in mind to play the role of Ultron, a choice based on Spader's mesmerizing voice that can be cool, persuasive, and amusing.

He added that the Ultron character is not coldly logical, but has his own twisted emotions and concerns. Whedon says that they had to experiment to find the things that will make Ultron threatening, charming, humorous, odd, and unpredictable and anything that is not expected from a robot. The director also divulged that some of Ultron's attributes from previous comic-book appearances will be removed to suit the film's universe, a common trend among film adaptations of comic characters.