In 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel Studios finally brought the villainous Ultron to the big screen. Played by James Spader, the sarcastic, sentient android was a hit with fans, and he went through a number of different iterations before taking on his final Vibranium-enhanced form.
Now, Marvel concept artist Phil Saunders has shared some early designs for the character which were clearly based heavily on Iron Man and a little more grounded in terms of the tech used.
"Director [Joss] Whedon wanted more 'grounded' tech (read pistons and gears, etc.) than my earlier designs, so we ended up pursuing a direction that was frankly too ‘endoskeleton’ for my taste," he explains. "Thankfully Keven Feige stepped in and steered us toward what made it to the screen, but for a while I got to paint some cool hardware!"
Responding to a comment left by a fan, Saunders talked more about Whedon's hopes for a grounded take on Ultron. "It was a disappointing choice, but not an uncommon one," he explained. "So many directors are obsessed with keeping everything 'grounded,' which always translates to 'if I haven't seen it before, I don't understand it.'"
It doesn't sound like Saunders was the biggest fan of working with Whedon, and we know that Feige also had to step in to stop the filmmaker from introducing Captain Marvel in the 2015 movie.
Check out the concept art below: