"I'm going to show you something beautiful - everyone screaming for mercy..." Ultron's opening line from last night's trailer should give you some indication that we're not dealing with a very stable individual, and actor James Spader is only too happy to reinforce that during an interview with Total Film.
"Ultron takes abrupt turns in scenes," he explains, while contrasting the self-aware A.I's mental state with that of his character in
The Blacklist.
"Red isn't psychopathic but Ultron is. Yes, he is psychopathic. He's really batshit crazy!" Still, Spader also suggests that the villain will have a sense of humor at least -- and maybe even engage our sympathies a little? That might be a stretch, but it sounds as if he'll be in touch with his inner...baby android!
"There's a humorous aspect to him, which is something that drew me in from the very first conversation I had with Joss [Whedon]. In many ways he's a child, this character, because he's a brand new being who's just come to be. And yet, through artificial intelligence, he has an incredible capacity for knowledge. So he's a very powerful, smart child." Well, that child definitely looked to be laying all kinds of smackdown of The Avengers in that trailer, and by the looks of things he'll also be setting the heroes against each other so that covers the smart bit. We'd heard Spader's Ultron voice from SDCC already, but with added visuals it took on a whole new level of chilling. What did you guys think?