Avengers: Age of Ultron was a fun movie and for the most part, it handled the titular villain really well. In the final act, the villain uploads his mind into a formidable Vibranium model and is backed up by hundreds of Ultron bots who serve as cannon fodder for Earth's Mightiest Heroes. However, it's now been revealed that writer and director Joss Whedon had a very different idea for the sequel's finale.
"This concept of a "Mega Ultron" composed of thousands of Ultron bots was briefly considered for the climax of Avengers: Age of Ultron," explains concept artist Phil Saunders. "Ultimately (and I think for the best) it was rejected, likely because as cool an image as it is it doesn't make a great deal of tactical sense over an overwhelming swarm of bots, and probably would have taken more bots than would have been realistic for Ultron to produce!" Honestly, that's a fair point and makes sense.
Below, you'll find a gallery taking us from his initial sketches to the final product and no matter how you feel about this concept, I think you'll agree that The Hulk and Iron Man battling this Mega Ultron looks pretty rad. So, to take a look at the artwork, all you have to do is click on the "View List" button below.
"Initial scribbly sketch to lay out the composition," the artist says in regards to this very rough piece of artwork which would inform what would come next. Honestly, even this looks seriously awesome!
"Sketch further developed with characters painted in," Saunders continues. "At this point I realize I will not be able to communicate the complexity of the design effectively without 3D."
"Mega Ultron roughed in in Zbrush and test rendered in Modo. I used a combination of an alpha brush derived from Rodney Fuentebella's Ultron bot model for bkgd, an insert brush for midground, and the actual bot model for the FGD hand." The amount of details here makes a big difference!
"So much information had to be conveyed in one image," he concludes. "Scale in relation to both characters and environment, the structure made up of multiple Ultron bots, requiring the pose to show close-up and deep background, and the swarm of bots running to join up." Needless to say, this looks incredible and while it might have been hard to pull off, it would have been epic on screen!