On Friday, we learned that James Spader is set to reprise his role as Ultron in Marvel Studios and Disney+'s upcoming Vision series.
Now, Deadline has elaborated on that by revealing, "[Spader's] role in Vision may not be voiceover, we hear." This has led to speculation online about Spader perhaps playing Ultron in his "human" form, perhaps as his next evolution or in the neighbourhood Vision and his robot family settle down in.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spader suited up to play Ultron with motion-capture so the report may be referencing that as well. The actor being that hands-on with the role suggests he'll have a significant part to play in this WandaVision follow-up.
"I had multiple sessions doing additional dialog recording," Spader said of playing Ultron in 2015. "But it really was sort of new stuff to further define, clarify and so on and sort of distill the prism. But most of the dialog that you hear in the movie and most of what you’re looking at, we shot on the set just in a fairly conventional fashion."
"It didn’t feel conventional at the time, considering everything I was in, but to be able to film it...the dialog was all from what we shot on the set doing scenes with the other actors as you would in any film or in any setting."
"And I was so pleased because I haven’t seen the final film but I was very pleased that-I saw a lot of footage during post production," the actor added, "so I sort of saw big sections of the entire film-and even in its sort of formative stages it was remarkable to see."
Ultron first appeared in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, it was intended to be a peacekeeping program designed to protect Earth from future threats. However, upon gaining sentience, Ultron quickly concludes that humanity itself is the greatest threat to the planet and must be eradicated.
Housed in a constantly evolving robotic body, the villain frequently upgrades himself and transfers his consciousness into multiple forms. Ultron's personality is a twisted reflection of Tony Stark, combining Stark's wit and intelligence with a dark, nihilistic worldview.
Driven by his warped mission of peace through extinction, Ultron seeks to annihilate humanity and create a new world order led by himself and a select few, such as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, whom he initially recruits. Ultron’s ultimate plan involves creating a massive meteor using the fictional country of Sokovia as a launchpad, intending to cause a global extinction event.
Ultron was eventually defeated, though we didn't technically see him die at The Vision's hands (who was originally created to house his consciousness as the villain's perfect form).
In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker came across an Ultron drone's head and it appeared to be active. Whether Marvel Studios revisits that or he's revealed as a figment of Vision's imagination remains to be seen; it certainly sounds like there are big plans for Ultron moving forward, though.
Vision doesn't currently have a confirmed premiere date.