EMPIRE MAGAZINE: Whedon On Ultron, Feige On ANT-MAN & Thanos

Marvel fans might have a big reason to pick up British film magazine Empire’s 300th issue. The anniversary issue gives us set reports from The Avengers: The Age of Ultron and speaks with Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige. And if the snippets released online are any indication, you might be getting a big bang for your buck.

First off, Joss Whedon talks Ultron as a character, and his approach to writing him:

I’m having a blast with Ultron. He’s not a creature of logic – he’s a robot who’s genuinely disturbed. We’re finding out what makes him menacing and at the same time endearing and funny and strange and unexpected, and everything a robot never is.

Endearing? Can’t wait to see that. Whedon also addresses the fact that some might thing the film is getting a bit too crowded with characters:

I fiercely dislike the idea of just throwing in more people for the sake of doing that. But last time I had all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes versus one British character actor, and I needed more conflict.

The article states all the new characters–from Quicksilver to the Scarlet Witch to the Vision to Baron Strucker–will all have a plot-centric reason for being in the film.

The magazine also talked to Kevin Feige, and while that interview is not up on the magazine’s website, Latino Review passed on what it said.

Conventional wisdom states that the Iron Man films were the driving force behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not so, says Feige. It was Ant-Man, which was first put into the works around the same time.

We changed, frankly some of the MCU to accommodate this version of Ant-Man. Knowing what we wanted to do with Edgar and with Ant-Man, going years and years back, helped to dictate what we did with the roster for Avengers the first time. It was a bit of both in terms of his idea for the Ant-Man story influencing the birth of the MCU in the early films leading up to Avengers.

This is fairly fascinating. It certainly shows the respect Marvel has for Wright and for even a minor character such as Ant-Man.

Feige also talked up Paul Rudd as the title character, all the while confirming that Rudd’s Scott Lang will have a similar film origin to his comic book incarnation.

Look at that origin of the petty crook who comes into contact with a suit and does his best to make good, and then look at someone like Paul Rudd, who can do slightly unsavoury things like break into people’s houses and still be charming and who you root for and whose redemption you will find satisfaction in.

Collider comes in with another tidbit from the interview–that the actor who will be playing Thanos has already been cast. Feige is holding back on naming the actor–saving the notification until San Diego Comic Con, I’ll bet–but Colider is running with the rumor that Vin Diesel will be voicing Groot and probably doing motion capture and voicing Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy.