UK’s The Daily Mail broke the news this past week that actor Paul Bettany has been cast as the character of Vision in Marvel’s upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The news site reports that Bettany and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) were spotted at Shepperton Studios just outside London, meeting with director Joss Whedon, and doing hair and costume tests.
Bettany is already a member of the Marvel movie family, providing the voice for Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S., so how could he play a totally different character?
Well, in the comics, Vision is a superpowered android created by the super-evil robotic villain Ultron (who will be played by James Spader in the film). It’s possible that in the movie, Ultron may base Vision on J.A.R.V.I.S., hence the similar voice patterns.
In the comics, Vision manages to defy Ultron’s programming and serves The Avengers instead, eventually entering into a romantic relationship with Scarlet Witch. Not sure if that will be worked into Whedon’s script for the film, but it could be used to spin off plots in phase 3 of Marvel’s movies.
Marvel Studios has yet to officially confirm this casting, so there’s no word if Bettany will be doing just voice again, or actually providing the motion-capture body movements for the CGI (like Mark Ruffalo did for The Hulk in the first Avengers movie).
What do you think of this casting news? Will it be confusing having Bettany playing two characters in Avengers: Age of Ultron?