The first trailer for Marvel Studios' Avengers: Age of Ultron debuted late Wednesday (after leaking online), and it is a doozy.
View this video on YouTube
The original Avengers look battle-weary and worn out, including Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Thor (Chris Hemsworth)…
...Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and his alter ego, Hulk…
...Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)…
(Note that Fury has the eyepatch he lost in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and that Black Widow is one of only three characters to speak a line on-camera in the entire trailer — a line that possibly portends some significant changes to the Avengers roster.)
…and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).
(Note that Stark is the second character with an on-camera line, one that also portends a chilling finality.)
The villain that has the Avengers so beat down? That would be Ultron (James Spader), a sentient robot with a real chip on his shoulder.
He apparently has a robot army at his command.
And his eerie voice dominates the trailer in voiceover.
"I'm going to show you something beautiful," he says. "Everyone screaming for mercy. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. You're all puppets, tangled in strings. Strings." Ultron's ominous sentiment is subsequently reinforced by a child singing "I've Got No Strings," from Disney's 1940 feature animation classic Pinocchio. (Thanks, corporate synergy!)
There are also two new characters formally introduced in this new trailer: twin siblings Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, also known as Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).
At first, they appear to have teamed up with Ultron.
But there's a quick glimpse of Quicksilver seemingly saving Captain America. And Scarlet Witch looks pretty pissed off at everyone. So who knows where their loyalties are?
Come to think of it, this trailer raises a few other pointed questions. Like, who is Andy Serkis playing in this movie?
Why is Thor literally at Tony Stark's throat?
Why is Black Widow tenderly touching Hulk's hand?
And why is Thor naked?
(I mean… I'm not complaining, per se…)
And then there's the trailer's show-stopping moment, a sequence that is sure to serve as a centerpiece in the film: the fight between Iron Man and the Hulk.
It would appear Tony Stark built a much larger Hulkbuster suit for his Iron Man suit, so he could withstand an assault like this…
...and this.
Even more unsettling is the shot of what looks like Thor's hand next to what is unmistakably Captain America's broken shield.
What could cause this kind of damage?
And what else does Ultron have in store?
