We've been hearing a lot of cool new info about AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON of late, as well as some not-so-cool info about ANT-MAN (with the recent game of director musical chairs), and a few nibbles of things from STAR WARS: EPISODE VII, the biggest being the cast announcement and Harrison Ford's recent on-set injury. Today, we've got a lot of big and small details for these three projects, which, much like our last scoop, should serve as a nice little appetizer for things to come without spoiling the whole cinematic meal. That said, I'm going to go ahead and say the word, just in case there's any doubt…SPOILERS ahead. The information comes from two separate reliable and proven sources who attended a recent Disney media event that showed concept art, storyboards, and rough animation, as well as revealing a few new details about these films.
Let's dig in shall we?
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
We've already covered a lot of ground in terms of this with our prior scoop, including info on the opening, the costumes, Ultron, and Vision, and now we have more of an ellaboration on these things, particularly with Ultron and Black Widow.
– According to Kevin Feige, the new Avengers Tower is the largest ever for a Marvel film, featuring a large landing platform and garage for the new Quinjet within a large space that is full of windows, screens, and "techno stuff" but "really chic" with a lab directly in the middle where Stark and Banner work together.
– There will, in fact, be a "party" or "celebratory" scene that will take place early in the film, which we've heard rumors of already and is said to be "Stark style" in nature, meaning excessive and over-the-top (IRON MAN 2, anyone?)
– The Quinjet redesign features more chairs to accommodate all Avengers, much like the X-Men's Blackbird. The overall design is less military and more sleek with a bigger array of weaponry.
– Black Widow's costume update will feature not only the previously reported batons, but her suit is said to be more "TRON-style" in nature with blue lights and electricity around the suit. Her enemies will now receive electric shocks or a "widow's sting" when she hits them, giving her more of a "superhero" edge amongst her super-powered counterparts.
– More corroboration about Hulk's "extendable" pants (dark purple in color) that expand and shrink with his Hulk/Banner transitions and will also feature the Avengers "A" logo on it that adorns all new costumes for the team.
– Stark wears the Mark 43, a suit with less gold on it than IRON MAN 3, but still more than in THE AVENGERS. The chest core reactor will be back to the circular shape favored by director Joss Whedon. The Mark 44 is the Hulkbuster and will be his other suit in the film.
– As reported before, Ultron will be more than just a helmet, with his full face being articulated, including the mouth. All movements from James Spader's face are used to bring more personality to the villain. The suit mock-up is reminiscent of the weapon that Agent Coulson used to shoot Loki in THE AVENGERS, which was made from the parts of the defeated Destroyer in THOR. The suit is said to have a "red firelight underneath, giving him a kind of 'Balrog' effect from LOTR."
– Ultron will have an army of drones that are similar in appearance to himself, minus the glowing red "energy" effect.
– Similar to other reports, The Vision will be 100 percent Paul Bettany with his face and body all in metallic form, very shiny with gold, red, and green (as well as the yellow cape).
ANT-MAN
– Story begins with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) being a thief and single dad who has fallen on hard times and one day breaks into Hank Pym's apartment and steals the Ant-Man suit.
– The main villain's name is Darren Cross who, in the comics, runs Cross Technological Enterprises, a competitor company for Stark Industries and Oscorp. His cousin is the villain known as Crossfire. It's unknown if this role will be played by Patrick Wilson or Corey Stoll. He will have a suit with a similar feel to Ant-man's but more miltary style, yellow and black in color, and with a tendril-looking apparatus coming off it's back (like with Agent Venom). It's to note that in the comics Cross looks more like a pink Hulk, so there may well be some merging of attributes from other characters for this role or multiple villains at that (Yellowjacket, perhaps?).
– The ANT-MAN suit will be much more elaborate than we've seen so far with the helmet being able to open and close much like Iron Man and an assortment of red lights all over the suit, again in "TRON" fashion. The helmet eyes will also glow red when closed. It's said to be a much more complex and futuristic suit than we've seen so far.
– Ants (the actual insect) are the main ally and superpower for ANT-MAN in the film. Lang will speak to the ants via his helmt, just as in the comics, which is said to be a special element to the overall story.
Not a lot here to report in terms of story details, but some very interesting tidbits that tease some new and old concepts.
– In general the setting looks kind of post-apocalyptic with a lot of leftover vestige from the empire. It seems much more dark and rough than the prequels. The feeling was that it has not been easy in the last 30 years since RETURN OF THE JEDI, probably with a very long war to truly "end" the empire.
– There are still white storm troopers in action. The empire is probably not completely dead.
And that's it! A lot to digest, but some really cool and interesting tidbits to piece into the broader picture of each film. Overall, everything seems to be taking shape in some really cool ways with nothing standing out as a particular stain on the source material or legacy, respectively. I'm excited to see all three films, of course, especially AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and STAR WARS: EPISODE VII with ANT-MAN being the more wait-and-see in terms of hype (but yeah, I'll be there opening day regardless). Hit us back with your thoughts in the comments section below!
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON opens on May 1, 2015, ANT-MAN opens on July 17, 2015, and STAR WARS: EPISODE VII opens on December 18, 2015.