Age of Ultron jam-packed with avenging.
Avengers: Age of Ultron gets the band back together to battle killer robot
The Avengers: Age of Ultron cast had many reasons to be positive promoting the Marvel movie recently.
Now the box office seems to agree. The sequel has already raked in more than $200 million at the international box office, with another $200 million anticipated for the opening weekend in Canada and the U.S.
So the future does, indeed, continue to look bright for the Marvel franchise of superheroes.
Gathered at the Disney studio lot in Burbank, Calif., were, among others, Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and James Spader, who voices villain war bot Ultron in the second Avengers movie.
Renner, especially, was thrilled that he had something to chat about this time around, but he wasn’t sure what could be revealed.
“I feel like I can’t talk about anything,” he said. “I feel like I’m going to get shot if I talk.”
But speak he did at the news conference as he does in the Age of Ultron — which is a sharp contrast to The Avengers, when Hawkeye uttered far less dialogue.
“Well, I do speak in this movie, which is awesome, and I become part of the team, which is awesome, and I dive into some really killer aspects of who he is,” Renner said.
“I understood Hawkeye in the sense of he’s just a human with a high skill set,” he said, “so I could tap into that, and I feel like I got to explore a little bit more of that.”
Hawkeye’s backstory hints at a potential film spinoff that’s been referenced since the release of The Avengers and underlined in the sequel with a side story.
“I thought that it was a really an endearing and thoughtful sort of secret that he had, and I’m excited to kind of see where that goes,” Renner said.
Meanwhile, Hemsworth and Evans have other Marvel films. Hemsworth is set to do another Thor instalment and Evans is preparing for a third Captain America.
Rather than discuss their next movies, they decided to have a bit of fun by choosing their favourite movie superheroes as kids.
“I mean, Superman was probably the only film they’d made, I think, back when I was growing up,” said the Australian-born Hemsworth. “You know, that was the one that sticks out for me.”
Evans looked disappointed: “So Captain America ...
“... would have been my favourite,” Hemsworth continued. “That and Captain Australia.”
“Gotcha,” said Evans, pretending to be satisfied.
Spader, on the other hand, decided to recall his deprived childhood at the meet-and-greet.
“Growing up, I didn’t have any comic books at all,” he said. “But my friend had a trunk full of ’em, and so comic books were like candy for me. I’d go over to his house for a sleepover, and I would be really just devouring everything I could.”
Later, an inquiring mind asked Ruffalo how he separates The Hulk performance from his Dr. Banner persona.
“I was helped out by the fact that I’m green, and huge, to help me with the distinction between the two characters,” he said of Hulk. “So I can’t take full credit for that, except for the accent that I was using, maybe.”
Another random Age of Ultron tidbit was mentioned shortly after Ruffalo’s thoughts on Hulk emoting, which prompted the actor to confess something about the information.
“I was always wondering that, but I thought I’d be breaking some Marvel taboo by asking it,” he said. “You know, we have a Marvel app on our iPhones, and if you say something wrong, it literally shocks you.”
“Did you get a shock just now?” said Marvel boss Kevin Feige, sitting near Ruffalo. “You’re not supposed to talk about that.”