How Avengers: Age Of Ultron Worked To Avoid A Big 'Green Goblin Mistake'

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One of the biggest challenges for "Avengers: Age of Ultron" was making the villainous Ultron (voiced by James Spader) feel threatening. This was the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first official robot villain, and while robots can certainly be threatening ( see: "The Terminator" ) it's also easy for them to look silly instead. As explained in the 2021 behind-the-scenes book "The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe," the visual development team struggled to make Ultron threatening while still being capable of "convey[ing] human emotions." As director Joss Whedon put it:

"In the comics, Ultron always has his mean face on. But we couldn't do two hours of a mean face — that's a Green Goblin mistake.