Joss Whedon is no stranger to high expectations. In 2012, the writer-director steered The Avengers – the all-star superhero team featuring Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury – to a staggering US$1.5 billion (Dh5.5bn) worldwide box-office success.
Adapted from the Marvel comic books, it became the third-most-successful film of all time, in terms of box-office takings, behind only Avatar (2009) and Titanic (1997).
Yet, as he returns with the hugely anticipated sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon seems immune to the pressures of delivering a film that will financially top its predecessor.
“If I had a key on my computer that said ‘billion dollars’, I’d press it,” he says with a shrug. “I just try to write it as well as I can. I don’t really think about those things.”
Already, Age of Ultron is well on its way to that magic number, having taken $200 million in just three days in the 30 territories in which it opened a week ago – and that's before its United States release tomorrow. Only J J Abrams's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, out in December, stands any chance of toppling it as this year's box-office king.
Of course, it helps when you have an A-list cast.
“There are a lot of familiar faces – it is like a high-school reunion,” says Chris Evans, who plays the patriotic super-soldier Captain America.
Others returning include: Robert Downey Jr, appearing on-screen for the fifth time as Iron Man; Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-wielding Asgardian Thor; Scarlett Johansson as the gymnastic Black Widow; Jeremy Renner as archer Hawkeye; and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner and his angry alter-ego The Hulk.
For 50-year-old Whedon, his job on the sequel involved far more than simply reassembling those Avengers. Given that the first film set up the superhero team, the sequel had to dig deeper into their characters.
“A lot of the questions have already been answered,” says Whedon. “So you know going in what you’ve got to work with.” Wisely, he starts the film in action mode, with the gang in a remote Eastern European city, where they meet Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), two powerful new characters.
The group’s interactions with these damaged souls is just the entrée before the main course, as the Avengers are confronted with new villain Ultron, an all-powerful being that emerges from an artificially intelligent defence system created by Tony Stark.
Voiced wonderfully by James Spader, this AI monster is as terrifying as he is intelligent. “I said we should have Ultron in the second movie before I decided to make the first movie,” says Whedon. “He’s big, powerful … he’s strong enough to take these guys on. And he’s been angry for so long, he might be a little unhinged.”
Naturally, Age of Ultron delivers the requisite carnage and chaos that comes with such effects-driven blockbusters, but Whedon also ensures that it hits all the right emotional beats.
“Hawkeye has a heck of an arc this time around,” says Downey Jr, referring to the revelation that the archer has a domestic life hidden from his fellow Avengers.
That’s something Ruffalo can identify with. “As an actor who is often away fighting imaginary evil guys, with a wife at home saying: ‘Where the hell are you? Why aren’t you here?’… I’m very sympathetic to that,” he says.
While Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner and Johansson’s Black Widow get to explore some romantic feelings of their own, the real meat of the film comes with two other story arcs.
Taylor-Johnson’s super-speedy Quicksilver and his twin sister, Olsen’s mind-controlling Scarlet Witch, must contend with grief and loss. And then there is The Vision, a popular character from the Marvel comics, played by Paul Bettany.
“I feel like Paul and Lizzie and Aaron came out and they exceeded expectations out of left, right and centre field,” says Downey Jr. “In watching the film, I feel like that’s the big triumph.”
Like Ultron, The Vision is an AI program made flesh – in this case from JARVIS, Iron Man's on-board computer. Bettany has been providing the voice of the character for seven years, since the first Iron Man film, but has never been seen in a Marvel movie before.
“It was lovely to finally be on set with a bunch of people that I’ve been supposedly working with but never met,” says the British actor. “Everybody was so welcoming. They’re a bunch of really lovely, happy, well-paid actors – that’s a nice environment to work in.”
As for Whedon, while he doesn't think he'll "ever get that far away from" the Marvel world, he has no immediate plans to return. Anthony and Joe Russo – who directed last year's Captain America: The Winter Soldier and are behind the upcoming Captain America: Civil War (due out next summer) – will direct the new Avengers movies: the two-part Infinity War, due in 2018 and 2019.
But are we in danger of superhero overkill? Age of Ultron is the 11th film in the Avengers-related Marvel Cinematic Universe. The 12th, Ant-Man, is out in July and another 10 films are scheduled for the next four years. Then there are the TV series Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter, plus five new shows – including the recently released Daredevil, which will introduce another Marvel superhero team, The Defenders. We have the continuing X-Men franchise and the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, plus comics rival DC has ambitious plans to finally build an expansive film universe around its own superhero team, the Justice League.
Whedon believes the interest in superheroes is unlikely to fade any time soon, applauding the work of Marvel Studio’s visionary president Kevin Feige.
“He’s not interested in creating a formula; he’s interested in creating a universe. So as long as he can stay alive … it has legs.”
• Avengers: Age of Ultron opens in UAE cinemas on Thursday, April 30
artslife@thenational.ae
