Avengers: Age of Ultron Unused Design Makes The MCU Villain More Menacing

Unused Avengers: Age of Ultron concept art reveals a more menacing look on Ultron. After Loki, Marvel Studios lined up Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ next adversary in the 2015 film. Joss Whedon’s second and final entry to the MCU, the movie was a step down both critically and commercially compared to its 2012 predecessor, but it was still a success nonetheless.

Fans were ecstatic upon learning that the powerful Ultron would face the Avengers in Marvel Studios’ second ensemble flick. Voiced by James Spader, the marketing teased a ruthless villain with unclear motivations. Unfortunately, despite the cool design and menacing voice performance, the antagonist fell flat. He became a victim of the MCU’s one and done villain trap. While there’s a couple of other issues people had with Ultron, newly-emerged concept art for the character may have helped in making sure that he’s as scary as the trailers presented him to be.

Shared by concept artist Phil Sanders on his official Instagram account is his unused design for the primary villain of Age of Ultron. According to him, the idea was to make Ultron more expressive. The result allows the character to be more menacing in subtle facial expressions. Check out the images below:

Ultimately, Marvel Studios went for a more stoic design for Ultron. Aside from Spader’s acting, fans couldn’t really decipher his expressions since her face looked robotic compared to Saunders’ creation, which gave him the ability to convey emotions by simply moving his face. The concept artist didn’t really reveal why they didn’t go for his design, but perhaps Marvel Studios wanted to depict the villain as a cold ruthless character without showing any emotions. That being said, seeing the subtle changes in the three-piece character design arguably makes him more intimidating, especially with that final smirk.

As previously mentioned, however, Ultron’s design wasn’t the only issue fans had with the character or Avengers: Age of Ultron in general. The marketing for the movie over-promised and under-delivered especially with regard to its primary villain. The concept of Ultron was actually cool, he forced the heroes to do their operations manually with technology all over the world compromised by Ultron. His creation was also the springboard to Tony Stark/Iron Man’s arc moving forward as he felt responsible for the destruction his AI experiment created. It’s just after the well-done set-up, the pay-off was a bit lackluster. Perhaps if Marvel Studios gets another go with Ultron, they can properly do their big screen adaptation justice.

Source: Phil Sanders

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