Disney purchased several of highly coveted TV spots during Super Bowl XLIX to present brief teasers for their 2015 releases, the sci-fi adventure Tomorrowland and the sports drama McFarland, USA, but didn’t take advantage of the record-breaking big game audience to promote either of their Marvel Studios releases of the year. With two similar trailers already released for The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and its followup, Ant-Man, needing all the buzz it can get, it was a surprise to see neither.
The Canadian broadcast of the NFL final however, did host the first Avengers 2 TV spot
as well as a 90-second spot for the second, previously released
trailer, but nothing new. Today however,
we do have something
new, including another great look at Marvel’s mysterious new Avenger
known as Vision (Paul Bettany).
Marvel officially released a gallery of stills and behind-the-scenes Age of Ultron photos, offering high-res images of some shots we’ve seen previously and others recognizable from sequences featured in the trailers. Similar to the second full-length Avengers 2 trailer,
the focus of the gallery is on the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and him losing
control (again). The larger armored suit Iron Man spots is again
officially referred to as the “Hulkbuster” armor, a fan-favorite design
from the comics, and it’s also confirmed that Black Widow (Scarlet
Johansson) – who has a closer relationship with Bruce Banner in the film – is attempting to calm the green giant during the same sequence.
With what little we’ve seen, we can at least acknowledge how faithful
writer and director Joss Whedon is keeping Ultron’s design, motivation
and dialogue to the comics. The same can be said for the character
outfits of the core six heroes. For more on that, check out the latest (and best look yet) at the big bad Thanos, the behind-the-scenes villain of The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy – who will eventually battle all of Earth’s heroes in The Avengers: Infinity War.
If you’ve been following Marvel Studios movie updates closely, there’s little that’s actually new here in the above photos, especially if you’ve read Screen Rant’s Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer analysis. So, now for the fun (and seemingly unofficial) stuff.
One of the countless ways the Avengers brand will be marketed in 2015 is via wall decals and a company known as Fathead has the movie rights. CBM got their hands on the Age of Ultron promo
materials which includes everything from character sheets of the core
cast – including the Android Avenger known as The Vision –
alongside wonderful fight night style one-sheets for the Hulk vs.
Hulkbuster battle.
There are no sticker sheets for the brother-sister act of Quicksilver
(Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen)
unfortunately, but if these two new powerful characters stick around for
the long-term in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and we expect them to –
then they’ll eventually get their own superhero duds and a bigger
merchandise push. Consider Age of Ultron to be their origin story of sorts before they join the team.
That’s some smart marketing to promote the “ringside” match of Hulk
vs. Iron Man. We’ll see how many moviegoers pay for that experience
opening weekend this May and whether or not Age of Ultron can top its predecessor at the box office. Let us know your thoughts on Vision and the other character designs in the comments!
Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” stars Robert Downey Jr., who
returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris
Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett
Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the
additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders
as Agent Maria Hill, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as
Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human
extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and
powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and
Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend
in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron releases in theaters on May 1 2015, followed by Ant-Man on July 17 2015, Captain America: Civil War on May 6 2016, Doctor Strange on November 4 2016, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on May 5 2017, Thor: Ragnarok on July 28, 2017, Black Panther on November 3 2017, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 on May 4 2018, Captain Marvel on July 6 2018, Inhumans on November 2 2018 and Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 on May 3 2019.
