Age Of Ultron Worked To Avoid A Big ‘Green Goblin Mistake’

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

“In the comics, Ultron still has his evil face. But we couldn’t do two hours with an evil face – that’s a Green Goblin mistake. I was interested in his soul, his sadness and doing all the things people don’t do with robots.”

What did Whedon mean by “the Green Goblin fallacy”? He was referring to the portrayal of the Green Goblin in the 2002 film “Spider-Man.” He was a villain who wore a motionless goblin mask in almost all of his scenes interacting with the hero. The mask was great for selling toys, but it also meant that Willem Dafoe’s voice had to do all the heavy lifting with the character’s performance. The mask conveyed no emotions other than malicious glee, which made it particularly jarring in this scene where Goblin tries to calmly talk to Spider-Man.

This approach was sometimes tricky, but it was not great for the disturbing and inhuman character of the Green Goblin, because the audience understood that there was a human under this immobile mask. Circumstances were different for Ultron, an inhuman being who Whedon still wanted to feel somewhat human.

“We’re often trying to balance a character – often an icon – from the comics with the needs of the film’s story,” explained Ryan Meinerding, head of Marvel’s visual development team. “But Ultron was more difficult because it was two disparate directions. The character’s goal in the comics was to be impartial, with a singular, screaming expression. Joss wanted that in [the face of] some of the Sub-Ultrons, but not Ultron Prime. So the challenge became, “How do we get something close to what can still be a fully emotive face?” »

The version of Ultron that the film comes with managed to not be as goofy as the Green Goblin mask, but that’s not necessarily for the best. Make fun of Sam Raimi’s version of the Green Goblin all you want, but at least people remember what the Goblin’s face looks like. The MCU’s design of Ultron, meanwhile, doesn’t really make an impression. It was praised at the time for its decent CGI, but ultimately it’s just another entry in the MCU’s roster of big, gray baddies.

Ultron’s design is a good example of how the MCU has evolved over the years. Had “Age of Ultron” been released a few years later, perhaps after Marvel had time to respond to the success of 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the film likely would have opted for a more colorful and extreme portrayal of the villain. The MCU became bolder and more experimental during Phase 3, and Ultron likely would have benefited from being designed during this period in the franchise’s history. Then again, “Age of Ultron” was such an ambitious film with so many loaded expectations that, honestly, we should just be happy that they pulled off the project.