People were understandably thrilled when What If...? brought back Ultron but everyone was surprised when the android didn't should like James Spader or Paul Bettany. However, there is an important reason for that, as revealed by writer A.C. Bradley.
In What If...Ultron Won?, the AI was voiced by Red Skull actor Ross Marquand, who gave an excellent performance as the villain who succeeded in procuring Vision's body and defeating the Avengers. But why recast Ultron when they could have asked Bettany to do the voice work instead?
Bradley recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly where she confirmed that bringing back Bettany to voice this new version of Ultron was never an option.
"We wanted Ultron to be as terrifying as possible, because he's terrifying, and Paul Bettany is the loveliest man on earth," Bradley said. "He is such a sweetheart. We felt that, if Paul Bettany using Vision's voice voiced Ultron, it would be too much of a disconnect, because we're asking the audience to believe that this is Ultron in Vision's body and not Vision."
Bradley continued that they wanted Marquand to be as terrifying as ever to show that this version of Ultron was even more dangerous than Spader's version of the character.
"So by having Ross step in and give an incredibly chilling performance helped us make that clear to the audience, especially people who aren't as familiar with Age of Ultron, Vision, and that whole canon as we are," she concluded.
That does make sense and Marquand's performance was truly on another level in the episode. However, it would have been nice to revisit Spader's performance considering his Ultron was just as amazing. Either way, What If...? gave us an Ultron that effectively defeated the Avengers.
All nine episodes of What If...? are now streaming on Disney+.
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