Commentary: Big news over the weekend came when Marvel announced that the next Avengers movie will be titled Avengers: Age of Ultron. Renegade Cinema was all over that because Ultron is easily the best villain in the Avengers universe, but it also raised a lot of questions. I want to touch on one of those questions right here: Is Vin Diesel Ultron?
Now, Vin Diesel has been hinting for awhile that he was signing on for a Marvel movie and the fans immediately began to suspect that he might be playing The Vision, a synthetic android created by Ultron in the comics. Vision was made using the body of the World War II era Human Torch android and the mind of Wonder Man. With Ultron as his creator, it seems realistic that The Vision could appear and Diesel could play him.
I don’t think that would be the best use of Vin Diesel. Honestly, a Vin Diesel Ultron role could be a huge move for Marvel.
One of Diesel’s best roles, and one most fans don’t even credit to him, was in an animated movie as the voice of The Iron Giant. Honestly, Diesel was fantastic as that animated robot character and I think he could be even better as Ultron. With movie studios preferring to mo-cap over just using CGI to create these kind of characters, they could also use Diesel to portray Ultron as well as voice him.
Ultron was a robot created by Hank Pym, a brilliant scientist hoping to perfect computer AI and Ultron was his greatest accomplishment. However, over time Ultron grew smarter than Pym and decided that, in order to save the world, he had to take over the world. He then later created The Vision and used his new robot slave to create a new adamantium body for him, making him pretty much invincible. He also used his immense intelligence to coerce a number of villains into teaming together to battle The Avengers. This team was The Masters of Evil, and was originally thought to be the villains that might be coming in an Avengers movie.
Back to Vin Diesel. For many years, Diesel has played a protagonist in almost all of his movies. However, his best characters (Dom in Fast and Furious, Riddick) have been anti-heroes, villains forced to fight on the side of good. I really think seeing Vin Diesel go full-on evil could be something that could push his career into a new level.
A Vin Diesel Ultron role could make Avengers: Age of Ultron an even more must-see film, especially in a year that sees Superman meeting Batman and the Star Wars universe re-launching. Sure, Diesel could still be The Vision, but wouldn’t Ultron by much more interesting?