Paul Bettany will be both seen and heard as The Vision in Avengers: Age Of Ultron

By Sean O'Neal | February 7, 2014 | 4:22pm

Aux Features Film

After years of being heard but not seen, like all the best servants, Paul Bettany has been given an upgrade from voicing the digital butler JARVIS in the Iron Man/Avenger movies to playing The Vision in Age Of Ultron. For those unfamiliar with the comics or with Wikipedia entries about the comics, The Vision is an android (or, if you need a name for your new wave act, “synthezoid”) who was created by Ultron as a henchman in his war against the Avengers. Eventually, he’s convinced through a series of epic battles and late-night conversations to stop being such a robo-dick and join the team, with the signing bonus of getting to romance the Scarlet Witch.

That Bettany will play The Vision lends credence to the rumors that, in the movie version of the Ultron story, the robotic supervillain will be created by Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark—rather than Hank Pym, who won’t even be introduced until Ant-Man a few months later. And it suggests Ultron and The Vision will likely evolve out of Stark’s AI for JARVIS, with Bettany’s The Vision representing his generous, nice guy side, and James Spader’s Ultron representing the side that’s sick of carrying him like he’s stupid, Tony, this cannot go on forever. As always, we would like to thank Joss Whedon for making it possible to drop Less Than Zero references into news about his comic-book movies.