First Official Look at The Avengers 2 in Entertainment Weekly

The Avengers: Age of Ultron does not hit theaters until next year, but Entertainment Weekly has provided fans with the first official look at Joss Whedon's superhero team-up sequel. In it, the writer/director explains the titular character's motivations and more.

Firstly, fans learn that Ultron's origin is Tony Stark, who wants time off from saving the world after he had done so several times already. The article describes Ultron as "a self-aware, self-teaching, artificial intelligence designed to help assess threats, and direct Stark's Iron Legion of drones to battle evildoers instead." 

But as is almost always the case with artificial intelligences in movies, Ultron starts to think the world would be better off without any humans in it. ""Ultron sees the big picture and he goes, 'Okay, we need radical change, which will be violent and appalling, in order to make everything better'; he's not just going 'Muhaha, soon I'll rule!'" Whedon said. "He's on a mission; He wants to save us."

As far as Tony Stark's decision to retire, at least for a while, EW suggested to Robert Downey Jr. that "there's no abdicating heroism."

"What you said about abdication is apt, but I think it's also about recognizing limitations," he replied. "The downside of self-sacrifice is that if you make it back, you've been out there on the spit and you've been turned a couple times and you feel a little burned and traumatized."

What do you think of this Age of Ultron preview? Does Ultron's origin fit with what you had expected? Let us know in the comments below.