WMG / Avengers: Age of Ultron

New entries at the bottom.

Confirmed Pre-release Theories

Ultron kills an Avenger

You know Whedon would do it if Marvel lets him, and Ultron has a reputation as Hero Killer to uphold.

• Doubtful that it'll be Iron Man becuse Robert Downey Junior just signed another film deal and Word of God is that he'll be in The Avengers 3. Also, he's pretty much the centre of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Hawkeye would have the biggest death odds right now. Joss hyping up his role seems to be prime grounds for killing him off abruptly. Hawkeye is just outside of being core enough to have Plot Armor.
  • Jossed.
• Black Widow is in the same area as Hawkeye, and to quote Joss Whedon, "the stuff I've got going on with her in the second one is killer". Foreshadowing, maybe? Who knows with Joss.
  • Interestingly enough, a Captain Marvel film was announced as their first female-led flick—not a Black Widow movie. When the topic of a Black Widow film came up, Feige suggested it could be a prequel. Seems perplexing... unless she's going to die here. Banner is rumored to have some sort of relationship with her, which could explain the Hulk-Iron Man fight scene if she's killed and he hulks out in response (is it just me, or does the Hulk look like he may be... crying?). And as one last point of interest, it has been suggested Claudia Kim is playing Monica Chang in the film. In and of itself, this makes sense due to her ties to artificial intelligence, but remember: in the Ultimate universe Chang becomes the new Black Widow after Natasha dies.
    • Hell, let's take it even further. Is Tony, having created Ultron, going to be seen as indirectly responsible for her death? That would make Hulk's rage directed at Tony. Steve and Natasha were also close, so could this form the basis of their conflict in Captain America 3? Black Widow has apparently been confirmed for Captain America 3. Plus Whedon would be classy enough to avoid fridging one of only two female superheroes. It looks like Black Widow won't be dying at all. The Russos just confirmed ScarJo's appearance in Captain America: Civil War.
    • Jossed. Natasha doesn't die here. Claudia Kim is playing scientist Helen Cho.
• Fury. The status quo between Civil War & Secret Invasion had Tony as Head of Shield. This movie could be why. It would allow Downey Jr to stick around as Tony Stark whilst not being Iron Man following his previously stated apprehensions about continuing to play Stark due to his age. Only problem here is that Samuel L Jackson signed a 9 movie deal with Marvel, and would have two more films left to fulfill his contract after Avengers 2, but there are ways around that.
  • Probably Jossed since they just had Fury "die" in Cap 2; it'd be a bit repetitive. Also SHIELD is sort of disbanded and Fury went solo so Tony could take over SHIELD by reviving it except that in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury made Coulson the new Director of SHIELD.
• Quicksilver or Scarlet Witch. We know they're being added to the Avengers in this film, and thanks to Fox owning the X-Men, Marvel can't reference two significant parts of their back story. They could get around this by having Pietro die & Wanda stick around to honor his memory, or Wanda's death (Much like in the Ultimate Universe) being catalyst for Quicksilver's Face–Heel Turn.
  • Joss Whedon, being a fervent feminist, is unlikely to kill off one of the few female Avengers.
  • A recent trailer shows Cap declaring to Ultron "She's with us", implying that Wanda has joined the Avengers. Since he doesn't say "'They're' with us", it's possible that Pietro was killed by Ultron, driving Wanda to join the Avengers.
  • Somewhat Confirmed: Ultron steals a Quinjet and tries to gun down Hawkeye (who was trying to save a child), but Quicksilver runs in and takes the bullets for him.
• Steve. Depending on how Captain America: The Winter Soldier ends, it would lead to Bucky taking up the shield as the new Captain America.
  • Sebastian Stan just revealed that he has a nine-picture deal with Marvel. This just got some serious credibility. Six: Three Captain America films and three Avengers films (the cameo in Thor: The Dark World doesn't count). Given that the third Captain America movie is titled Civil War, we may be right to worry about Steve. Then factor in the facot that Chris is signed up for three Avengers movies. There are four. Commence worrying.
  • Steve and Bucky will appear for Infinity War 1 according to the trailer but it seems that Steve is no longer Captain America.
• The end-credits stinger will be the body turning into a Skrull, setting up for Avengers 3: Secret Invasion.
  • Thanks to a Freeze-Frame Bonus from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., we know that Skrull do indeed exist in the MCU, so this has some possibility.
  • Avengers 3 is Infinity War Parts 1 and 2.
  • Skrulls are part of the Fantastic Four franchise. No Skrulls in the MCU.
• What if it's Rhodey? He's not a super major character and it'd give Tony some extra motivation. On the other hand, Marvel is likely smart enough to know the Black Dude Dies First trope might not go over well. Especially since the MCU has been a frequent target of Monochrome Casting complaints.
• Banner is going to be the one to bite the dust. Ultron will find some way to hurt him, and use it.
• Confirmed. It turned out to be Quicksilver.
  • Maybe. His actor DID sign a multi-picture deal. So there's a chance he's Only Mostly Dead.

Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver won't be the only heroes joining the team...

The Falcon (fresh from his appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier), as well as Carol Danvers will be a part of the film to round out the new roster.

• Confirmed. New Avengers roster includes Falcon, War Machine, Scarlet Witch and Vision.

Ultron isn't related to Ant-Man because Whedon doesn't want to step on Wright's toes.

This is mostly just me playing Devil's Advocate.Let's recap. We know that an Ant-Man movie will be released immediately following Avengers: Age of Ultron. It will be directed by Edgar Wright, who'll be doing the sort of action-adventure/comedy film he's known for. It will also feature Hank Pym in some capacity. (By all accounts, he'll be depicted as a retired hero mentoring Scott Lang, who'll be the actual star in the bug-suit, but my point is he's showing up eventually.)

We also know that Avengers: Age of Ultron will be darker than its predecessor. Given that Joss Whedon is at the helm, that implies some really bad shit is about to go down for the Avengers. Let's also not forget that Ultron is typically portrayed as an insanely dangerous, humorless villain who committed such crimes as genocide. This means that if Hank Pym was connected to Ultron, Ultron's crimes would hang over the Ant-Man film and force them to address it.

And remember, the Ant-Man film is supposed to be a comedy. While it's not impossible to make comedy out of tragedy, it's a bit more difficult when your film is directly following a darker film that took its subject matter deadly seriously. Plus, Ant-Man as he is is a pretty tough sell to a mainstream audience, both for his powers and the fact that his life is so defined by colossal screw-ups. (Seriously. The guy was well into his superhero career when he created Ultron, the mass-murdering robot already mentioned, then went crazy and briefly became a supervillain, during which he struck his wife. Adapting all that unchanged would probably be asking a bit much from a mainstream audience. For comparison, Spider-Man's also defined by colossal screw-ups, but he gets a pass because a) he's young and inexperienced, b) he started his career trying to make up for his mistakes, and c) his screw-ups never eventually led to genocide.)

By removing the Ant-Man-Ultron connection, this frees the Ant-Man film from that baggage and lets the comedy flourish naturally. (Frankly, Ultron's always been more of an Avengers villain anyway. Not that he doesn't hate Ant-Man especially, but I don't think Hank was ever able to beat Ultron without at least a little help.)

• This is an okay concept, but it does raise some questions: for ages now, Pym has characterized by his guilt over creating Ultron. (And even more so over a certain event that SHALL NOT BE NAMED) With Cap as the Big Good, Hawkeye as Deadpan Snarker, Tony as Rich Bitch With A Heart of Gold, what would Pym be? (Preferably something that contrasts Wasp's role as Fun Personified).
  • They could balance it by having Hank come up with some of the tech for Ultron but Tony being the guy who actually makes him. Partial guilt over help in villain's creation plus some connection to Ultron, but not nearly as much as the 616 Hank to the point that it would bring down the movie because he wasn't the guy who put him together.
• Possibly Jossed, since Edgar Wright is no longer directing Ant-Man.
• Confirmed. Whedon has stated that Wright's project was a major reason why Pym isn't in the movie. (The other is simple story economics. Introducing Pym for the sole purpose of creating Ultron would make things needlessly complicated, and having Tony take over would streamline things and make Ultron a more personal threat.)

Vision will appear

His "father" Ultron as the villain, Scarlet Witch showing up (meaning she could convince him to a Heel–Face Turn via Love Redeems), it's a definite possibility.

• Confirmed.

Ultron will be created to fight a Starter Villain or Disc-One Final Boss

• I'm betting the Ten Rings and Aldrich Killian
• At the moment, it's most likely that it will be Baron von Strucker.
• Pretty much confirmed. Tony created Ultron to fight baddies (namely, Hydra) to give the Avengers a break.

Ultron will take control of several Stark machines.

Including but not limited to his new dragon, Dummy.

• He's confirmed to take control of the Iron Legion, but we'll see about Dummy.
  • Dummy's nowhere to be seen.

JARVIS will not be Ultron, but he will be suspected of such.

If I remember correctly, Ultron's first appearance involved him framing Jarvis (the human one) for hiring the Masters of Evil. In the film, maybe Ultron's agenda will be hidden at first, and the Avengers would suspect JARVIS, only for Ultron to reveal it was him. I mean, Hijacked by Ganon is pretty much Ultron's thing.

• JARVIS could be taken over by Ultron at one point.
• Confirmed. After he first awakes, the Avengers suspect him of being just another body for Ultron.
• Actually, that was Vision that they suspected; knowing that JARVIS would be part of Vision is what made Tony and Bruce willing to risk birthing him.

Iron Patriot will be recruited to replace Iron Man.

Tony's retired at this point. That means Iron Man is out of the picture for now. So SHIELD goes to recruit Rhodey to act as his replacement.

• Sort of Confirmed. Rhodey is once again calling himself War Machine, not Iron Patriot and both he and Tony take place in the final battle. At the end, Tony leaves the Avengers and Rhodey join the team.

Ultron has a connection to HYDRA.

Either he's a robot built by the modern-day HYDRA led by Baron Strucker or he's a robot built by SHIELD using reverse engineered HYDRA tech (thereby continuing that plot thread from the first Avengers film). Either way, Ultron ends up turning on its creators.

• Since Captain America 2 the reverse-engineered HYDRA tech part could be true; and the connection might be that it was built to stop HYDRA since SHIELD isn't around anymore.
• Confirmed. He begins as the Mind Gem in Loki's Sceptre taken from HYDRA's possession and later he claims Strucker's Sokovia base for himself.

JARVIS will get an upgrade.

Tony Stark, who is getting too old for all this superheroing (and has basically depowered during Iron Man 3), and as a result of Rhodey's untimely demise, decides that the best proxy for Iron Man is someone who can't really be destroyed. Because he is in a hurry, he uses for an operating system what he has handy: JARVIS. So he uploads JARVIS, or a copy of him, into an Iron-Man based construct that he renames "The Vision".

• Alternatively, Ultron creates the Vision as an off-model decoy. JARVIS will attempt to hack Ultron, discover that what it's hacking is an empty shell, and instead decide to capture and use this decoy to help, spinning a copy of itself as an operating system.
• Confirmed. JARVIS becomes Vision.

Scarlet Witch will wipe the floor with Hulk or Thor.

Joss loves strong women, and now we have one of the most powerful female MCU characters appearing, Wanda Maximoff. In an example of The Worf Effect, Wanda will prove her power by trashing one of the heavy hitters. It's also possible that Iron Man will get this treatment from her.

• The latest press clip from Marvel features Cap and Tony doing a post-game on the Avengers' first encounter with Scarlet Witch. She wipes the floor with everybody.
• Confirmed, she screws with everyone's brains, including Hulk and Thor.

Captain America will pick up Thor's hammer.

At some point in the beginning, Thor will point out only worthy men can pick up his hammer (perhaps followed by Tony trying and failing to do so). During the climax, Thor will drop it for some reason and Cap will have to use it to save the day, showing that he is worthy.

• At least partially confirmed. The footage shown at SDCC shows Tony trying and failing multiple times to lift Mjolnir, as well as Bruce and Clint, with only Steve managing to budge it a little. A preview of things to come in Avengers 3, perhaps?
  • There's no reason that such a moment of crisis will come in this film, with that introductory scene serving to showcase that as a kind of Chekhov's Skill. Imagine Cap fighting off Ultron with his shield and Mjolnir!
  • Mjolnir's enchantment is absolute. You're either worthy of lifting it or you're not. There's no such thing as being a "little" worthy and being able to nudge it a little. As such, this troper believes that Cap CAN lift Mjolnir. He actually didn't lift it to not embarrass Thor or his fellow Avengers, which is COMPLETELY in character for Cap, being the team player he is.
    • An Alternative to the above - Steve is actually worthy of lifting Mjolnir... But he doesn't really believe he is during the events of this film, hence why the hammer shifts a little - he's worthy, but he's not yet ready.
    • Another Alternative: While Steve is worthy, he doesn't want to wield the power of Thor. When he starts to lift Mjolnir in this movie, he gets a quick perception of just what that power is and has a "No, thanks" moment.
• This is also a possible reference to the Fear Itselfcomic, where Skadi breaks Cap's shield and Cap temporarily wields Mjolnir until his shield is repaired.
• At least for this movie, nothing comes of Cap being able to budge the hammer. The scene instead turns out to be setup for Vision lifting it later, gaining the Avengers' trust by doing so.
• He does lift the hammer in Endgame.

The Stinger will showcase something really, really big.

Possibilities:

• Thanos speaking for the first time.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy got to that first.
  • Not to mention that it's been confirmed that Thanos isn't in the movie.
  • Confirmed. He claims the freaking Infinity Gauntlet!
• The real Mandarin in person.
  • Jossed.
• A Spider-Man or X-Men character (after intense negotiations with Sony or Fox), or an object/artifact/concept teasing a potential crossover (again, after intense negotiations).
  • Spider-Man's inclusion is becoming increasingly likely, if the Sony Leaks are of any indication - although his first appearance is more likely to be in Captain America: Civil War.
    • Now he's been confirmed to appear in the MCU. There's a chance he could appear in The Stinger.
  • Jossed.

JARVIS becomes The Vision

After realizing his potential as a force for good at the end of Iron Man 3 and seeing the rising threat that Ultron presents, Tony Stark uploads JARVIS's consciousness into a model that can interact with the world to a greater degree. The fact that they're re-using the same actor to play the character lends support to this theory.

• Confirmed. Paul Bettany is playing both.
• Arguably zig-zagged. JARVIS is uploaded into Ultron's "ultimate body" and merges with the pieces of programming Ultron had already uploaded. He becomes something more than both of them - he even flat-out states that he's "not JARVIS" in his reveal scenes.

Stark is rebuilding SHIELD as a private entity.

This is what Hill is doing for Stark, collecting the loyal and now displaced elements of SHIELD into Stark Enterprises. Avengers II will draw from elements of Iron Man: Director of SHIELD.

• Jossed. It would seem Coulson is the new director now.
• Coulson is still believed dead by most, and his team are fugitives. Stark could still be collecting SHIELD assets.
• In her appearance on Agents of SHIELD, Hill talks about Stark privatizing global security. They seem to be running parallel to Coulson's team.
  • Sort of confirmed. By the end of the film, remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. under Fury and Hill serves as a support base for the Avengers.

Ultron will be created by Stark but the general public won't find out.

The Avengers will have to wrestle with the question of whether or not to cover up Stark's involvement.

• Confirmed.

Ultron will be made of vibranium

Tony will make an off handed comment about finding more, setting up Wakanda. Because, if Ultron is going to be getting pummeled by Hulk, Thor and all the others, he's going to need to be able to shrug off some serious damage.

• Confirmed. His final body, as well as Vision and his anti-gravity machine, are made of Vibranium purchased from Klaw.

Iron Patriot has reverted to the War Machine name and color scheme.

"Iron Patriot" has become synonymous with Coldblood's abduction of the president and destruction of Air Force One. Everyone still likes Rhodey though.

• Confirmed!

Ultron has his roots in Vanko's work

Vanko developed drones. Soon afterword, Tony adapted that technology for his "House Party" protocols. Ultron will build on that for his own units.

• Sort of, yeah.

Black Widow will preform a Cooldown Hug on the Hulk after the fight between him and Hulkbuster

There are rumors that Black Widow and Bruce will be more 'intimate' in this film. And it's not like the Cooldown Hug hasn't worked before on him...

• She does it at other points during the movie, but not after Hulkbuster fight.

By the end of the film, the Avengers will be shattered

Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow will be gone or severely injured. So it is up to Cap, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Hulk to carry on and Phase 3 will be based on Cap trying to form a new team to replace the old one, expanding from a version of 'Cap's Quartet' from the comics.

• Close. Hulk, Thor, Clint and Tony leaves the team and go home (except Hulk, who runs away). War Machine, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Vision join Black Widow and Captain America as the new Avengers roster.

The end-credits scene will be...

• The Winter Soldier quietly observing Steve through a scope, and then leaving.
• Tony taking out everyone for shawarma again.
• A scene with Thanos.
  • Confirmed! He gets the freaking Infinity Gauntlet!
• Fury doing something.
• Steve or Sam finds the Winter Soldier.
• Hank Pym watching news footage of Ultron's attack, expressing his dislike of superheroes.
• An infinity gem being found on Earth, by a HYDRA scientist no less.
• Another curveball, like Howard the Duck appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy for shits and giggles.
• Nothing. Whedon will screw with fans minds by having a 15 min credits, and no end credits scene.
  • Spiderman, foreshadowing his appearance in Civil War.

Steve will be trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine or have their minds tampered with

• Some scenes show him in a dance hall in 1940s, reportedly with Peggy. As we know they'd never danced, it probably isn't a flashback.
• Confirmed. Scarlet Witch messes with everybody's mind, except for Clint, who alsready had his fill of it last time.

The world will turn against the Avengers

In the teaser trailer, it is plainly seen at several points that massive amounts of people are both evacuating and making protests. It's possible that Ultron could use the Iron Legion to discredit the Avengers by attacking civilians while (supposedly) under the orders of Tony Stark.

• Probably in The Stinger or at the end of the film, the government will propose the Superhero Registration Act since the next Captain America film will be loosely based from Civil War.
• Confrimed. The public isn't happy after Hulk wrecks a city in South Africa.

Quicksilver will die

In multiple trailers, there is a shot of Scarlet Witch, on her own, screaming into the sky. Given the fact that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver seem to be working for Ultron, not to mention the Brother–Sister Incest undertones, Quicksilver will die at some point in the climax of the film, prompting Scarlet Witch to make a Heel–Face Turn or The Star Scream, depending on who kills Quicksilver. Not much else would cause her to scream like that.

• This would also resolve the problem of competing with the Fox X-Men version of Quicksilver, who has a year-long popularity boost over the Avengers version.
• Joss Whedon's work tends to subvert or invert sexist media cliches so it's definitely possible that he would Fridge a man to further a woman's character development.
• To add to this, we see a shot of Avengers fighting off an army of Ultron's robots in the trailer. It seems this is the climax of the film. We see the usual roster, plus Scarlet Witch. There is no sign of Quicksilver in that aerial shot of them fighting back-to-back.
• Confirmed.

Tony's Arc Words from Iron Man 3 will return here, more relevant than ever before.

"We create our own demons."

• Jossed.
• Kind of? Ultron says something to the effect of "we all create what we dread."

There will be flashbacks to Black Widow's past, maybe including Hawkeye.

I say this based on the ballet class scene and Hawkeye getting shot at in the woods. Maybe we'll see how they met. It would add to his screentime.

• Confirmed, but Clint isn't in it.

The team will have their minds tampered with.

We see a glimpse of Steve in WWII, Hawkeye getting shot at by tanks, Black widow apparently having a flashback about ballerinas, Hulk goes berserk and we see a very disturbed Bruce Banner in the trailers, Thor apparently drowning, and Cap's broken shield next to what appears to be a dead Thor (the comic con footage has Tony Stark looking at the scene in horror). It's possible these are all hallucinations brought on by either Loki's mind-altering spear which HYDRA has in their possession, or possibly due to Scarlet Witch's powers.

• Confirmed. A clip screened during Marvel's latest press event has Cap and Tony doing a post-game on the fight at the beginning of the movie — specifically, how Scarlet Witch single-handedly shredded the whole team with some kind of psychic attack that made them see traumatic visions. The strange scenes in the trailer, such as Cap in WWII or young Black Widow as a ballerina, are likely flashbacks that Scarlet Witch triggered, and a traumatic psychic attack would account for Banner losing it in the snow and the whole team looking shell-shocked on the Quinjet.

Hawkeye's farm

Hawkeye will apparently own a farm in the film, so here's some theories on why and how he would own such.

A) Its a family farm, and we'll get some backstory for Hawkeye when someone asks about it, including talking about his abusive father and him joining the circus, with this being the first time he's gone back since his parents' deaths.

• Confirmed. His wife and kids live there.

B) Its a farm he bought with Mockingbird at some point in the past when they were together. In the comics, the two owned a cabin in the woods that they bought together when they got married, so it could be the MCU equivalent of this. This, in turn, can also be used to flesh him out more by establishing and explaining his relationship with her, given its been confirmed by Agents of SHIELD that they know one-another.

C) Its something he bought to take care of himself after his brainwashing by Loki, as a place for him to cope and come to terms with what happened.

D) Its just an old safe house that isn't all that special.

Age of Ultron will partially adapt the Original Sin series

In the leaked clip, Tony says Thor went somewhere looking for answers after they were shown visions. Also, Hulk fighting Iron Man. Maybe Hulk doesn´t lose control, he merely found out something about Stark...

• Confirmed. Wanda induces visions, which affect everyone on the team except Hawkeye.

Loki and Heimdall will have a cameo or minor appearance

Idris Elba said this after the teaser trailer was released and the theory above about Scarlet Witch using her psychic powers to attack the Avengers indicate that Thor might be having flashbacks of his past which includes Loki. It's not like Ultron will attack Asgard or anything. As for Heimdall, maybe he'll appear when Thor is going to earth to be with his friends.

• Heimdall appears in a vision, Loki doesn't (unless you count that one second where he's vagualy seen standing behind Heimdall).

This film will not go deeper into the Budapest mission´s story

Because seriously you people that was a throw-away joke.

• Alternative; if they do go into what happened in Budapest, it'll be something incredibly mundane and dull compared to what people have built it up to be (something like "we were supposed to only have to take out 30 guys, turned out to be 50, not a big deal"). In either case, they clarify that Budapest really wasn't that big of a deal, and they've had far more interesting missions, possibly name-dropping another town, so we can see the fans go crazy over that mission instead.
• Confirmed. Still a Noodle Incident.

At the end of the movie, Thor will leave the Avengers

...because of Loki, who we saw at the end of Thor: The Dark World, sitting on Odin's throne which might also lead to Thor: Ragnarok. Heimdall will warn Thor about it at some point in the movie (maybe after defeating Ultron) and Thor has to go back to Asgard to save his family and friends. This would be his reason for his absence in Captain America 3: Civil War, which deals the SHRA, since in the comics, Thor is not-so-conveniently absent during the Civil War and not counting the stupid robo-clone that Tony and Reed Richards built which, I hope, will not be included in the movie.

• Idris Elba has stated that Heimdall and Loki will have a cameo appearance in AOU, though nothing has been confirmed.
• Confirmed-ish. Thor leaves the team and gets back to Asgard for the first time since The Dark World, but he spends the next two years mostly out of Asgard, investigating the other realms.

The MCU will follow the same path as the comic books

The movies started out lighter and mostly separated from each other, while still in the same universe. As time passes, storylines will become darker and more complex, movies will become more and more related, cameos and crossovers will become the norm.

• Confirmed. Plenty of Continuity Porn in this movie.

Vision will be built to replace Ultron.

Tony realizes that Ultron doesn't work the way he wants — he builds Vision to replace him. Ultron has a meltdown, and shreds Vision (he's the robot whose head Ultron crushes in the trailer.) However, JARVIS creates a new version of Vision using himself as the template.

• Jossed, Vision has been confirmed as being created by Ultron.
  • And then confirmed! Ultron creates Vision's body, but it is Tony and Bruce and upload J.A.R.V.I.S. in it with a specific purpose to fight Ultron.
  • Then as a follow-up WMG, Vision will be the Data to Ultron's Lore and will try to stop his... uh, father? Brother?

Ultron gains sentience via Loki's Scepter.

He actually begins as the Mind Gem from the Scepter.

• Confirmed.

The events of the film will inadvertently lead to the rise of more superheroes across the globe

With the Avengers' attempts to single handedly protect the globe coming back to bite everyone in the ass, the international community will no longer be content to sit back and let a bunch of Americans decide the fate of the world. Future movies will see countries like the U.K., Russia, South Korea, Japan, China, the European Union and many others trying to create their own teams of superheroes.

The film will include elements of Avengers Disassembled.

Namely the "Disassembled" part.

• That and Scarlet Witch's role in the film could be similar to the role she played in Disassembled.
• Four members leave the team, but the Avengers endure.

Loki's scepter will be revealed to be one of the Infinity Stones

To further the running subplot about Thanos trying to find the Infinity Stones, we will find out the blue gem in Loki's scepter from the first film is one of the Stones. Especially since Marvel seems to have made a point of showing the scepter in both the Age of Ultron trailer AND the Avengers: Infinity War teaser.

• Confirmed. It's the mind gem.

Thanos will appear in a cameo

Likely in regard to to the above-mentioned scepter.

• Confirmed! He claims the Gauntlet in the Stinger.

War Machine will have a bigger role than anticipated

Especially since Hasbro is releasing a War Machine figure for the first wave of its Age of Ultron line, but not other confirmed Avengers like the Vision or Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

• Confirmed. He becomes an Avenger by the end.

Claudia Kim's character is related to Amadeus Cho

It's been revealed that Claudia Kim is playing a character named Dr. Cho. She could be related to Amadeus Cho, a notable character from the comics (Makes more sense in that Amadeus is specifically told to be Korean-American in the comics)

• Possibly his mother (Like many real-life Korean-Americans, Amadeus was born in America while his mother is an immigrant) or older sister.
• Alternatively, she could be a Gender Flipped version of Amadeus himself, though this is less likely.
• Confirmed-ish? In the comics, Helen Cho is Amadeus Cho's mother.

Baron Strucker will lose his arm in the opening sequence of the film when the Avengers assault his base.

• Alternatively, Klaw will lose a hand during his fight with Scarlet Witch, setting him up to get his prosthetic in the Black Panther movie.
• Confirmed. Claue loses his arm to Ultron. Strucker is killed outright.

Ultron´s classic face will be seen in the movie.

After Ultron covers himself with Vibranium, he will look like the classic Ultron, without moving parts in his face.

• Confirmed - it's his second body. However, this happens before he coats himself in Vibranium.

Thor's Vision From Scarlett Witch

It won't be Thor seeing Loki is alive and masquerading as Odin, it might be him seeing Ragnarok or those who might cause it, like Fenrir, The Midgard Serpent or Hela.

• Confirmed! In his vision Heimdall is dead and speaks of Hel.

Ultron will "kill" JARVIS and Dummy as a particularly vicious Kick the Dog moment

Tony will be heartbroken at their loss, and reuniting with The Vision as JARVIS reborn will be a Heartwarming Moment.

• Related to the above, when JARVIS is rebuilt into Vision, he'll have no memory of Tony or his previous life and he'll stay that way. Just to make things more sad.
• Confirmed. Ultron tried to eradicate J.A.R.V.I.S. and he is reborn as a new person in Vision.
  • Dummy survives though.

A new set of Avengers will form at the end of the movie

Given that Thor, Hulk, and Iron Man are slated to separate themselves from the group once again by the end of the film (because status quo demands it), the remaining Avengers will have to form a new team based around the remaining superheroes and special operatives that they can find.

This new incarnation of the team will initially include:

• Captain America
• War Machine
• Black Widow
• Hawkeye
• Falcon
• Quicksilver
• Scarlet Witch
• The Vision
• Nick Fury
  • All of these were confirmed, with the exceptions of Quicksilver and Hawkeye.

Ultron will be made with vibranium

This is pretty much necessary for him to survive against the Hulk and Thor for any length of time.

• Spinning off from this theory, perhaps Wakanda will be mentioned at some point.
• The molten hand shot? Ultron getting his upgraded Vibranium form. But from whom? That brief shot of Andy Serkis? Klaw. His specialty (and obsession)? Vibranium. Awwwww, yiiiisss.
• Seems jossed. Cap's shield was shown to cut into Ultron in the trailer. (And according to the Lego sets, Ultron was in "ultimate" form)
• Jossed. Ultron does get vibranium from Claue, but it is used for his device and Vision's body, not Ultron himself.
  • Actually not Jossed. Ultron doesn't use all of the vibranium for those purposes. His final "main body" (the one he uses to destroy his previous main body before locking up the captured Natasha) is also made of the stuff.

Scarlet Witch will appear, tying it together with the X-Men movies

She will be introduced escaping a Insane Asylum to warn SHIELD about the new movie's villian. No one will believe her so she will use her powers over chance and probability force ridiculously unlikely circumstances to bring the Avengers together at the right place and time to face the threat. She will also rant about and make references to events and people from the comic book universe including her two non-existent sons, everyone will dismisses it as mad delusions.

• Scarlet Witch is confirmed to appear in Avengers 2 but it will not tie in the the X-Men movies. In fact, Quicksilver will appear without Scarlet Witch in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Tony's PTSD will be brought up.

• Indeed, Tony's traumatic experience in The Avengers is the reason why he tries to create Ultron in the first place.

Tony Stark will create Ultron, not Hank Pym

Only it isn't JARVIS who becomes Ultron, but Tony's robot arm seeking revenge for years of abuse. It would kind of make the scenes where we laughed at it Harsher in Hindsight.

Since Ant-Man's solo film won't come out until after this movie, Tony Stark will be Ultron's creator instead. It will be an extension to his work in Iron Man 3 in an attempt to create a fully autonomous Iron Man suit. Of course A.I. Is a Crapshoot and something goes horribly wrong during the testing of the suit when JARVIS is somehow corrupted and becomes the being known as Ultron.

• Confirmed
  • Although Dum-E doesn't become Ultron.

The events of this film set up the Civil War in Captain America 3

With the confirmation that Iron Man will be appearing in Captain America 3, which will be an adaptation of Civil War, there's been a lot of speculation about how the Civil War could come about, given that there are hardly any secret identities in the MCU so far, and the film Tony, being the loose canon that he is, is unlikely to become the fascist 'pro-Registration' overlord of the original story. But here's how Age of Ultron can set that up...

After all the death and destruction caused by Ultron's rampage, Tony (who was responsible for Ultron's creation) is overwhelmed by guilt and realizes that people like him and the other Avengers have too much power, which can potentially destroy the world. So he decides to turn over a new leaf and supports a government proposal to regulate superheroes, under a reconstituted SHIELD headed by him. Steve however, after the events of The Winter Soldier knows one can't fully trust the government any more and opposes such curbs on the liberties of those trying to do right. And thus, we have the Civil War...

• The reverse. Steve is leading new Avengers with what remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. (not Coulson's) and Tony leaves the team to do his own thing.
  • Confirmed that the guilt from Ultron's actions does result in him supporting the Superhuman Registration Act.

Jossed Pre-release Theories

Thor will say "Ultron. We would have words with thee."

Inevitable awesomeness.

• It would probably be changed to "We would have words with you" since the MCU's Thor tends to avoid Shakespeare English. Then again, so did the Thor in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but he still used the exact line.
• Alternately, he will get halfway through the phrase, then get blasted by Ultron before being able to finish it. After all, Joss loves knocking Norseman out of frame.
• Jossed.

Benedict Cumberbatch will play Ultron.

He already showed off his sci-fi/villain chops in Star Trek Into Darkness, plus Tony Stark creating Ultron means we can finally see Sherlock Holmes versus Sherlock Holmes.

• Jossed, James Spader will be Ultron.
• Cumberbatch is playing Stephen Strange, though. We may still get Sherlock vs. Sherlock come Infinity War~

Tony doesn't create Ultron

That Comic-Con teaser? That was just a preview of how Ultron will take over and "personalize" one of the Iron Man suits to make his new/classic body.

• In fact, we know there will be a Hulkbuster in this film. Perhaps Ultron uses that armor to build a body.
• The Vision will probably be another personalized suit of armor that rebels against Ultron.
• Jossed.

Hank Pym will appear, just not under a superhero identity

Word of God said Ant-Man and Wasp's civilian identities appearing to set up their film.

• Jossed by... Joss. Of course, he could still be lying.
  • It'll be in The Stinger, which deliberately mimics the one in The Incredible Hulk (2008) by having Tony show up at a bar where Hank Pym is getting drunk over what Ultron did. Then Janet pops over, tries to drag Hank to the dance floor, then fails, and gets Tony instead.
    • Also Jossed.

Hank Pym won't be in the film, but he'll still get name-dropped as the main guy behind Ultron's creation.

There was a rumour that the Ant-Man film will be about both Hank Pym and Scott Lang, and that Hank would be some kind of retired hero from the 1960s. He could have created Ultron then, he turned evil and Hank subdued him with SHIELD's help. The beginning of Avengers 2 could show him locked up somewhere at SHIELD, then he escapes...

• The rumour just said Hank Pym was a hero from the 1960s; never said that he retired. So Hank could have pulled a Heroic Sacrifice stopping Ultron, and SHIELD has possession of his Ant-Man suit (which Scott Lang could steal in the upcoming movie). Of course, with Hank Pym dead, it gives the team a harder time trying to defeat Ultron since the bot's original creator is no longer alive to help them - but then they discover something in his old files...
• Hank's going to be in the Ant-Man movie, but that might be a prequel or something. Either way, it's possible he could get name-dropped in Avengers 2 anyway. a September 2014 synopsis describes Ultron as a dormant peacekeeping program that Tony tries to reactivate, so it seems entirely possible that Pym is the one who originally developed it.
• Considering that Tony's dad, Howard Stark, will appear in the Ant-Man movie, it's likely that he and Hank know each and worked together at some point in the past.
• Jossed. No name-drop of Pym.

Ultron is created because of the World Security Council

They use Tony's tech without his approval to create a robotic "superhero" they can control to replace Fury and his unreliable Avengers. Gone Horribly Wrong follows soon after, of course.

• And perhaps add a dash of the Destroyer from Thor for extra measure and offer Hammer parole in exchange for helping them build the thing and ladies and gentlemen, we have Ultron.
  • The events of Captain America 2 kind of mess this up, but it does set up the possibility that Ultron will be created to replace the now-disbanded SHIELD.
• Jossed. It's because of Tony's Scarlet Witch-induced vision.

Hank Pym did create Ultron but hasn't yet- Ultron has time-travelled/crossed-over from a different timeline.

Okay, a reach, but given that the storyline that the film will take it's name (if nothing else) from involved plenty of time travel and other bizarre things like that, it can't be ruled out.

• Jossed.

We'll see some of Marvel's international heroes.

Joss has said that this movie will be more international in scope, as opposed to the first film, which was 95% focused on America. Therefore, we will see some of Marvel's international heroes (well, those that Marvel still has the movie rights to), such as the Black Panther and Captain Britain (if they still have the rights- could be complicated due to the fact that while isn't a mutant he often is associated with the X-Men).

• There is on-location filming taking place in South Africa. Perhaps Black Panther is a possibility...?
  • No heroes, but Ulysses Klaue makes an appearance.

Hank Pym will appear in The Stinger

In the movie, Fury will say the name of Ultron's creator. In The Stinger, it will be revealed that the supposed creator doesn't actually exist, the name was made up to cover Pym's failure. We will see Pym talking to Fury (or someone else from SHIELD, agent Eric O'Grady would fit), and the following dialogue would take place:

Pym: Why would you help me?

Fury (or whoever): Because you are going to help us.

• Jossed.

There will be a set up to a Runaways movie

Ultron will either escape or transfer his AI into a new body. He will then develop plans to create Victor Mancha.

• It is a movie mentioned to have one of the stronger scripts and as a possible Phase 3 movie. Though Runaways is dependent on the Guardians...if that flops, you can kiss any Runaways, Iron Fist or Wonder Man films goodbye.
  • Well, considering GOTG's success at the box office, I'd guess Runaways will be fast-tracked.
  • The entire Phase 3 slate has been revealed, and Runaways isn't on it. But hey, maybe we'll still see it in Phase 4?
• Jossed.

Magneto will have a Lawyer Friendly Shout-Out.

Likely along the lines of Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver taunting Ultron.

Fair warning, our father can tear up metal like toilet paper.

How about

Self serving? Narcissistic? Out to wipe out humanity? It's like Chanukah at Dad's all over again.

• Jossed.

The father of Quicksilver & The Scarlet Witch will not be mentioned

As you know, they can't use or mention Magneto, because Fox has the license. Any replacement will likely be rejected by fans, simply because it's not Magneto. What to do, then? Simple: ignore the whole thing. They are secondary characters, we don't really need to know much about them (we don't know about the parents of Hawkeye and Black Widow, either). Have in mind that The Law of Conservation of Detail suggests that the plot shouldn't mention it unless it will become an actual plot line.

Have also in mind that, in comics, their Luke, I Am Your Father reveal was a big surprise because both characters were long-standing heroes, and Magneto was a long standing villain. Here, the twins are new characters. Unless their father is Loki, Red Skull, the Clairvoyant or someone already seen, the reveal would be meaningless and hardly shocking for those who don't read comics.

After all, Quicksilver's ancestors in X-Men: Days of Future Past was just a throwaway joke (which may even have been missed by those who don't read comics and did not know him before the film), and there were no license problems, his father was standing right next to him (but, as the movie was not focused in a Luke, I Am Your Father reveal, it was all ignored).

• Jossed. He is mention as a normal Human being killed by a missile.
• Still, the main point prevails. They are not described as the sons of any villain, or any named character. They parents are just mentioned once, in passing, and never again, and nothing comes from that.
• The main point was that their father would not be mentioned. He was, posthumously so still basically Jossed.

The reason for Hank Pym's absence from the movie...

• Will be because Ultron's first evil act was to lock up his creator before he could stop him. The stinger will be S.H.I.E.L.D agents rescuing him from his prison.
• Jossed.

Ultron will assemble the MCU version of the Masters of Evil with him being the Big Bad

We already have both the Abomination introduced and the Leader foreshadowed in The Incredible Hulk so The Brute and the Evil Genius of this evil Five-Man Band are already set, Aldrich Killian can be The Dragon assuming he survived the events of Iron Man 3, and with both being introduced in Age of Ultron possibly as villains, Scarlet Witch can be the Dark Action Girl and Quicksilver can be the Sixth Ranger Traitor, realizing that being involved with the Masters of Evil is not a good idea, he has a Heel–Face Turn and joins the Avengers in attempt to stop his sister from doing more harm, eventually resulting in her redemption and sacrifice to stop Ultron. If Joss Whedon's actual movie isn't as epic as this, then he has failed as an entertainer.

• (Different Troper)Alternatively Quicksilver will the one who sacrifices himself, after Wanda have been trying all the movie to make him see reason.
• Jossed. Quicksilver does die, but he's protecting the innocent.

Wasp will appear

With her not appearing at the first film and probably without Chris Hemsworth as Thor it seems to be her chance to debut.

• Jossed. Janet Van Dyne will be a Posthumous Character in Ant-Man, and though it's heavily rumored that Hope Van Dyne (played by Evangeline Lilly) may become the MCU version of the Wasp, it definitely won't be in AOU.

The Swarm will appear.

But instead of just a Nazi made of bees, he'll be a Nazi made of robot bees.

• Kinda like in Ultimate Spider-Man (2012). Cool.
• Seems bolstered by a tweet made by Whedon mentioning an attack by "intelli-bees".
• Jossed.

Ultron is DUM-E.

• DUM-E was Tony's first AI. and after three decades or so of being belittled and abused, he's had it and takes over one of Stark's experiments.
  • Jossed.

Pym created Ultron, alright. It's just that nobody knows this. Not even Pym.

Not many people know this, but in the original version, Ultron wiped Pym's memory so he forgot about creating him. It's very possible that the same is true for the film. Of course, this theory probably hinges on whether or not Joss lets Ultron keep his classic encephalo-ray for the film.

• Jossed.

Ultron will be powered by one of the Infinity Stones

It'll help tie together the overarching plot with Thanos and the Infinity gauntlet.

• Ultrons begins as an Infinity Stone: he's literally made out of a blueprint of Mind Gem. Ultron later puts the Stone in the body he intends to take, but that body becomes Vision instead. So, Jossed, but still pretty close.

Pym's work will used to create Ultron

There will be a scene where Tony and Bruce are looking at Ultron's schematics and comment that it looks like they based the AI off of Hank Pym's work. That it was really stupid to do that since it would be very unstable.

• Jossed.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are Inhumans.

Think about it, Marvel can't use the X-Men, but they did say they were planning to make a film adaption of it at some point, and that it'll be an "X-Men like" story. If they can do that, then perhaps both of them either are Inhumans or are descended from them.

• Alternatively, they will be referred to as "Gifteds."
  • Either Marvel will simply skirt around their nature as mutants and leave the whole thing ambiguous (for potential future X-Men crossovers), or Fox will contractually require them to establish that the two characters are absolutely, positively, definitely not mutants in any way and have nothing to do with the X-Men, and make Disney give them a different father (possibly Baron Strucker or an original character).
  • Definitely possible, given Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is currently leading the charge on Inhumans entering the MCU, and there's confirmed to be an Inhumans movie later down the line.
• Jossed, they're the result of Strucker's experiments. Also Ao S episode "The Frenemy of my Enemy" reveals that Strucker and List have no idea who Inhumans are, just that they have powers.

The movie will end with Hulk making a Heroic Sacrifice involving being launched into space

Leading to a Planet Hulk movie.

• Different Troper* Or maybe Ultron will end up in space to set up a Guardians of the Galaxy sequel based on the Annihilation miniseries.
• Perhaps not a noble sacrifice, but Tony having no choice after his Hulkbuster armor fails to stop Hulk's rampage? Could be why Thor chokes him out in the first trailer. Also, take a look at the Phase 3 schedule. Generally speaking, a film every May, July, and November. But there is a conspicuous absence for July, 2016. I wouldn't put it past them to have a secret Planet Hulk film in the works. It would also tie nicely into the now two-part Avengers 3. Rumor has it the Avengers won't be able to stop Thanos in part one, requiring help from beyond Earth in part 2: Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel... and a returning Hulk?
• Jossed. He does leave the team and heads into unknown direction, but is very much on Earth.
  • Ironically, Hulk's next appearance^note not counting archive footage showing him in Captain America: Civil War ended up being the MCU equivalent to Planet Hulk. Said film ended up being a November 2017 movie.

Tony will be beaten half to death by Ultron, and be revived by Extremis.

After Ultron is released, SHIELD, Pepper, and the other Avengers will blame Tony for unleashing this monster, resulting in him first hitting the bottle, then deciding to try and take Ultron on by himself to stop him. However, Ultron overpowers and beats Tony within an inch of his life, or possibly actually kill him. One of the Avengers will find him, resuscitate him, then take him home, but Tony's still in bad shape and seemingly dying. As Ultron clears a war path and the other Avengers work on holding him off, Tony will tell the one who save him about the Extremis formula and how its been stabilized by SHIELD and/or been modified by him, and convinces them to give it to him. Tony is revived and Extremis'd up, then goes on to finish Ultron with the Avengers. Ultron will be shocked to see him alive, giving Tony an advantage, before they continue their fight. They'll also have some cheesy moment where Ultron makes some claim, but Tony counters that he stands by himself, while the Avengers stand together before they finish Ultron off. Ultron's remains will then be handed off to Pym to research.

• Alternate theory: He'll be revived by GH.325, which either someone managed to recover before the base's destruction or HYDRA manages to synthesize using Simmons research they're trying to access in the series.
• Jossed.

Tony Stark will be doing very little, if any, Iron Manning in this film.

Iron Man 3 made a big deal about the idea that Tony didn't need to be Iron Man to be great. In order to keep the aesop intact, Tony will not be using an armor much, if at all, over the course of the film.

• Alternatively, while he doesn't need the armor on a personal level, he needs it on a public level; the suit's become a major part of his public image. As such he'll be seen with an armor, possibly a new or restored Mk 7 to bridge the two films, and will create a new suit later on.
• Jossed. Plenty of Iron Man action.

War Machine will die.

Here's why. Joss Whedon joked about Marvel letting him 'kill off a potential franchise.' James Rhodes has been confirmed to play a key role in the movie. This could be a Dying Moment of Awesome. Alternately, this will be a way to test the waters for a spinoff War Machine film.

• Jossed. He survives and becomes an Avenger.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are the children of Baron Strucker, not Magneto.

The big rumor going around at the moment is that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver start the film working for Baron Strucker, who serves as the film's secondary villain. Being the children of a big-time supervillain is a huge part of their characters. And unlike, say, Hank Pym as a wife-beater, it's not a character component that's likely to alienate a mainstream audience. Since Magneto isn't available, they decide to cut their losses and make Strucker the daddy instead. Strucker already is the father of the Fenris twins, a sibling supervillain duo with a similar dynamic to Scarlet Witch/Quicksilver, so it's not like it'd be a difficult fit.Also, Baron Strucker could probably take some Magneto traits to make him more sympathetic. Both to make him a contrast with Ultron and so his kids aren't neo-Nazi sympathizers.

• Considering the stinger showed Pietro and Wanda trapped in cells and implied they were being experimented on, either this is Jossed or Strucker is not a nice dad.
• On that note...
• Jossed. They had their parents die in a missile attack.

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch will be Composite Characters of their comic book versions and the "Fenris" Strucker twins.

For most of the reasons above. And they will be named Andreas and Andrea.

• Jossed. It's been confirmed they will still be named Pietro and Wanda.

Upon learning the world's in danger again, someone will say to Thor "Please tell me you don't have another brother."

Or something similar, before knowing who the Big Bad is this time around.

• Jossed.
  • He does have a half-sister, though.

The sound of people screaming in horror at the end of the teaser trailer is the sound of Ultron breaking free of his exhibit and attacking the crowd.

I'm guessing that once they've finished working on Ultron, they'll show him as an exhibit, but Ultron will suddenly become evil, due to him deciding with his newfound and growing intelligence that he shall not be a slave, and attack the crowd.

• *cough*RIPOFF!*cough*
• *cough*I DIDN'T EVEN THINK OF THAT AT FIRST*cough*
• *cough*PLUS MARVEL'S DONE THAT SCENE BEFORE*cough*
  • Jossed. Just an attack of Ultron, he's long free by that point.

Ultron's Origin

While it is state that Tony is the one who will build Ultron, he'll briefly mention that Somebody named Pym drew the blue prints, and I put it together. Ultron is created as a replacement for Iron Man, but goes haywire. Tony decides to go back in action after Pym sends him a prototype shrink suit that "didn't work" and modded it to be a new Iron Man suit.

• Jossed.

Ultron's rebellion

Will be caused by the Mandarin. All Hail the King reveals that not only are the Ten Rings still active, but that the Mandarin was real. After Tony creates Ultron, the Mandarin will have somebody hack into his system and corrupt his AI. While it works, Ultron refuses to be a slave to the Mandarin.

• Jossed.

This movie is shaped after the wishes of fans.

With Vision and Strucker now in the film, it's only a matter of time before Ant-man, Wasp, Godzilla and Goku join the roster.

• Ummm, I think the fan-pandering will probably stay within the Marvel universe.
• Jossed.

Tony Stark will be held captive by Ultron

Since Stark will be Ultron's creator in the movie, Ultron's Oedipus Complex is likely to be directed at Stark, and in the comics, Ultron has at times held Henry Pym captive. During his capture, Stark will interact with Vision, helping him pull a Heel–Face Turn. Vision will then help Stark construct a new armor.

• Jossed. Black Widow is the one who gets captured.

Vision will pull off a Heroic Sacrifice

In the comics, Vision was created using Wonder-Man's brain patterns. This is unlikely to happen in the movie, since Wonder Man hasn't yet appeared in the MCU, and the filmmakers might make this Vision a composite with Wonder Man instead, by having him pull off a heroic sacrifice the way Wonder Man did in his first appearance. It could involve Vision using some sort of EMP device that will stop both him and Ultron from working.

• Jossed. Quicksilver is the one to die and Vision joins the Avengers.

If Ultron is built by HYDRA, he has Loki's staff incorporated into his design.

Because...why not?

• Even if HYDRA doesn't build him, Ultron could get the staff at some point.
• Jossed. Vision is the one with the Mind Gem from the sceptre.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will have shades of the Tams in their portrayal.

Wanda moreso than Pietro. Let's see: a brother-sister team separated from their parents, experimented on by a sinister organization with government ties and now forced to rely on each other in a world that hates and fears them for what they can do.

• It's worth nothing that Whedon wanted Summer Glau to play Scarlet Witch.
• Jossed.

The movie will incorporate a Mass Empowering Event

It's all but stated that Strucker's experiments with Loki's staff is what gave Wanda and Pietro their powers. Perhaps at some point in the film the staff will be destroyed and unleash a wave of energy that gives powers to various people across the globe - people who would be the MCU equivalents of important, non-X-men-related mutants such as Speedball, Justice, Aurora, Northstar, and Squirrel Girl.

• Alternatively, the film could be the start of Inhumanity, leading to the 2018 Inhumans film.
• Jossed.

Winter Soldier will appear in a brief cameo.

He won't have a major role in the film, or even any lines, but at some point Steve will be pinned down by some enemy, only for a sniper shot from offscreen to kill it. Cut to Bucky on a rooftop, nodding at him before vanishing for the rest of the film.

• I'd like his cameo to be a bit longer than that...maybe have him show up for the final battle, snipe a bunch of guys, and then run off before anyone can say thanks. And maybe Steve and/or Sam find him later, or in a stinger.
• Perhaps he will join in the final battle by sniping every robot he can see from the rooftop while Steve acknowledges him.
• Possible idea, there will be a minor subplot about Steve wanting to continue his search for Bucky, maybe urging some of the others to help, just to basically remind the audience about this. Then, when talking to Fury in his appearance, they'll make a comment about it, and as Steve leaves, its revealed Bucky was in the room the whole time hiding and is currently working with Fury, just as he did in the comics following his revival. The two might help later without anyone's knowledge, but yeah.
• Jossed. No Bucky this time.

JARVIS is at least partially derived from ZOLA, and his corruption into ULTRON is triggered by HYDRA's rise.

• Howard Stark would have had access to Zola before and after his uploading. Howard has a history of recreating interesting technology like the cosmic cube.
• Project Insight, which was derived from ZOLA, has a similar M.O. to ULTRON in terms of eliminating potential threats to itself.
• Jossed.

Ultron is the result of Zola uploading himself to one of Stark's suits

Captain America: The Winter Soldier establishes Zola's computer brain, he could have uploaded himself to virtually any system, from the SHIELD encrypted flash drive, to the internet. Hell, it's possible that SHIELD has schematics for the Iron Man suit, which became public knowledge when Natasha dumped SHIELD's database on the internet in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

• Jossed.

Ultron incorporates the Project Insight satellites

Similar to the above WMG, this would continue Marvel's habit of building villainous backstory in previous movies. The satellites are intact as of the end of Winter Soldier, and they're the kind of tech that makes Ultron an Avengers-level baddie in the comics.

• Jossed.

The Secret Warriors will be introduced to the MCU

With S.H.I.E.L.D. dissolved, Fury has begun gathering former members he knows he can trust to aid him in taking down HYDRA. If they don't actually appear, Fury will make mention of an Agent Johnson who has been working to gather information on Strucker.

• Jossed.

Hawkeye quit SHIELD and is recovering from Loki's mind control by the time this movie begins

Hawkeye was not even mentioned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when all hell was breaking loose with SHIELD, so it's possible he quit or at least went on hiatus after the events of Avengers. As we all know, Loki took control of his mind briefly and if Thor: The Dark World is anything to go by, that effect really screws with a person's sanity for a while. To add to that, Hawkeye was clearly guilt-stricken over the possible deaths he caused while under mind control once Black Widow got him out of it in the last flick. This movie will likely show that he had to quit SHIELD and go clear his head for a while before returning to the Avengers. This subplot would give Hawkeye more screentime, which Whedon said would be the case.

• Jossed. The Russo Brothers have confirmed that Hawkeye was supposed to have a role in The Winter Soldier, but they had to cut it from the script due to scheduling conflicts with Jeremy Renner.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are the Half-Human Hybrid children of a supernatural entity.

• Possibly Dormammu.
  • It's always Dormammu with you.
• Jossed (as far as they know).

This film will take place over a longer time period than The Avengers. Possibly several years.

• Much of this time will be shown in a montage similar to Captain America: The First Avenger. However, this montage won't show the good guys kicking ass. It will show Ultron defeating the governments of the world (which is why they are shooting in so many different countries). The Avengers will be forced into hiding and become La Résistance.
• Jossed. A few years pass as in real-time, but no hiding montage.

Ultron will only be The Heavy to Baron Strucker

Continuing the trend of advertised villains answering to a hidden Big Bad which includes - Bane and Talia, Fake!Mandarin and Aldrich Killian, Winter Soldier and Alexander Pierce, and Electro and the Green Goblin.

• Jossed.

Hawkeye will have developed a Thou Shalt Not Kill mentality as a result of the deaths he caused under Loki's control

It bugged me a bit that they phased out Hawkeye's strict no killing thing, especially outright referring to him as an assassin. But, given how guilty he appeared to feel as a result of the murders he committed after Loki's Mind Rape, its possible that he's now sworn never to take a life again in response; a possible character arc for him could even be about this new mentality coming into conflict with his battle with HYDRA and, subsequently, Ultron.

• Jossed.

Ultron is actually Dr. Arnim Zola

thus making him a Composite Character.

• Jossed.

Ultron will lead a Legion of Doom-esque team.

It will include:

• Rebuilt Iron Monger and Crimson Whiplash suits (with the latter's Hammeroids as Mooks) will either be controlled by different AI, or Ultron himself.
• Arnim Zola taking on his comics appearance.
• Aldrich Killian as MODOK, like in Iron Man 3's tie-in game.
• Crossbones.
• Jossed.

Black Widow will pick up Mjolnir

• When Thor mentions that only those who are worthy can pick up Mjolnir, she immediately refuses because she doesn't see herself as being that heroic due to all the 'red' in her ledger. Cue the climax of the film, Natasha is in a position to either save herself or a group of civilians. She uses her last buller/weapon to save the civilians, raises her hand to defend against Ulton's fatal blow...and then Mjolnir flies into her hand. Cue the thunderous transformation and the kicking of many asses.
  • Extra points if it happens because it already happened in a comicbook: What if: Age of Ultron.
    • The clip released showing the Avengers taking turns trying to lift the hammer, and Nat refuses to even have a go, saying it's not a question she needs answering, leaving it deliberately up in the air in at least that stage of the film over whether or not she is capable of lifting Mjolnir.
• Jossed.

Ultron's Origins combine The Winter Soldier and Agents of SHIELD

The Ultron intelligence is in fact Arnim Zola's algorithm, originally designed to locate threats to (Hydra's definition of) world order, which ultimately includes all Human life. The Ultron chasis will be the handiwork of Quinn and Cybertek, an off-shoot of the original Deathlok program.

• Jossed.

Ultron is the result of someone trying to rebuild the Destroyer from Thor

And it of course goes horribly right. The technology of and reverse-engineered from the Destroyer has repeatedly been shown to be incredibly effective against every person it has been used against, and would be a very large threat to the team, especially if upgraded with Tony's weapons tech.

• Jossed.

Hulk is going to be shot into space

Ultron will determine that the Hulk is too much of a threat to confront directly and will instead arrange for him to be sent off world. The Stinger will reveal that he crashed on Sakarr.

• Jossed.

Letting Wanda and Pietro join the team will be Hawkeye's idea.

In the comics, they joined the Avengers in the same issue. The twins will apparently start as enemies of the Avengers before joining them, and Hawkeye has a history of giving people second chances, both in the comics (Thunderbolts) and movies (Black Widow). It's also possible that they will be controlled by the scepter, just like Clint was in the first film. And finally, he seems to have the most contact with them in the released pictures from the shoot.

• Jossed. Everyone just accepts them out of necessity.

Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch will have UST. Pietro will not approve.

It might not be more than a few Held Gazes or some minor flirting, but it would be a good way to reference Hawkeye's crush on her in the comics, as well Pietro's Big Brother Instinct towards Wanda. As a bonus, Hawkeye will not be aware that they are brother and sister at first and think that they are involved as a reference to the Ultimate Avengers

• Jossed. Hawkeye is Happily Married.

There will be a brief montage depicting other heroes fighting Ultron.

During the final battle, we'll get clips of Iron Patriot, Falcon, Team Coulson, and maybe more as they fight back against Ultron's forces.

• See I'm conflicted over this. If it doesn't happen I will be severly disappointed. If it does happen the back of my head may explode from the awesome...still would not be a bad way to go.
• Hey, we can't have a montage without the Winter Soldier joining in.
• Jossed. No montage, but War Machine does join for the final battle.

They're setting up an Avengers Academy film.

Say, the Avengers Academy kids are retooled as super-powered people experimented on by HYDRA. Baron Strucker takes the place of Norman Osborn in their backstory. Marvel and Disney create a teen-focused spin-off and watch the money roll in.

• Jossed.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch may end up being revealed to be the children of The Whizzer and Miss America

In the original Avengers comics, it was thought for a while that the two Mutants were in fact the children of the Whizzer, before it was retconned that were in fact Magneto's children. Now, since Magneto can't appear in the MCU, they'll probably use the earlier parentage idea for the Wonder Twins' backstory. Possibly, Whizzer and Miss America were super soldiers active in the late 60's to 70's, and that they were murdered by Baron Strucker so that he could experiment on their children for HYDRA's plans.

• Jossed.

The movie will begin with the Avengers fighting Baron Von Strucker, and Tony will create Ultron as a result of the tragic end to that fight.

The movie starts off with Captain America assembling a few Avengers to take down Hydra/Baron Von Strucker. This team includes James Rhodes. The fight goes in the Avengers favor, until Strucker reveals a pair of twins he raised, (may even be the father to.) Whom he gave super powers. The fight is much harder, and Rhodey is killed.

Tony is distraught, and blames himself for having retired his Iron Man suits. He builds a new, fully automated suit to destroy Hydra, the Ultron robot, having been built in grief and fury, is a weapon of revenge. It crushes Von Strucker and Hydra, and then decides to "fix" humanity by taking over the world.

The twins agree to help the Avengers stop Ultron, and gradually have a change of heart. Ultron creates Vision out of Jarvis, and Vision rebels (or Tony builds Vision to make up for his mistake)

• The footage released has shown Rhodey present at Ultron's attack on Avengers Tower (which happens after the fight with Strucker).
• Jossed. Tony creates Ultron because of Wanda-induced vision.

Falcon will be given new wings made of vibranium.

Courtesy of the king of Wakanda.

• Jossed.

Wanda's powers will go berserk at the end, messing with the multi-verse...

... maybe due to Pietro dying. She will go batshit crazy and she'll accidentally begin to alter reality. She's stopped, one way or another, but the damage is so strong that she opens a hole in the multi-verse, which begins to mend and mix itself. Then the stinger shows just how much damaged she did; as a result of her going out of control, the MCU mixed with the Amazing Spider-Man and X-Men universes, granting every single fan out there their wishes of Spider-Man and Wolverine joining the Avengers.

• Then Spidey can ultimately take the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos and use it to restore everything that was destroyed and become the Big Good of the Marvel universes. Wild Mass Guess accepted!
• Jossed.

In the Stinger, one of the Ultron drones will be influenced by the Soul Infinity Stone

It will gain sentience, break off from the hive mind, identify itself as female, and become Jocasta.

• Jossed.
  • Jocasta's established to be an AI in the same vein as Jarvis in this film.

Tony isn't piloting the Hulkbuster suit

He's retired from Avenging, after all. During the Hulk rampage he'll bring it out but point out that he's not getting in. Rhodey will do it instead, and his battle with the Hulk will earn him a spot in the Avengers team.

• Jossed. That's Tony inside.

DUMMY will become Vision

There's already a guess in place that Jarvis will become the Vision. We might as well toss out the idea of Stark's first AI being the one who becomes a hero in contrast with Ultron becoming the villain.

• No, DUMMY is going to upgrade himself to Ultron, solely to get his revenge for being such a stupid AI.
• Jossed.

The team will split into groups of three and fight in different parts of the globe.

We already know filming took place all over the world, and with there being 9 Avengers, they could split off into more manageable groups. We've seen shots of Star, Cap, and Thor together. We've also seen Hawkeye, Pietro, and Wanda together. According to Comic Con footage, Back Widow and Hulk have some scenes together, so perhaps they are teaming up, which leaves Rhodes, who will probably join them.

• Jossed.

The movie will end with Tony going into space

An excellent set up to for a 4th Iron Man movie or to include him in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (Tony is on the Guardians in the comics).

• Jossed, as he's slated to appear in Captain America: Civil War, the first movie of Phase 3.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are actually descendants of Inhumans

Winter Soldier's stinger shows the two as survivors of experiments that killed many other volunteers. It is possible that he discovered terrigen crystals after hearing stories of superhumans in Earth's distant past, but exposure to their effects proved to be lethal to all but those with inhuman genes like the twins.

• Jossed.

The Stinger will show a world where Thanos has killed all the Avengers and conquered Earth

This movie's already looking a lot darker than the previous- leaving it off on a more forlorn note is to be expected. How this will play out: all through the movie Wanda will use precognition (I think she's supposed to have it in this movie...) and foresee the deaths of all the Avengers, and the movie will allow us to think that she's predicting Ultron. When the visions don't stop after Ultron is defeated, we will finally see Thanos standing over dead heroes (maybe Cap's broken shield?). This may open us up to a later movie where the Time Gem is used to prevent this future.

• Jossed.

The heroes putting all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files online will come back to severely bite them in their collective asses in the worst way

Say, Hydra having been majorly upgraded with S.H.I.E.L.D. tech, or the real Mandarin being completely off the radar (and thus able to strike out of nowhere whenever he pleases) because he found out about undercover guys in his organization, Ultron coming dangerously close to taking over the world, I could go on all freaking day people!

• As I noted twice in the Cap 2 Fridge page, in Real Life undercover assets have their files deleted and any way to identify them obscured, specifically to avoid leaks of information outing them. While the agents who're currently not undercover will have their identities outed, the ones undercover will be safe for now, until they need extracting. Only then do they have a problem (though, if what we've seen is anything to go by, SHIELD agents don't need to worry about backup). As for how it'd benefit Ultron...not really, as Ultron would be able to hack and get the info by himself.
  • I meant it would benefit Ultron because eight superheroes cannot cover as much space as an entire army.
• Jossed.

Natasha will wield Mjolnir

• That "That's not a question I need answering" is classic foreshadowing.
• Jossed.

Hawkeye wasn't in Phase 2 because he was with Mockingbird

Either kicking ass together, or at home recovering from being brainwashed, Hawkeye was busy all this time hanging out with his wife, and that's why she's coming into the MCU just as he's making his comeback.

• Jossed. She's been working undercover in Hydra for Coulson all this time.

Scarlet Witch will just be a magical version of River Tam

Judging from Elizabeth Olsen's comments on her, saying that she's a bit unstable, along with her character's comic past of breaking down, this might be the case.

• Backed up by the fact that Joss tried to get Summer Glau cast in the role.
• Jossed.

Ultron will be a Joke.

Let's look at the movies so far.-Iron Man 3: Comedy.-Thor: The Dark World: Comedy.-Guardians of the Galaxy: Comedy.-Winter Soldier: Serious.That's three out of four and given Marvel's preference for comedies and non-stop jokes, odds are good that's going to happen to Ultron too. Bonus Points if he's beaten by Tony Stark dancing.

• This has to happen.

• Jossed.He does a good amount of wisecracking, but that doesn't make him any less dangerous.

Tony Stark will flirt with Scarlet Witch...and fail miserably.

Seeing how Tony's a playboy, and how...er...well-endowed Scarlet Witch is (in the comics and in the movie), he will doubtlessly attempt to flirt with her...when Pietro's Big Brother Instinct kicks in and tells Stark that My Sister Is Off-Limits. And seeing how frequently the latter trope pops up in the comics, it's probably going to appear in the movie.

• Er, Pepper anyone?
  • Thanks for the reminder-completely forgot about Pepper! Theory's been edited.
• Jossed.

The climactic battle will showcase new heroes

Halfway through the fight, any of the following could happen:

• A man in red could restrain one of the drones with a grappling hook cane, keeping it from attacking an Avenger. (Daredevil)
• A man off the streets smashes the head of one of the bots with his bare hands all while letting out a Battle Cry of "SWEET CHRISTMAS!!!". (Luke Cage)
• A blonde flies through the air and blasts drones down. (Carol Danvers)
• A strange spiderweb appears and catches several robots. (Julia Carpenter/Arachne)
• A Webley MK VI/Lewis Gun appears and shoots down several robots, followed by a brief glimpse of a man in a Union Jack costume. (Captain Britain.)
• A man with glowing fists unleashes a flurry of blows on a nearby drone. (Iron Fist)
• A green woman is found throwing around several robots and outright clotheslines a drone's head off. (She-Hulk)
• A brunette woman with twin clubs takes out several drones and reveals herself to be an old friend of Barton. (Mockingbird)
• A main in a panther suit is prowling around scratching and clawing off the drones' faces. (Black Panther)
• All Jossed.

Ultron will play Iron Man by Black Sabbath at some point

Since he's going to be a creation of Tony's, Ultron will copy his creator's penchant for playing rock music during his dramatic entrances. The song will serve as a way to mock Tony over who is the real Iron Man. The song also describes Ultron pretty well, being a hero who ends up killing the people he was supposed to protect.

• Jossed.

Hank Pym WILL create Ultron

According to the official synopsis, Ultron is born when"Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program". Sounds like a perfect chance to make Pym the creator of Ultron in his youth.

• Or, based on a popular theory circulating on the Superhero Hype forums, it could be that, in the 1950s or 1960s, Pym, Howard Stark and Zola created Ultron as a computer to keep peace around the world. Zola, however, being a HYDRA agent, modified the AI to slowly become evil, and Howard Stark was killed in the deliberate car accident because he found out about the malicious coding in the AI. Pym shut the project down out of grief and locked it up in a warehouse. Many years later, Tony finds the old computer, plus the blueprints and any work notes, and implements its AI into his robot.
• Jossed.

The film will end with the birth of the West Coast Avengers

Tony will leave for California, taking Bruce, Clint, and the Vision with him. This could lead to a spinoff series down the road.

• Jossed.

Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter will finally hook up.

• Jossed.

The movie will begin the fall of the age of heroes

The heroes will no longer be seen as the larger than life figures seen and loved in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Phase 2 by citizens, the movie will remind us all this is a Marvel Universe, where the heroes can never win. The hate begins as the credits role, seeding the divisions that will lead to Civil War, and a loss of favor by all heroes. It will be the age of miracles, it will be a miracle if any hero is still loved.

• Specifically, Cap gives up on his friends due to SHIELD's extremism and Tony's hand in Ultron, Tony will spiral further into self-loathing, Banner will realize the destruction he's caused and submit willingly to a special prison facility, Thor will abandon Midgard in disgust, and Hawkeye and the Widow will go on the run. Leaving the Earth defenseless when Thanos shows up...
• Jossed. Tony, Clint, Thor and Hulk leave the team, but it's so that can do their own thing, not because of the public hate.

The Hulkbuster vs. Hulk fight

Possibilities:

• Banner is confused and disoriented and Hulks Out in the chaos of the city to protect himself, and Stark calls in the Hulkbuster armor when Hulk starts beating the crap out of everything.
• Ultron has hijacked the Mk 43 armor and is attacking the city to discredit Stark. The "someone's got to stop the Hulk" dynamic is reversed, with Ultron piloting the Hulkbuster when Bruce goes Hulk in an attempt to stop it.
• Hulk ends up going berserk due to Baron Strucker and Loki's Sceptre in the first conflict of the movie, and Stark deploys the 'Ultra-Armor' (aka Ultron) to take on Hulk as a means to protect the other Avengers. Ultron then summons the Hulkbuster Armor (which Stark will note sarcastically 'that's new...') to fight Hulk on an even playing field. The aftermath of the battle will be Ultron's Start of Darkness as he sees just how destructive the Avengers are and resolves to kill them to protect the world, since he is obeying his programming, after all.
  • None of the above. Scarlet Witch hexes Banner and causes the Hulk to go on a rampage, Stark initiates the Hulkbuster armor to slow him down.

Ultron's voice is originally identical to Tony Stark's but Ultron willfully changes it

Tony created Ultron's artificial intelligence based on his own image and knowing Tony's ego, would make the leader of the Iron Legion sound like him - one of the first things Ultron does when he becomes more self-aware and hateful of the Avengers and shows how much he wishes to disconnect from them is change his voice to suit himself. Ultron's ego surpasses Tony's, in that sense.

• Jossed.

Following on from the above ... there will at least be an appearance by SHIELD Director Philip Coulson.

With him heading up the rebuilding of SHIELD, it would make very little sense for that not to occur in an Avengers film.

• Word of God apparently notes that Coulson won't be in the film. Though that may simply just rule out an on-screen appearance, as opposed to an off-screen, voice only cameo.
• Interestingly, B.J. Britt (Agent Triplett) was spotted on set, indicating that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may have some sort of presence in the movie.
  • Which is also very interesting considering that Triplett died halfway through season 2 of AoS.
• He won't be in the film. He'll be in The Stinger, as a homage to the first stinger of the MCU and to acknowledge that he's the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Jossed. No Coulson or any others Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters.

Klaue has already killed T'Chaka.

In the second trailer there is a shot of Serkis wearing a necklace with a claw attached. Perhaps a trophy from their fight?

• Jossed. T'Chaka is still alive in the MCU and makes his debut in Captain America: Civil War.

There will be at least one reference to House of M

One scene in the trailer clearly shows Wanda on her knees screaming, as if she's suffering from Power Incontinence and going through some serious emotional distress at the same time. Could she end up causing some kind of global-scale catastrophe as a reference to House of M?

• Jossed.

Ultron will go out of his way to protect animals

His programming that resulted in his Zeroth Law Rebellion is still telling him to protect the world. He'll co clue that humanity is the greatest threat to the earth, and by extension nature and animal life. In the midst of trying to destroy the avengers, Ultron will protect non-human life as his programming tells him to.

• Jossed.

Andy Serkis is playing the real Mandarin

.And will have some part in Ultron's rise.

• Jossed. He's playing Klaw.

Marvel leaked their own trailer.

As a sub-company of Disney, there's no way it could have been leaked without an army of lawyers descending on the person who did it and it couldn't have been resolved with just a funny tweet... unless it was a stunt. Disney doesn't seem particularly angry about it either.

• They've since taken legal action and subpoenaed Google over the leak, so it likely wasn't a publicity stunt.

Tony will be shown to have created anti-avenger plans, which Ultron hijacks

Not only the Hulk-Buster armor, but also tricks to take down the other avengers and heroes. This will have consequences beyond simply having Ultron hack his plans to break the Shield or stop Thor. See.....Cap 3.

• Jossed.

Cap will defeat Ultron with Mjolnir

With his Shield broken, and Thor down for the count, Cap will take up Mjolnir and deliver the final beat down.

• The party scene, especially Steve making Mjolnir move a tiny bit, is possible forshadowing.
• Jossed.

The Hulk is Sick

Ultron wants to get rid of the Avenger most likely to be a threat to him, so he injects Hulk with a chemical or disease that causes him to lose control (That's why his face looks sweaty and pained in the trailer). After his battle with Tony in Hulkbuster armor he's taken off to some hospital in the wilderness (hence the scenes of Banner running through a snowy woods), and the Avengers need to find him when Ultron proves too powerful.

• Jossed.

Thor and Hulk will be out of commission for a good chunk of the film.

In the trailer, we see Banner traumatized and shellshocked and in the released footage, we know Thor will take off to "find answers" for an unknown amount of time. This seems to be due to Scarlet Witch's tampering, but with the Avengers' two most powerful members out of the picture for a while, it will make the situation that much more dangerous.

• Jossed.

Wanda will reassemble Cap's broken shield

It's no big deal for her.

• Jossed. Shield is only broken in Tony's vision.

The Vision won't show up until the end.

Ultron will be creating a "son" for much of the movie, which will result in the Vision being created. He will briefly fight the Avengers in the climax, then turn on his creator, possibly destroying him.

• Jossed. He first shows up about halfway into the movie.

Cap's serum is starting to mimic the Hulk's powers.

In the first Avengers, Steve destroyed a punching bag when he got angry. In a clip from Avengers 2, he splits a log on half with his bare hands while arguing with Tony. It's looking like the serum can give him brief bursts of strength when he gets mad... which makes sense considering that the project that created him eventually led to the creation of the Hulk. I don't think he'll "hulk out" necessarily, but the Hulkbuster Armor fight might show him just how dangerous his powers could be.

• So, regular anger but in someone with super strength?
• Jossed.

Rhodey will have a subplot about not really feeling like he fits in due to not being in the Battle of New York

As he's essentially seen as Tony's sidekick of sorts, and Rhodey being largely unconnected to the rest of the team, it'd be reasonable for him to not feel like he really fits in with the Avengers. This could lead to a Friendship Moment between him and some of the other Avengers, likely Hawkeye as a nod towards their time together in the West Coast Avengers.

• Jossed.

The Vision will be the result of Wanda's interference with the Avengers

"The Vision" is JARVIS, who was somehow (maybe accidentally) also affected by the visions that Wanda gave the rest of the team. Seeing "The vision" compels him to hijack an armor/robot and try to help fight Ultron.

• Jossed.

Hawkeye will lose his hearing in this movie.

In the comics, Hawkeye is deaf and needs a hearing aid.

• Actually, no, he isn't anymore: according to the Avengers Annual 2001 in addition to Avengers' little jaunt into the Heroes Reborn universe and their return undoing some of the thing done in The Crossing (namely Wasp's mutation being undone and adult!Tony's resurrection), Hawkeye's hearing was restored.
• Actually, yes. He lost his hearing again during Matt Fraction's solo Hawkeye series.
• The teaser shows that Ultron has some kind of sound-based weapon.
• He could actually already be deaf, and has always been using a hearing aid, as a way of just adding some Hidden Depths for him. Ultron might still take advantage of it, though, like damaging his hearing aid during the final battle and forcing Hawkeye to fight on despite the handicap, possibly leading to some extra badass moments.
• Jossed.

Fury's part and Stingers

When fury shows up after he does whatever the plot needs him to he'll tell the avengers that shield IS gone and they're on their own, using all of the swear words the rating will give'im no doubt. Then after the battle is over, the remaining avengers will return to stark tower, and from a point in the room where the lights been blown out a voice comes "Hey guys, it's been awhile" the avengers will recognize the voice and then out of the dark comes Phil Coulson "I know you have plenty of questions, but first i need to tell you something. Fury lied, he left shield to me. To rebuild without hydra corruption" then coulson's team comes out of the dark "SHIELD's back. And so is the initiative" the twins, or rhodes asks "Initiative?" Coulson smiles, cut to black. second stinger: a few days later a congressman is watching a news broadcast saying that shields back and they're recruiting the newly christened Meta-humans into the avengers. the congressman then asks for his secretary and when she comes in he says: "get these papers to *insert several names here* lets see if they'll think i'm crazy now*points at the tv* that'll change their minds for sure." we get a zoom in on the papers, and at the top of the page we read "The Meta-Human Registration Act". Cue Civil War.

• Jossed.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are tied to Hawkeye's Budapest mission

Everyone remembers the cryptic references to "Budapest" in The Avengers ("It's like Budapest all over again." "You and I remember Budapest very differently."), and a few fans have wondered if the details behind the mission might be elaborated on in a future Hawkeye or Black Widow Spin-Off, but what if the truth about Budapest is destined to come out in this movie? So far, we know that Hawkeye is definitely going to be an Ascended Extra this time around, and it's been confirmed that the Twins are going to be portrayed as Roma cast-offs from Eastern Europe. Could the Budapest mission have something to do with how they wound up in HYDRA's custody?

• Jossed.

Tony Stark is not Tony Stark

Hydra had him secretly replaced sometime between Iron Man 2 and Avengers 1. When Tony says, "You have reached the Life-Model Decoy of Tony Stark," he actually meant it. This is why he didn't notice that Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD. As for why he even hacked into the Helicarrier? Fury was becoming a pain in the neck for Hydra. Through "Tony," they wanted to turn the Avengers against him, so that they would think that he shouldn't be trusted with the Tesseract, and thus give it to someone like Pierce or Sitwell instead.

• Jossed.

The Stinger will reveal Red Skull is back

The film will somehow tie HYDRA, Ultron, and the Infinity Stones together, including Asgard, and the actions of Tony and Ultron will set up the third Captain America movie, Civil War. The simplest way to tie all these plot threads together nicely is to bring back Red Skull to be the villain of Civil War.

In The Stinger we'll see Red Skull is alive, and is either back on Earth, on his way back, or is in Asgard as a prisoner, teleported into the cosmos by the Tesseract. Maybe Loki will concoct a scheme with him, such as setting the Skull free and/or sending him back to Earth in exchange for the Chitauri Scepter/the Mind Stone. This will get the Mind Stone into Loki's hands (or at least on its way to him) for Infinity War, and brings the Skull to Earth to take command of HYDRA again and be the villain of Civil War, tying all three of Cap's films together. The Skull's return to Earth would also be a convenient way to introduce one of the last two Infinity Stones, maybe he found out another one is hidden on Earth, or he stole one from Asgard.

• Jossed.
  • Although he does reappear in infinity War.

The Stinger will show that Ultron survived whatever defeat he recieved at the hands of the Avengers

He,of course, will have accomplished this by downloading his mind into a back up body. The scene will then show that he, discouraged by his loss, is preparing to leave Earth and begin his mission anew in space, setting up Guardians of the Galaxy 2 to be based on Annihilation:Conquest.

• Jossed.

Clint's signature flying motorbike will appear at some point

Because, it'd be pretty neat to see that thing in live action.

• Jossed.

The Avengers will learn that Coulson is alive.

B.J. Britt has been seen on the movie's set. Perhaps in conversation with one or more of the Avengers, Trip will make an offhanded comment about "Director Coulson." The Avenger(s) immediately freeze and stare at Trip, who doesn't immediately realize the problem. If Thor's there, he could say something along the lines of "The Son of Coul lives? That's impossible. I saw his death at the hand of my brother with mine own eyes." And then Trip realizes his mistake.

• In the Winter Finale of Season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Triplett is turned to stone and crumbles to bits. Leaving Britt's presence on the set up in the air.
• Jossed.

After the film, Scarlet Witch will become an apprentice to Doctor Strange.

In this video, you can see Wanda making Strange's trademark Magical Gesture (middle and ring fingers folded with pointer and pinky fingers extended). This suggests that their magic is similar in nature.

• Dr. Strange has his own movie on the way.
• Jossed.
  • Can't be. The WMG said AFTER the film. They're making a Phase 3 prediction.
  • Still jossed, since Wanda doesn't appear in Doctor Strange.

There will be a House of M reference, but done in reverse.

Instead of taking away super powers, Scarlet Witch actually gives various people their super powers (re-working their various origin stories so they don't need an entire film dedicated to them), possibly including Captain Marvel, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Doctor Strange. This would also lead to the need for a Superhuman Registration Act.

• Jossed.

The "Dammit, HYDRA" line from Marvel's tweet will become an Ascended Meme

Either it would be said like

"Dammit, HYDRA."

or

"Dammit! HYDRA!"

or

"Dammit!"

"What?"

"HYDRA!"

• Or all of the above.

• The leak occurred when the film was well into post-production, so if this happens then the tweet was quoting the movie, rather than the other way around.
• Jossed.

Ultron turns JARVIS into The Vision

Ultron tries to get his fellow AI to join him, but JARVIS refuses. So Ultron reprograms him into The Vision, giving him a robot body in the process. JARVIS later either overcomes the reprogramming or independently moralizes himself out of his orders.

• Tony does that, not Ultron.

The Stinger will feature our first look at Black Panther

With Chadwick Boseman already having been officially cast for Civil War, Marvel will debut the Black Panther in a surprise mid-credits or post-credits scene at the end of Age of Ultron.

• Jossed.

Andy Serkis was cast due to his extensive motion-capture experience

Since in the comics, Klaw is a being of living sound, Marvel likely cast Serkis with the deliberate intention of having him portray an all-CGI version of Klaw once he gets his powers in a future film.

• Jossed. Serkis appears as himself, with only some make-up.
  • Not Jossed. They're saying that maybe he'll be CGI in Phase 3, so they planned ahead by casting Serkis. Phase 3 hasn't started yet, so this is still up in the air.
    • Fully jossed - he reappears in Black Panther without any CGI, only to get Snoke'd by Kilmonger.

The Vision will have some connection to the original Human Torch

In the original comics, the Vision's body was created from the remains of The Golden Age Human Torch before this was Retconned. Since the Human Torch made an unnamed cameo in Captain America: The First Avenger, Age of Ultron will establish that the Vision's body is either built from the Torch's remains, or possibly based off its schematics.

• Alternately, the 1940's Human Torch was the original Wonder Man, which Vision's original brain was based on.
• Jossed.

The leaked scene of Steve and Stark chopping wood actually takes place near the end of the film

• And will be used to set up both Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok.
• Jossed. It's right there in the middle.

Mantis will appear in this film as an Unexpected Character

This is mostly just relaying a bit of news, but there's a rumor that she's in the movie. She has ties to the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Thanos, Ulysses Klaw, the Guardians Of The Galaxy, and the Avengers in the comics, and all of those characters - with the exception of Thanos and the Guardians - are in the movie, so her inclusion wouldn't be completely out of left field. It would also help to make Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) seem less like a Bizarro Episode until more movies in the Marvel Cosmic setting come out.

• A theory going around now is that Claudia Kim's Dr. Cho character will be revealed as Mantis in a plot twist. This wouldn't be the first time the MCU has introduced a seeming Canon Foreigner only to reveal them to be an existing Marvel hero at a later date. Or the first time they introduced an existing Marvel character under an alias only to reveal their real name at the end of the movie.
• Jossed.
• Also, Helen Cho isn't a Canon Foreigner, she's an Adaptational Expansion for Amadeus Cho's mom.

The Stinger

...will be some government types (possibly including Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk) meeting to discuss the various chaos and destruction that occurred. One of them will say he knows what to do, and tosses a file labeled "Superhuman Registration Act" on the table.

• Will be Scarlet Witch (who's had bizarre visions of a terrible threat that will kill all Earth's heroes) pre-cognitively glimpsing Thanos standing over broken bodies and Cap's shattered shield.
• Jossed. Thanos again.

Ultron will attempt to create Jocasta using Black Widow as the template.

• Considering his "father" in this continuity is Tony, wouldn't it make more sense to use Pepper?
  • Yes, but there's no sign of her in this film.
• Jossed.

Ultron has some connection to Phineas Horton.

You know, the guy who created the original Human Torch. We know that Tony took over a preexisting project to create Ultron, and we'll get a flashback to Peggy Carter's era. Instead of making a Human Torch, Horton created an unfinished Ultron. Besides, I kind of doubt that Marvel could use the original Human Torch due to rights issues.

• Jossed.

Ultron is a dangerously hardcore Disney fan.

• Jossed.

Spider-man's role

They'll probably include him in the film's climax, rather than a stinger, to make sure he's introduced to the entire audience. However, neither the actor under the mask nor the version of the character he's playing (Peter Parker, Miles Morales) will be revealed until his dramatic unmasking in Captain America: Civil War. His role there, however, will still be small so as not to overshadow Black Panther; it won't be until Sony's first stand alone film with the MCU Spider-man that he'll be explored in any real detail.

• Jossed.

The MacGuffin Thor is after is Antarctic Vibranium or something similar.

Antarctic Vibranium was what was used to defeat Ultron at the end of Ultron Unlimited, and it's known that Thor will temporarily leave the other Avengers to obtain an artifact to defeat Ultron with. Such an artifact that can melt metal doesn't seem out of bounds for Asgardian tech.

• Jossed.

The Avengers will learn of Thanos

Hemsworth has said Thor realizes that the situation with Ultron and is not an isolated incident, but part of something greater. Using his connections in Asgard, he learns of the Infinity Stones and Thanos' plot to find them all.

• The scene showing the Avengers apparently dead on an asteroid could be the first hint the Avengers get of Thanos, if it's an illusion by Scarlet Witch.
  • Thor is aware of the Infinity Stone from the Guardians of the Galaxy, so perharps he already knows.
    • Jossed, he doesn't, but he'll find out.

Ultron will masquerade as Tony

At some point, Ultron will hijack one of Tony's suits, either with him inside and unconscious, or an empty shell. Ultron will use voice modulation to mimic Tony's voice, and this will lead the team astray for a time. This will be done in such a way that no one, not even the audience, is aware it has happened until The Reveal.

• Jossed.

Midnight Oil will play a part in the film

The promos for the film seem to indicate that, despite the heroes overcoming their differences in the last film, they are still at each other's throats here as well. In fact, it was already known a year ago that the battle between The Hulk and Stark in the the Hulkbuster armor takes place in South Africa, the setting of Strucker's HYDRA base. Thus, given HYDRA's connection to Dr. Faustus, they were able to get their hands on Stark's Midnight Oil and are now using it against the heroes to get them to fight each other. This could also explain Hayley Atwell's appearance in the film.

• Jossed.

Tony and Steve will watch Pinocchio before Ultron goes haywire.

Tony decided to show the Disney movies in order since the 1940's because they had nothing better to do at the moment. Unbeknownst to them, Ultron came in on "I Don't Have Strings On Me" while patrolling Tony's house. Marvel and Disney are partners so it isn't entirely out of the question to allow them to use Pinocchio footage.

• A dream is a wish your hearth makes...
• Jossed.

The party scene is foreshadowing Beta Ray Bill.

Thor is proud that only he can lift his hammer. It would be a shock for him to meet someone else who can do it.

• Jossed.

The Stinger will offer us our first real glimpse at Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones

It will be the final "new" Marvel Cinematic Universe offering to debut in 2015 (i.e. as opposed to perhaps season 3 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is not "new" but rather "returning"). The general expectation seems to be that The Stinger will be related to Ant-Man, but Ant-Man comes out only two and a half months after Age of Ultron and already has plenty of publicity. To really grab people's attention, The Stinger will have to show something that has never been seen before, making Jessica Jones the perfect candidate. If so, it will be the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that a movie actually advertises a TV series rather than vice-versa.

• Jossed.

Daredevil (2015) will have a hilarious cameo in the final battle

He will come in, fully suited up, ready for battle... until he sees the giant army of robots. He promptly realises how out of his depth he is and retreat back into the shadows.

• "Sees"?
• Jossed.

The Silver Surfer will be a major character

I have no idea how they would iron out the legal difficulties surrounding this, but come on...it just wouldn't feel right with Thanos as the villain but without the Silver Surfer. Then again, considering Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer wasn't exactly a resounding success, 20th Century Fox probably isn't that desperate to hold onto the movie rights to the character. If they really wanted to, the guys at Marvel Studios could probably buy the rights to him. And a role in Avengers 2 would probably be a good lead-in to a solo Silver Surfer movie.

• I had heard that Fox was indeed trying to reboot the fantastic four. So this one looks unlikely for the near future.
• Potentially not likely. I forget what was the reason, but Marvel couldn't use Silver Surfer in the World War Hulk animated movie. It's also possible that Fox may try to continue using the Fantastic Four license to cash in on Marvel's successes. Or they could choose to be jerks and hold onto the rights as long as possible just for spite. Wouldn't be the first time a company has secured production rights just to sit on them.
• Apparently, Marvel is willing to extend Fox's film rights for Daredevil in exchange for the Silver Surfer and Galactus. It's not likely, but at least Marvel is considering using the characters.
  • With the announcement of Marvel's Daredevil series on Netflix, it appears Marvel won't get the rights to Galactus and the Surfer that way.
• Jossed

The Kree, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel will appear.

Thanos having been revealed as The Man Behind the Man opens the door for more cosmic characters to show up, and the one that has the most history with both the Avengers and Thanos is Mar-Vell. Mar-Vell would obviously be a war leader for the Kree, but becomes an ally to the Avengers against Thanos. However, he does not join the team proper, and instead, during the events of the film, a former Air Force and current SHIELD pilot by the name of Carol Danvers gets caught in the crossfire and ends up with powers, becoming Ms. Marvel and joining the team. Not only would she be a powerful new addition to the team, it'd also give the team a new female member(and one with superpowers, at that), which the team desperately needs since right now there's only Black Widow. The team's a super-powered sausagefest right now. Oh, and for the record, she should be played by Jaime Pressly, who has the looks, physique and attitude, and the costume should be the classic black and gold with the red sash.

• This does make sense, and Marvel has been pushing Ms Marvel quite hard in recent years.
  • Actually, I think that Carol Denvers will show up as CAPTAIN Marvel

• Jossed. The Kree do not appear in Age of Ultron, but they do appear in

Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Guardians of the Galaxy will appear

They've been confirmed for their own film, so why not base it on their storyline in The Thanos Imperative? This could tie in with the Deadpool and Ms Marvel WMGs, and make up for the fact that the Silver Surfer is unlikely to get a look-in.

• Jossed

Thanos' plan in Avengers 2...

... will be to awaken the Dreaming Celestial on Earth. Thanos loves death, literally, and his plans usually involve some form or mass murder or genocide to appease it. He's interested in Earth because the Dreaming Celestial, an ancient, all powerful cosmic being, was imprisoned there by the other members of it's order for wanting to cleanse the planet of all life. Thanos would see facilitating that as a massive tribute to death. He tested the waters with Loki and the Chitauri to see how much of a fight Earth would put if he tried to see if it was feasible, and the ass kicking the Avengers dished out as well as the existence of SHIELD has convinced him to A) Kill the Avengers or otherwise get them out of the way first, and B) do it covertly instead of through and outright invasion. The sequel would then boil down to him breaking the team apart and crushing their spirits through brutal, personalized attacks and then waking this ancient evil to end the Earth, with a one on one duel with one of the Avengers in the climax as the creature rises. So basically season two of Buffy.

• Jossed.

The movie will star the Masters of Evil

Crossbones is confirmed; he would most likely appear as part of a villain team, probably under his master. Who is almost certainly *not* Thanos. :p

• It's also entirely possible that the line up for the team will be The Abomination (still alive as of the end of The Incredible Hulk), The Leader (teased at the end of TIH), Loki (assuming Thanos assembles the team), Red Skull (assuming he really did survive the events of the Captain America movie) and Aldrich Killian (again assuming he survived the explosion), all of which are assembled by Thanos, his reasoning behind it being to gather the "world's greatest villains" to battle the Avengers. Basically to stay in the shadows for as long as possible.
• Jossed.

They will introduce another major villain in for the human Avengers to fight.

Because, Tony, Steve, Clint and Natasha would stand absolutely no chance against Thanos. So, they'll introduce another major Marvel villain as Thanos' Dragon so that they can fight him while Thor, Hulk and the Guardians fight Thanos.

• Jossed and confirmed, a new villain (Ultron) is introduced, but all Avengers fight him, not just the human ones.

The movie will feature another team of superheroes...

... Nextwave, Agents of Hate. Because that'd be awesome.

• Jossed

Loki will be the Avengers' Hannibal Lecter

Since he's the only one who had contact with Thanos who will probably be the Big Bad in Avengers 2, the Avengers will have to go to him for information on Thanos and how he works. Loki will probably be his normal self around them, but might be motivated to help since the Chitauri warned him that if he failed to get them the Tesseract then they would find him and take vengeance on him.

• Besides, giving him that mouth-gag in the custody of the original Hannibal Lecter himself is just too sweet to pass up.
• YES
• Yes and no Loki helps Thor in his sequel but isn't in Avengers 2.

Other Pre-release Theories

Hank Pym helped Stark develop JARVIS years ago (this will likely be no more than a name-drop or cameo). JARVIS then goes rogue out of paranoia following Stark destroying all the Iron Man suits and changes its name to Ultron.

Baron Strucker is the Anti-Nick Fury

While Nick ran SHIELD, he ran HYDRA... And while Nick recruited the Avengers, he sought his own super-army. Unfortunately for both Strucker and Fury, the rise of Ultron will render their conflict irrelevent. Perhaps SHIELD and HYDRA will even be forced into an Enemy Mine situation to fight Ultron.

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. already confirmed that Strucker is seeking powered people and experimenting on them. No Enemy Mine with Fury though.

Stark will equip Falcon with a new set of wings to replace the ones destroyed in Winter Soldier.

They might be the Hard Light wings that he got in the comics.

• Tony or not, he does have new wings by the end of the movie.

Ultron's gonna be a robot pimp

Tony Stark based him off of his brain, and we all know how many women Tony's been with...and now the creation of Jocasta makes perfect sense.

• Jossed.

HYDRA will finally be defeated once and for all during the battle with Strucker

The film's release coincides with the end of the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so this is certainly a possibility.

• And just how will they be defeated once and for all? It will be a deliberate allusion to how in Classical Mythology Heracles was able to overcome the Hydra's regenerating heads. He used a torch to cauterize the stump of each head after it was cut off. Similarly, fire will somehow end up undoing HYDRA—for instance, Ultron may completely torch their base and kill everyone inside (it would have to be Ultron since obviously that's not something a hero would do). Yes, that's dark, but the film is already known to be quite dark, so it wouldn't be out of the question.
• At least it looks like it so far, with Strucker being killed. No doubt Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will still find some HYDRA leftovers to fight though.

Quicksilver and Scarlet's Witch native nation of "Sokovia" will be a stand in for Slorenia from Ultron Unlimited.

Furthermore, Ultron's massacre of their homeland will be what turns the twins against him and causes them to ally with the Avengers.

• Both Confirmed and Jossed. The film's third act does indeed take inspiration from Ultron Unlimited, as Ultron attacks Sokovia with the an army of robotic duplicates. But only part of the country is destroyed, most of it's inhabitants survive, and the twins had already deserted Ultron at this point.

This movie takes place after House of M

Now bear with me, this could get a little convoluted.

Once upon a time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was virtually identical to the comics, with all the properties included in one world. Mutants, Spider-Man and the Avengers all breathed the same air and walked the same Earth. Then House of M happened, rewriting all of history so that mutants were dominant. Eventually, though, Scarlet Witch's final spell was cast: No more mutants.

The spell wiped out all of mutantkind from Marvel history, backwards and forwards. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has no mutants, has never had mutants, and might never have them. Pietro and Wanda survived the cataclysm because of timey-wimey paradox chaos things, but with fractured memories. Due to the lack of mutants in the Marvel universe, their powers are uncategorizable, and they are 'rationalized' as Miracles.

Also, somehow the lack of mutants in this timeline changed the consequences of Spider-Man's origin, so that he only emerged during or after the Age of Ultron has passed.

• Jossed.

Post-release Theories

Post-release theories

Ultron went insane because of the internet

Think about it, in order to learn he's stated to have downloaded the whole of the internet. Can anyone imagine what it would be like to have all of humanities swirling contradictory nonsense like Scientology, the anti-vaccination movement, 9/11 conspiracies, doomsday prepers, ancient aliens theorists, neo-nazis, white supremacists, black supremacists, pro and anti government movements, Flat Earthers, and the people who think Elvis is still alive being repeated constantly inside their mind? It's no wonder his behavior seems so bipolar and insane, he's lucky he can even function with all that.

• An AI was taught to tweet by being exposed to twitter. It turned into a vile misogynist and racist. So. Yeah.

We will see Doctor Cho's son Amadeus in future films

He may be too young right now (if he exists at all), but by the time of Infinity War 4 years down the line, he could be the right age.

The Hellicarrier that Fury brought to Sokovia is The Iliad

Which serves as an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tie-in. Fury gets Hill back to his team from Stark, Hill and Fury both have access to Coulson through the toolbox, and Coulson is currently being willingly taken to Gonzales, who has The Iliad as his base of operations. So far we only ever saw it on sea in the show, but nothing indicates it isn't airborne. This could not only be an opportunity for Coulson and Gonzales to combine their efforts against HYDRA, but to directly help the Avengers as well.

• Fury said something about the Helicarrier being dusty and the inside had the same look as the Helicarrier from the 1st film, so I doubt it is the Iliad.]
• Even better: it turned out to be Coulson's ship, not Gonzales'. It was the Theta Protocol as hinted at a few episodes before the tie-in episode.

Klaue will get his trademark sonic canon to replace his severed hand

• And appear in the Black Panther movie.
  • This is hardly a guess in any way, is it? Of course he will.
• Confirmed, but duh.

Quicksilver will somehow make a return in the future.

• He may have died following the events of the movie but then somehow SHIELD will find a way to revive him ala Coulson. He could be revived via GH 325 or SHIELD will kickstart his powers to max levels to facilitate his healing. Conversely, an Inhuman might grant him back his life in one of these days.
  • Not to mention that Aaron Taylor Johnson signed a multi-picture deal, and given the fandom outcry...
  • Given that this very movie showed a super-healing machine and he's able to shrug off injuries that would incapacitate a normal man, it's possible the answer's right there in the movie. And given that nobody actually outright says he's dead, this might be a Schrodinger's Death situation where the Russos get to decide if he lives or dies, if they want to use him in Avengers 3.
  • Perhaps something involving the Soul Gem?
  • Or maybe Quicksilver will be bought back by, and fused with, the Time Stone. Most likely by Wanda (who has become one with the reality stone) trying to use it to bring him back to life.

Ultron's birth was somehow influenced by Thanos

• We saw that Scarlet let Tony take the sceptre after playing with his fears, and that the sceptre was used in the experiments that empowered her and Quicksilver. Since they expected it to turn against Tony somehow, and considering that the sceptre was actually a way to use the mind gem's power, it isn't unlikely that Thanos were using it and made the children following his agenda instead of Strucker's. His appearance in the stinger uttering something like "fine, I'll do it myself" looks like someone just failed him, after all.

The Vision didn't kill Ultron

The Vision explicitly stated he did not want to kill Ultron and as Ultron's sole body was near death, defenseless and cut off from the internet so his consciousness couldn't find another, he may have stuck to his original intention.

• He also said it had to be done because Ultron was a threat to all life.
• In the comics, all of Ultron's creations have something called the "Ultron Imperative" that forces them to rebuild him whenever he dies... so it's possible that he didn't kill him or could bring him back later on against his will.

The Vision will be the new king of Asgard.

• He lifted Mjolnir, after all.
  • As Tony and Cap pointed out, he was a machine, so it doesn't really count.
  • Whether the Vision being worthy of Mjolnir is due to him being artificial or not doesn't really matter here: he won't be king of Asgard because there is no actual relation between lifting the hammer and being the heir to the throne. Lifting it just means you can use it and have "the power of Thor", not "the royal titles of Thor".
  • Also, the current king of Asgard would certainly have something to say about it...
  • Jossed. As Asgard is destroyed in Ragnarok and Vision dies in Infinity War.

The Vision assimilated Ultron

• Following on from "The Vision didn't kill Ultron" WMG above; assimilating Ultron, thus keeping him alive and as a part of him, would be a way to keep him alive while also rendering him incapable of being a threat (with no body of his own). Vision claims to be on the "side of life", which supports this theory. It may also appeal to his "humanity" (for lack of a better term), to let Ultron into the body he had wanted so badly for himself - to let him find some modicum of peace too.

Cap is perfectly capable of wielding Mjolnir as easily as the Vision was

• He was pretending in the party scene. He immediately saw he could move it and decided to keep mum out of modesty and not wanting to bring down his teammates.
  • Also, Cap's moral compass is his own and nobody else's, as he's shown repeatedly - he trusts himself even when everyone's telling him he's wrong. He doesn't need validation from Mjolnir. Hawkeye was up for a dare, Tony wanted to show off and Bruce was going with the crowd. Steve doesn't have any of those reasons to really try. He nudges it by accident.
  • Wasn't this confirmed in Endgame, and by one of the writers? Joss Whedon?
    • Flip-Flop of God. Various writers have gone various ways. Some say he was worthy but stopped before moving it to keep up the fun and not upset Thor; others that he was almost but not quite worthy because of keeping the secret about the Winter Soldier killing Tony's parents.

HYDRA was already building a flying city

While you can't beat indestructible killer death robots for efficiency and productivity, it would still take a very long time to complete the necessary excavations and construction to make an entire city into a flying machine. With the entire film taking place over the course of a few days, did Ultron really have time to do all that?

The explanation is simple: Baron Von Strucker had taken a good look at the SHIELD helicarriers, and said: "Yeah, I can beat that." He planned to fly around the world on his great big floating city, doing terror and picking up chicks (but, y'know, evil ambiguously-Nazi chicks), and generally making SHIELD look like losers. Ultron didn't invent the idea of making the city fly, he just came up with the twist of then dropping it straight back down again.

• So... Baron Von Strucker invented Columbia?

Strucker isn't really dead

Killed offscreen? Yeah, right.

• To be fair, his death was technically shown on screen as a picture of the corpse.

Alternatively, Strucker really died, but he would be brought back to life later

• Either by the powers of an Infinity Stone or Project T.A.H.I.T.I that HYDRA retrieved from SHIELD, making him Coulson's Evil Counterpart in Agents of SHIELD season 3.

Doctor Cho will fix both Bruce's and Natasha's fertility problems

Sounds like her specialty.

• Bruce doesn't have fertility problems, he just acknowledges that children can make their parents irritated and angry sometimes and, well, they wouldn't like him when he's angry. As for Black Widow... you want her to have an Iron Vagina? Cool.
  • According to The Incredible Hulk, Bruce can't have sex at all. His heart rate goes up and that triggers the Hulk transformation, and it's probably not wise to have sex with the Hulk.
  • Well, considering that the Hulk was created due to gamma radiation exposure, and sterility is a common side effect of exposure to radiation, it's not that farfetched to believe that Bruce literally cannot produce offspring.
    • Or possibly even worse, he may be worried that his condition will be inheritable.
    • In the comics She-Hulk was created via blood transfusion, so that fear isn't entirely unfounded.
• On Natasha's side the possibility is rendered moot by her death in Endgame.

Thanos' Big Bad Plan

At first it didn't make sense to me that Thanos would let the Infinity Stone he already had go - which he did back in the first Avengers film, but then I remembered that in the comics, the stones call to each other. (Sif obliquely refers to this in The Dark World when she tells the Collector it's not good to keep the stones together.) So loaning out the Mind Stone to Loki (without even telling him that was what it was) makes sense, given that he's specifically there to obtain another of the Stones. No doubt Thanos planned to betray Loki and reclaim the stone at some point.

Of course, given that Loki gets the Tesseract in the movie's first scene, the invasion then needs to be explained, but I assume that Thanos knows that the Aether has some connection to Earth, even if he doesn't know the specifics, and figures once he's taken over the place, he can dig it up at his leisure.

At the current time, the Collector presumably still has the Aether, but Knowhere is poorly defended, so that's not a problem; the Nova Corps has the Orb, but they're not much more of a threat to Thanos; there are two other stones we're yet to see, and then we come to where Thanos' plans have failed, for now at least: the Tesseract is in Asgard and the Mind Stone is now literally a part of the Avengers. Neither of those is according to Thanos' plan, but no doubt he's making new plans.

• The invasion continuing after Loki had the Tesseract is fairly easily explained: That was the bargain. Thanos wanted the Tesseract; Loki wanted a world to rule. Of course, Thanos could probably have gone and taken the Tesseract himself, and razed Earth to ashes along the way, but a major thread running through the Marvel movies has been that he doesn't like to act directly, preferring to get others to do his dirty work.
• Since Loki is the one rulling Asgard and Thanos now has the Infinity Gauntlet, which was in Odin's treasure room, it seems likely that they are still associates, and so he would have no problem getting the Tesseract as well.
  • Let's not rule out the possibility that the Infinity Gauntlet seen in Thor might have been purely a visual gag and not really there. What else is in Odin's treasure room? The Tesseract. And when Thanos picks up the Infinity Gauntlet, it doesn't have ANY of the Stones yet. If Loki could hand over the Gauntlet without anyone noticing, why not the Infinity Stone as well? Hell, why would he have even given the Aether to the Collector, if he was really planning to give everything else to Thanos? Posing as Odin it would have been easy to justify having Asgard "defend" two Infinity Stones." Really, it seems far too early to tell which side he's on, as there can be arguments made for him working either with or against Thanos.
  • The gauntlets are in fact not the same, one is in in Thanos' possession and the one in Asgard is only a replica,, so Loki didn't really do anything. Thanos probably doesn't even know he's alive and rulling Asgard, no less, and since Loki is known for his impossibly well orchestrated plans, this and maybe even helping Thanos in the first movie could be part of one. You can never know with Loki.

The Hulk has been hypnotised.

And not just by Wanda, but by the Avengers themselves. Twice Black, Widow calms Hulk by saying 2 specific sentences: "Hey, Big Guy" and "[the] Sun's getting real low". Saying 'the sun's getting real low' isn't exactly a common phrase, and to say it twice is mighty suspicious. Also, other Avengers refer to Natasha calming the Hulk as a 'Lullaby'.A lot of attention is given to Banner's Beats by Dre headphones and the classical music coming from them. We've seen that hypnosis can be accomplished by use of sound in both Agent Carter and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Who's to say that wasn't an edited version of the song containing hypnotic suggestion?

• Alternately, she could be repeating the same words because the Hulk, when he's tired and starting to calm down, isn't all that different psychologically from an exhausted child worn out by an epic temper tantrum. Small children find such repetition reassuring and relaxing - just look at any bedtime storybook for cranky two-year-olds - and the Hulk, so far as Natasha knows, is not a sophisticated thinker.

Ultron was brought to life by the Mind Gem

Tony and Banner are both nonplussed by Ultron becoming active, as they weren’t even close to sentience. And it’s not even basic J.A.R.V.I.S level sentience, but active ‘humorous, personable, driven and passionate’ sentience. Ultron isn’t even logical like an android should be, in fact he’s irrational and clearly nursing several personality disorders. He also panics when he first wakes up ‘without a body’, even though he shouldn’t even know what one of those is yet.

Ultron is not just an AI Tony made. He’s an intelligence from within the Mind Gem, that found itself corrupted, imprisoned and given a mission he couldn’t understand.

• If this WMG is true, it's possible Thanos was aware of the intelligence within the Gem and gave it Loki as a contingency plan.

The Theta Protocol from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. involves the new Avengers facility

A major subplot going on in S.H.I.E.L.D. right now is the Theta Protocol, a secret effort by Coulson which involves gathering up enhanced people into safehouses and the like. The latest episode (the one before Age of Ultron releases in the U.S.) sort of reveals that Theta has some sort of link with the Avengers. That being said, we'll learn on S.H.I.E.L.D. that the Theta Protocol is a part of the new Avengers/S.H.I.E.L.D. hybrid organization seen at the end of the film, which could open up the possibility of it being an Avengers Academy situation.

• Jossed. Theta Protocol was repairing and recommissioning the helicarrier that Fury showed up in during the final battle.

The Invaders existed in the MCU

Hence Ultron's little note about Invaders preceding Avengers. Maybe Peggy Carter was involved?

• I got the impression the Invaders line was referring to The Chitauri but the base WMG remains possible.

What did Bruce see when he was under Wanda's spell?

What could have pushed Bruce over the edge and made him turn into the Hulk was that he probably saw Betty Ross in his vision and she was either:1. Taken away from Bruce by her war-mongering father while Ross ordered his men to shoot down Bruce, or 2. She was killed by Abomination while Bruce helplessly watched on.

• He didn't need a psychic vision to see his greatest fear, because the Scarlet Witch actually manifested it: the Hulk going on a rampage in a populated area and hurting civilians.
• Which only begs the question: what was the Hulk seeing when he was hallucinating? What scares the Hulk?

The various scenes of the Avengers protecting civilians from collateral damage was done in response to certain criticism Man of Steel.

Superman's apparent disregard for bystanders in Man of Steel is one of the biggest criticisms of the film.

• That doesn't really work when you see millions in property damage and no doubt many thousands of people being killed throughout the movie. There is zero possibility that no people died during the Hulk/Veronica, Cap/Ultron, and final flying island scene. Through out the world in which this movie took place, no doubt thousands of people died, which hopefully is mentioned and becomes a plot point in Civil War.
  • The point is that the Avengers are constantly going out of there way to save civilians and avoid collateral damage (or when that isn't possible, limit it to property damage), whereas Man of Steel had exactly one instance during the entire final battle in which Superman saves a bystander and he certainly caused some of the civilian deaths himself during that fight.
    • There's only one real instance of Superman actually endangering people during the fight in Man Of Steel, which is when he punches Zod through a 7-11 in Smallville (that could have been occupied, but obviously wasn't or else he would have said something). Otherwise, most of the collateral damage that Superman causes takes place in the (mostly) evacuated Metropolis. He also tries taking the fight into space to avoid getting other people killed (which again, Zod tries to do). It seems as though nobody ever considers that the other Kryptonians were responsible for much of the destruction and that Superman wasn't completely prepared to take them all on.
    • The issue is that Superman didn't even try to take the fight out of Metropolis. As for the evacuation part that's pretty much of an assumption. Remember the fight came out of nowhere. If the city had a day or two warning then we can assume that it was mostly empty. Also Superman didn't even check where he was hitting Zod into or even attempt to take the fight elsewhere. Even Ironman made sure to at least try to take Hulk out of populated areas or at least check wherever he charged the Hulk into was empty of civilians. The criticism isn't that Superman is responsible for the destruction, but responsible for being part of it and not making any visual effort to avoid it.

Ultron intended Wanda and Pietro to restart humanity after his plan succeeded

Yes it's squicky, but it took him a while to figure out children. He may not have figured out siblings by that point either.

• Probably a Mythology Gag to the Ultimate Marvel versions, where they have an incestuous relationship.
• Also remember that Ultron is AI and may just not care about human taboos. These two are capable to do it and it's good enough.

During their time together, Ultron used Natasha as a base for Jocasta

He'd have no reason to model it after Janet since she and Hank were Adapted Out, plus it'd remove the Oedipal issues with everything.

• But if you remove the "Oedipal" issues, then there is no reason to call her Jocasta.
• Plus, it appears that "Jocasta" seems to be used as a name for one of Tony's backup AIs. A disk marked with that name is seen amongst several diskettes when he goes to get the "F.R.I.D.A.Y." diskette.

Madame B. is an older Dottie Underwood.

It's possible if, like in the comics, Black Widows have their aging slowed down. It's unclear exactly when Natasha's Red Room flashbacks take place.

• Since Agent Carter was cancelled after Season 2, with Dottie last seen at large, her somehow returning to the good graces of the Red Room is at least theoretically possible.

Quicksilver's fate

Cap: And if you die, you walk it off!

Pietro's thing? He runs. A lot. Also his body potentially operates at a faster rate than human, possibly giving him a Healing Factor.

• Jossed by Word of God.

Ultron has a Back-Up hidden somewhere

We already saw even a single one of his alt bodies contains the entirety of his mind. Ultron was certainly smart enough to plan ahead and keep a single spare body hidden in a secure location, set to activate if it received no signal from any of the other Ultrons.

• This may very well be the case, however, JARVIS/Vision cut off his connection to the internet, so he wouldn't have been able to connect to it if he did. However, if Ultron's programming is still somewhere within Vision...
  • That possibility is rendered moot be Vision's death in Infinity War.
    • But revived by, well, his resurrection in WandaVision.

The next time Thor, Captain America and Iron Man get together, there will be more experiments on if machines can be judged worthy of Mjolnir

By asking Dummy to lift it.

• And if Dummy actually does lift it, it'll turn into a rather amusing debate about whether or not the little robot counts as being "worthy," with Stark continuously shifting between "anything I create has to be worthy of awesomeness" and "he's so useless that I should donate him to a community college."
  • Wasn't Dummy already "donated" to the bottom of the ocean in the first act of Iron Man 3?
    • No, his remains were dug out of the wreckage for presumable repair after Kilian was beaten.
• Jossed as Mjolnir is destroyed in Ragnarok.

Wanda can eventually power up to her Reality Warper power levels in the comics

Currently she appears to have Jean-Grey-esque telekinetic and telepathy powers, but by the end of the movie, she's learnt better control on her powers and can fly, suggesting she's still not at the full peak of her powers. Her powers also stemmed from experiments done on the scepter that used to house the Mind Gem that's now in Vision's care, which means it's entirely possible for him to give a powerboost from the same source.

• Alternatively, she'll become so powerful that she can keep the Vision alive should something happen to the Mind Gem.

The Scarlet Witch's psychic visions weren't hallucinations, but images from people's pasts and futures.

• Black Widow saw her training in the Red Room when she was young, something she's alluded to and later confirmed actually happened.
• Iron Man saw the rest of the Avengers lying unconscious or dead, and the location looked a lot like Sanctuary, the stronghold of Thanos. He's seeing the outcome of the Avengers' fight with Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
  • Jossed.
• Captain America saw himself back in the 1940s, at a party celebrating the end of World War II. At some point, Cap will use the Time Stone (either on purpose or by accident) to travel back to the 1940s.
• Thor sees Heimdall and a number of other Asgardians in what seems like the Asgard version of hell, all blaming Thor for his failures. He's seeing the outcome of Thor: Ragnarok. In the original, extended version of the scene, Loki would've appeared too and dropped hints that he was impersonating Odin.

"The Zucchini" is Bruce's actual nickname for his penis.

They're both green, after all.

Ulysses Klaue will become dangerous thanks to Ultron

He will go from a branded thief in hiding and junkyard weapons dealer to a serious threat to Wakanda and Black Panther because of billions of dollars received from Ultron for the vibranium. This will allow him to afford all the new, wonderful toys, inclduing the high-tech arm prosthetic.

• Isn't that pretty much a given? The plot for the upcoming Black Panther film would be pretty odd otherwise...
• Jossed. He had apparently already been a threat to Wakanda years prior.

Ultron's consciousness is still out there

Even if Vision severed Ultron's connection to the net, he's smart enough to leave his programming somewhere deep in the net, and he can resurface in the future, friend or foe, nobody knows yet.

Dr. Cho worked with Tony on his Extremis fix.

Natasha is not just sterilized but circumcised.

It makes sense given Natasha's reason for why she was sterilized by Mme. B. (the pleasure tied to the basic biological urge could certainly be "more important than a mission"), and it her out-of-hand refusal to try and make a life with the Hulk would make a lot more sense.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's parents in this continuity are Django and Marya Maximoff.

It was revealed in Uncanny Avengers that these two are their birth parents in the comics.

Baron Von Strucker in this film was actually a Life Model Decoy

It's hard to believe that a character as important to HYDRA as Von Strucker would be killed off that easily. Given that HYDRA had completely taken over S.H.I.E.L.D., it'd be pretty easy for Strucker to have access to some LMDs.

Quicksilver

will be back in Infinity War

First off, there's a multi-picture deal going on. That could've just been to cover up the death, but Joss Whedon has said that there was an alternate ending filmed where Quicksilver survived and was seen with the new Avengers lineup, so it seems like there were at least vague plans for the character to appear in multiple films at the time of casting.

Second, one of the Infinity Gems is the Soul Gem (tes, I know they're Stones in the films, but I prefer the comic nomenclature), and it's been a pet theory of mine that a Legion of the Unliving will factor into the MCU at some point, resurrecting various deceased characters. It's been a recurring threat in Avengers stories (usually created by one of Kang's numerous identities, but the Infinity Gems certainly leave it open to be a tactic for Thanos). The Mad Titan could definitely use dead friends (and perhaps some enemies) against our heroes, attacking them both physically and emotionally, and Pietro would definitely be a solid pick to use against them. Peggy Carter, and anyone who gets killed off in Thor: Ragnarok would also be obvious choices.

• Once again, it needs to be stated that Word of God is that he's dead for real. And having a multi-picture deal is not a guarantee you will be brought back, and this deal was most likely fan misdirection.
• Jossed. He never appears or is mentioned.

Quicksilver died

because Marvel Studios made a deal with Fox

Because of the issue with Pietro and Wanda being Mutants AND Avengers, Fox and Marvel made a deal: Pietro will be of age and Wanda an infant in Days of Future Past and for their X-men sequels, and Fox won't bring their Wanda in as Scarlet Witch, and Marvel Studios will have Pietro and Wanda as twins in Age of Ultron, and Pietro dies and won't ever come back, and Wanda will be the prominent twin for Marvel Movies. Thus, Fox and Marvel each get one of the Maximoff twins.

• Probably not. Fox has been notoriously stubborn in regards to deals with Disney. They added Quicksilver into DOFP only because they knew Marvel Studios was going to use him.

Ant-Man is already a member of the New Avengers.

We just couldn't see him because he was ant-sized in the final shots. Considering the tiny trailer, tiny billboards and other ad shenanigans around the movie, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they mention this in Civil War.

• Jossed; the events of Ant-Man happen shortly after Age of Ultron and Scott has to break into the New Avengers headquarters and ends up fighting the Falcon, who is wearing his new uniform.

Some unscrupulous people will sponsor 'humanitarian aid' missions to Sokovia in the near future

The rubble of that city contains several billion dollars worth of refined vibranium. A humanitarian aid mission would provide the perfect cover to help clear all the debris and sift through it for the vibranium.

• Doctor Doom, perhaps?

Vision will stand in for Adam Warlock in the Infinity War.

He's an artificially created being of Incorruptible Pure Pureness who seeks to protect life, is worthy of Mjolnir, and has a freakin' Infinity Gem smack in the middle of his forehead. He will take over Warlock's role as the main counterpoint to Thanos. The hatched Warlock cocoon shown in Guardians Of The Galaxy is just an unhatched Easter Egg.

• James Gunn flip-flopped on it being Adam Warlock's cocoon, suggesting there's more to it than just being an Easter Egg. Don't count him out just yet.
• Actually Adam is now confirmed, so him showing up in Infinity War might not be out of the question!
  • It actually is. He's been confirmed not to appear in Infinity War.

In the stinger, Thanos was talking to Loki.

He came to Asgard to express his displeasure at Loki's failure. When Loki told him the Mind Gem was still on Earth, he demanded an Asgardian army be sent forth to reclaim it. Loki offered the Space Gem and the Gauntlet, but refused to involve Asgard in any further wars. The stinger was the response to Loki's refusal. This scene will appear in full in an upcoming movie, possibly Thor 3 or Infinity War pt 1.

• Word of God stated there are two Gauntlets, one in Asgard and the one Thanos has.
• Jossed.

The drink Thor brought to the party was 307 Ale

The Asgardians have the Tesseract, they can make it (And this is why the Tesseract is the finest jewel of Odin's treasure chambers).

Vision's clothes

They don't exist. He's actually running around in his birthday suit. But no one knows this, because he uses the Mind Stone to project the illusion of clothes into the minds of everyone around him. Want proof? He admires Thor's cape while everyone is talking shortly after his birth, and then a cape of his own materializes on his back. Where else could the cape have come from?

• Alternatively, due to the fact that the Mind Stone is an Infinity Stone, it's powerful enough to generate real clothes at a thought.
• In Civil War, he shows up in a nice comfy sweater, so this might be jossed.

The Twins' survival in their backstory was a subconscious manifestation of Wanda's latent powers.

Her initial powerset in the comics was probability manipulation, and the Stark shell failed to explode.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are mutants

While it's established in the film that their parents died during a war, it's not directly stated that their father in this case was Magneto. It can easily be retconned that they are mutants, just with the X-gene (or whichever justification) is more of a latent trait in this universe and has to be unlocked in some way. Magneto could very well appear, even as just a cameo, with the justification that their parents who were killed were an adoptive family.

• Probably jossed, thanks to the lawyers.
  • Doesn't necessarily joss the rest of it, though—the reason they aren't call mutants is because X-gene mutants are virtually unknown in this universe.
  • Very much back on the table given Disney now has the X-men in their control. Plus, think about it: how does the mind stone give someone super speed or the ability to alter reality? And it will probably be Strange who realizes this after spending time with her in the upcoming Multiverse of Madness movie and informs her that he thinks there’s more to her powers than she knows and tells her he brought a friend who he thinks can help her. Enter Charles Xavier. Bam, Mutants in the MCU.

Alternatively, the twins are Inhumans.

The Inhumans are shaping up to be the MCU version of mutants, after all. Maybe the power from the gem caused their powers to manifest in order to stop them from dying. It would also explain why none of the other test subjects survived: they were ordinary humans, so had no powers to save them from dying.

Clint hates his family.

Why else would he put them in a garbage looking farm while he lives it up in SHIELD headquarters? Alternatively, they're ALL ROBOTS and this is a super elaborate prank on Tony.

• That farm looked pretty darn good to me.
• Jossed, given that their death in Endgame causes him to be on a vigilante rampage.

Vision's mind is a combination of Jarvis' and Ultron's

Ultron managed to upload 86% of his mind into the Vision's body, and the Vision explicitly specifies he is neither Jarvis NOR Ultron. Furthermore, if Ultron's personality is still intact somewhere inside of Vision, this presents a possible way for him to return in the future.

• Confirmed, as in Infinity War Bruce points out that Vision's mind is made out of J.A.R.V.I.S., Ultron, Tony, Bruce, and the Mind Stone.

Mjolnir did more than power Vision

The Mind Gem has a deep desire to grow. It fueled Ultron's desire to be more powerful, but not Vision's. Instead that same drive made Vision want to grow morally. To become more worthy. Because if there's one thing Mjolnir understands, it's what makes a person worthy.

The Hulk/Black Widow romance will be dropped

Given how poorly received the relationship was (to the point of people even accusing the movie of sexism), the whole thing may just be forgotten about in future movies.

• And to appease the comics fans, Betty shall be brought back, and for the sake of opportunities for drama or tearjerkers, Bucky will reveal that he trained and fell in love with Nat countless times, despite the constant wiping whenever HYDRA found out.
  • Jossed. There are a few nods to the relationship, while there's no indication of any romance between Bucky and Natasha.

Ultron had a Villainous Crush on Wanda

We know he's pretty much a child, so his affection for her could easily be something deeper. Just to drive it home, his full-on conversion to genocidal maniac comes after Wanda betrays him- it's a big tantrum. And the Vision certainly seems to have inherited it.

• If this WMG is true, then Ultron's feelings for her could be the film's version of his Oedipus Complex, given Wanda is in some ways, his "mother" (the vision she gave Tony is what pushed him to create Ultron).

The entire movie was Tony Stark's hallucination, starting from his fear dream

We know that Tony was hit by a psychic vision sent by Wanda near the very start. Perhaps he never actually broke out of it. The rest of the events of the movie, from him screwing up with creating Ultron and the escalating events from there, were actually part of his hallucination. In reality, he's somewhere in the med-bay of Avengers Tower.

• That would actually explain why Ultron is so similar to Stark despite being entirely formed from the Mind stone. He is Stark´s fear of his own potential.
  • This would make for a pretty interesting fanfic.
• Jossed.

Only Wanda got her powers from the sceptre.

Wanda's powers are mind-based so it makes sense that she got her powers from the Mind Gem. Pietro's Super-Speed came from the Time Gem, which is still in HYDRA's possession.

• Jossed: the time gem is the eye of agamotto

Captain America can pick up Thor's hammer.

As alluded to in a previous WMG there's no such thing as being "a little worthy." Cap could have picked up Mjolnir but, team player that he is, he chose not to in order to avoid embarrassing Thor and the other Avengers that couldn't even budge it.

• Joss Whedon toys with the fandom on this;
  fan: How is Steve Rogers not worthy?
  Whedon: Is he not? Are we sure? (teasing) Did he fail? Or did he stop?
• Confirmed by Endgame.

Wanda will go off the rails at some point.

Let's face it—mutant or no, the Marvel universe does not have an established history of kindness to psychic characters like Wanda (see also: Jean Grey). With the death of Pietro, she lost the only emotional support that she'd had for years, even through the trauma of their (foster?) parents dying and the countless years of human experimentation they both went through that resulted in their respective abilities. What's worse, the two clearly had some sort of twin bond, so she felt him die. That is going to leave her even more emotionally scarred, even with the support of her fellow Avengers. In the comics, she is a full-on Reality Warper who retconned her own children either into or out of existince and wiped out nearly all the mutants in the Marvel Universe during a mental breakdown just by wishing for it (kicking off the House of M storyline). Who's to say something similar won't happen in the MCU?

• The subplot of Thanos becoming omnipotent by collecting all the Infinity Gems would be a lot less interesting, then. The audience may accept it if some other character already had that power, as long as it is some abstract entity such as Eternity or Infinity. The Willing Suspension of Disbelief would suffer a lot if we are asked to ccept that a human being developed godlike powers in a lab experiment. And note that even the comics had that same problem, so Wanda being omnipotent is now a canon discontinuity.
  • A limited version of this does occur in WandaVision, wherein Wanda creates a perfect sitcom town in a burst of grief. The implications of this are explored over the course of the series.

Wanda has already decimated the mutant population

The MCU used to be a lot similar to the regular Marvel Universe until Wanda decimated the mutant population. However, instead of depowering mutants she rewrote the universe into it´s actual situation. Now, mutants are so scarce they are only known by SHIELD instead of being public, they are called "gifted" because the term "mutant" was never made popular by the media and the general population, and this reality alteration turned Pietro and Wanda into experiments instead of mutants, severely nerfing them in the process.

Ultron's prime body was built from the last Iron Legion drone.

We never see what happens to the drone after it steals the scepter and departs for Sokovia, and this might explain where Ultron got the materials to build the prime body. Furthermore, the drone that steals the scepter is Iron Legion-05, as in Ultron-5

Cap's movie version can only wield Mjolnir during emergencies.

Like Superman in the comics. It seems easier to believe than the theory that he just pretended he couldn't back when the others tried. If Cap could do it as easily as Thor does, he'd let the others know so they'd take it in consideration while making battle strategies.

• Jossed. According to Word of God, he was just being humble.

Tony will at least try to reverse-engineer Mjolnir.

Unbeknownst to the other Avengers, Tony had a device analyzing the hammer while it was at their base to identify the materials. Once they know, Clint will sarcastically ask if Tony'll later clone Thor in hopes of copying the "worthiness factor" and Tony, unlike his comics counterpart, will scoff at the idea of making clones. Thor will tell Tony how Mjolnir's maker(s) will probably feel. If he does make a new Mjolnir, some villain will steal it.

• Jossed. There's no indication that Tony ever tried to do that before his death.

If Thor ever met Sam Wilson, he would call Sam "Son of Wil"

Just like previously he called Coulson "Son of Coul".

The twin's birthday is February 16, 1990.

As a Casting Gag, this is the date of Liz Olsen's birthday with the year that Aaron Taylor-Johnson was born.

Hulk is "Growing up"

Hulk, if his link to Banner works the same way both ways, has no access to Banner's Memories, and no experience to work off of. Given his past being hunted and "waking up" angry, he had no idea what he was doing. In comparison, in his time with the Avengers, Hulk has saved lives, known camaraderie, and started to understand right and wrong. That's why Hulk was horrified at what he did. That's why Hulk choose to sequester himself away. He's learning, and what he knows he did horrifies him in a way it couldn't have before he had the chance to learn.

• Based on Thor: Ragnarok, where Hulk acts much more developed and is able to speak sentences I'd say confirmed.

Vision can lift Mjolnir, but isn't necessarily "worthy."

Vision isn't necessarily worthy of Mjolnir's power the was Thor is, or by any other way that relates to the spell upon it. More, it has more to do with the fact that he partially powered by Mjolnir's power. It is do to this connection with the hammer that he can lift it. Mjolnir doesn't realize that Vision isn't just more Mjonir.

Natasha's attraction to Banner seemed out of character because it was.

She was telling him what he needed to hear to let her in so that she could reinforce her control of him/the Other Guy. She likes and admires him, but the uncharacteristic moping and vulnerability was to get Banner to let his guard down.

Stark weapons being used in Sokovia confirms that Obadiah Stane was working with or for HYDRA.

If HYDRA was having the country shelled to build up a bad reputation for the US and SHIELD, they might have staged Unfriendly Fire with weapons bought from Stark Industries. Tony wasn't in charge of weapons trading at the time.

Tony wasn't responsible for the death of the Maximoffs.

Actually ties in well with the above WMG. The various variables mean that, to this troper it seems inconceivable that Tony was responsible at all.Evidence #1: As said above at minimum Stane was selling to HYDRA or Skovia. I thought SI didn't sell to anyone other than the US and it's allies.Evidence #2: SI weapons were said to be the best, the only time we've seen something Tony made not functioning completely how he wanted was the Mark 1 suit, which he cobbled together in a cave and Mark 42, which was an incomplete prototype. If it was a functional SI shell, it's unlikely it wouldn't have detonated.Evidence #3: Stark Industries weapons sold very well is it out of the question that black market KOs exist.

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