In a year with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, and more, The Avengers: Age of Ultron has competition for most anticipated movie of the year – but it’s undoubtedly the most anticipated superhero movie of the year (sorry, Ant-Man and Fantastic Four). The followup to Joss Whedon’s insanely popular The Avengers will see the titular team battling Ultron, a psychotic robot with the voice of James Spader (The Blacklist).

With Age of Ultron‘s May release not too far away at this point, we’re bound to see more trailers, TV spots, and plot information released in the coming weeks and months. Today, for example, we have a whole host of new plot details to dissect.

The Beginning of ‘Age of Ultron’ & New Relationships

Avengers producer Jeremy Latcham talked about the team’s status at the beginning of the film, saying:

“This movie starts off and the team is together, on a mission, they’re working in tandem, and there are new relationships between them. Time has passed, so you pick up right in the middle of an action sequence and start trying to catch up.”

The action sequence likely involves the defeat of Baron von Strucker, which will apparently lead to the Avengers party from the trailers that depicts various Avengers attempting to pick up Thor’s hammer. This is the point of the story when everything seems to be going well for the team – they’re working well together, they’re happy, they’re successful. Obviously, this won’t last for long once Ultron does his thing.

Latcham continued:

“I think [it's] fun for an audience to try and figure out, ‘Wait, those two are funny together now, there’s something going on with them, maybe there’s a little tension over there.’ You’re showing up at a party when it’s already a little bit started.”

It seems that the two characters with “tension” are likely Bruce Banner and Black Widow. There have been hints in the trailers that they have something of a connection, but it’s yet unclear if that connection is romantic in nature.

Said Joss Whedon about them:

“They’re an unlikely pair, but there’s something about the two of them that neither can deny.”

Sounds kind of romantic to us.
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Joss Whedon’s Favorite Character Is Black Widow

It’s probably no surprise that Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is Joss Whedon’s favorite character. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Firefly to Dollhouse to his work on Astonishing X-Men, Whedon tends to to be particularly fond of the female characters in his stories.

Said Whedon:

“[Black Widow] has a special place in my heart – there is one scene in each movie that was filmed pretty much unchanged from the first draft, and they’re both Natasha scenes. She’s just somebody that I feel like I get.”

Before Whedon wrote Black Widow in The Avengers, she was a pretty one-dimensional, uninteresting character in Iron Man 2. Most would agree that it was Whedon’s depiction of Widow that made her the popular character she is today, with fans all over clamoring for a standalone film.

How ‘Age of Ultron’ Will Lead to ‘Captain America: Civil War’

In the wake of Captain America: The Winter Soldier – and the dissolution of SHIELD – the Avengers are basically leaderless. While this is seemingly not a problem at the beginning of Age of Ultron, it’ll definitely become one during the film’s running time.

Jeremy Letchum said:

“SHIELD has fallen apart, so this movie becomes Tony Stark and Steve Rogers trying to put the Avengers together without a parental unit like Nick Fury hovering over them. What you realize is that these are guys who work best with rules, and probably do need some adult supervision.”

Both Tony Stark and Steve Rogers are stubborn, strong-willed individuals, and otherwise very different personality-wise. Needless to say, that sort of combination can lead to some conflict, and it might very well be (part of) the impetus for Captain America: Civil War.

Said Letchum:

“Tony has been paying for everything, designing stuff, building new toys, he’s the benefactor of the whole thing. But Steve Rogers is very much in charge of operations and missions, he’s the moral compass. But how long can Tony Stark have someone else be in charge?”

Probably not very long. It’ll be interesting to see what else will come to cause the Civil War besides personality differences. (After all, that’d be a pretty petty war.) Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t hinge upon secret identities like the comic books do – and the Civil War of the comic books did – what will be at the heart of the film’s conflict?

‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Is a Mish-Mash of Genres

The Marvel movies are known for having similar structures, styles, tones, and general “feels,” though they do occasionally fit into pre-established genres in addition to the amorphous “superhero genre.” The First Avengers was sort of a war movie, Winter Soldier was sort of a ’70s spy thriller, Guardians of the Galaxy was sort of a space opera, and so on.

But what, pray tell, is The Avengers: Age of Ultron? According to Whedon, it’s kind of a whole bunch of genres mixed together:

“With the first [Avengers], I set out to make a war movie. This time I said to Marvel, ‘I really want to make more of a science-fiction horror.’ But then in the first week I was like ‘This is clearly a western.’ “Then it became a war movie again, then, ‘Oh no, it’s a romantic comedy, a 1940s romantic comedy… No, it’s Ibsen! No, okay, it’s definitely an adventure. It’s an action comedy!’

“I suppose if it’s gonna get put in a category, it has got some science fiction in it, but for me, it’s just everything. And hopefully that doesn’t come out as ADD, but as what happens when you put these different people together, you get that kind of weird dissonance with their different worlds and styles, and you hopefully make music out of it, instead of a horrible cacophony.”

Considering Whedon has plenty of experience mixing and matching genres – every single project he’s ever worked on has done this – we can’t imagine Avengers 2 will make “a horrible cacophony” out of it.

The Reason Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver Fight The Avengers

Elizabeth Olsen – who plays Scarlet Witch in Age of Ultron – explained why she and her brother Quicksilver join an evil talking robot to take on The Avengers.

Said Olsen:

“Our characters have a lot of anger, especially towards Tony Stark, and we want revenge. We meet Ultron, and he’s someone who preaches peace and… believes what we believe, which is that the Avengers create destruction and that Tony Stark’s bomb is responsible for killing our parents.”

Tony Stark’s bomb? Is this a bomb he created in his past life as a weapons manufacturer (as portrayed in the original Iron Man movie)?

The Difference Between Hawkeye in ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Age of Ultron’

Jeremy Renner sort of famously didn’t love his work on The Avengers, mostly because he was relegated to being hypnotized by Loki for more than half the film. We’ve known for a while now that that would change for the sequel, and Joss Whedon backs that up here.

Said Whedon:

“We got to do some interesting stuff with Hawkeye which is a different kind of dark. It’s been fun for Jeremy because he was possessed for so long last time – it’s interesting to not be a zombie!”

Not only will Hawkeye “not be a zombie” in the film, but he’ll also get some really nifty sleeves to keep him warm. So it’s good news all around for Jeremy Renner.

Joss Whedon Is Done Making ‘Avengers’ Movies

For the umpteenth time now, Joss Whedon is making it clear that he has no intention of returning to make more Avengers films. Not for Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 or 2, not for a hypothetical Avengers/Guardians of the Galaxy crossover, not for anything.

Said Whedon on the subject:

“I cannot imagine directing a film with – if you’ll pardon the expression – more f**king people in it. I’d love to see one, though.”

Don’t be too sad, Whedon fans, this is potentially very good news. After Whedon takes a much deserved break from directing massive blockbuster movies, he’ll be able to use his Avengers clout to create something brand-new on a much larger scale than his previous projects. That’s something we should all be excited for.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters May 1st, 2015.