We were all expecting Thanos to be the big bad in Avengers 2 but suddenly that doesn’t seem to be the case. Holy shit.

via [SlashFilm](http://www.slashfilm.com/joss-whedon-announces-the-avengers-age-of-ultron/):

> Joss Whedon took the stage at Hall H today to intro a brief teaser clip for a new film. The footage featured animated close-ups of metal being pounded into shape as we hear clips of dialogue from The Avengers. But as the metal object revolves and the camera pulls back the head of Ultron is revealed.

> Smash cut to title: ***The Avengers: Age of Ultron***.

> We’d thought that Thanos would be the enemy in the Avengers sequel, but a brief mention at the Guardians of the Galaxy panel suggests we might see Thanos in that movie. (At that panel Djimon Housou mentioned that his character Korath is a close associate of Thanos, which based on director James Gunn’s reaction seemed like something we weren’t supposed to know — or that they’re playing as if we shouldn’t know.) Thanos could always be the eventual Biggest Bad in a third Avengers movie.

> Age of Ultron was originally a 10-issue limited series comic book crossover storyline, published earlier this year, that involved the return of Ultron and his conquest of the earth. The publication date is interesting, because Marvel has generally been mining well-established storylines. The fact that the Avengers sequel is based on a new series suggests that Marvel is doing more to design hand-in-hand events that go quickly from page to screen.

> The question then is: how close to the printed Age of Ultron text will the movie run? We have no idea at this point.

Holy shit. Did not see this coming and I couldn’t be happier. Age of Ultron is a pretty great story, but mostly I just love that I’m still being surprised at the directions they are taking things. This opens up all kinds of questions for the universe too. Case in point: Hank Pym, better known as _Ant Man_ created the AI that eventually becomes Ultron, so are we going to see him in Avengers: Age of Ultron before we see him in Ant Man three months later? Also, Ultron created Vision, [a role that Vin Diesel is rumoured to be up for](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/07/vin-diesel-marvel-news-at-the-end-of-this-month/).

I have a feeling this is going to be gooooood.