CONFIRMED ULTRON WILL BE IN AVENGERS: ENDGAME?!
As expected, a teaser for Avengers: Endgame played during this year's Super Bowl. Unexpected--the teaser actually showed off all new footage that we didn’t get in the original Endgame trailer. For being only 30 seconds, it was jam-packed with new details and featured pretty much every major character important to Endgame other than Thanos.
The teaser may have also even featured some hidden details that you wouldn’t catch on your first look through; you may not even catch them on the second or third. But the internet being the internet has done its thing and caught something quite out of place about the teaser. Naturally, theories were formed. This theory, in particular, is an unexpected doozy.
Ultron may have just been confirmed to appear in Avengers: Endgame. The psychotic robotic bent on cleansing the planet of humans and the Avengers second big bad may just be making his grand return onto big screen come this April.
The Russo brothers have played things close the chest when it comes to Endgame--doing whatever it is that they can to avoid potential spoilers and hardcore leaks with misdirection, trolling, and just overall secrecy, so take this with a grain of salt.
Captain America’s distortion
If you’ve seen the teaser, then you know that Captain America provides the voiceover for it. In the trailer, with reference to the current state of the world (post-snap conditions), Steve says, “Some people move on, but not us…not us.” It’s the second “not us” that stands out and sounds out of place, however. This second “not us,” sounds a bit distorted and filtered, almost like a certain robot that we all know. Now it could just be the way Chris Evans lowers and gravels his voice when delivering this line, but it still sounds suspect enough to warrant a closer look.
When you listen to Ultron speak, he sounds exactly like you would expect him to sound: a robot speaking through a filter or scrambler. Even when he was just a disembodied A.I., he sounded like this.
The term “A.I.” should be noted here. Ultron was not a living thing or just a single metallic entity. He was a super advanced A.I. powered by the solidified concept of comprehension and understanding known as the Mind Stone. He possessed the ability to project and upload his consciousness through the internet and into other machines at will as evident when he first uploaded himself into a shambled Iron Man suit to confront the Avengers, and when he sent other suits to combat them after claiming that they were all killers. He displayed this ability again when he created an army of drones that he could shift his programming over too if he found that his main body was in danger of being destroyed during a confrontation.
The end of Age of Ultron claimed that Vision finished off the last of the bodies containing Ultron’s programming, but when you consider what exactly Ultron is and what exactly he was capable of, it’s hard to believe that he just simply keeled over and died. Yes, they locked him out of network/internet in the end. And yes, his final vessel technically was eradicated by the Mind Stone, the very thing that gave him life in the first place. But, all in all, he was still an A.I.--the most advanced one on the planet, and one that had plenty of time before his attack on Sokovia to create a backup of his mind and a backup body to go along with it. Just because Vision erased him from the internet, and they locked the consciousness they were fighting in Sokovia out of the internet, doesn’t mean that Ultron was ultimately finished. There are a number of different loopholes that can be exploited to bring him back if the Russo brothers so wanted to.
Now, there are slight differences in Ultron’s voice in comparison to what we get with the Cap voiceover--it’s actually pretty hard to discern whether or not this is or isn’t Ultron speaking, but there is another scene in the trailer that could help support Ultron’s re-emergence being set for Endgame.
Ronin and the Strange Light
One of the things Ultron is known for is giving off a very distinctive, very vivid red glow from his eyes and the openings laced throughout the rest of his body. In the latest teaser, we catch a glimpse of Hawkeye, in what appears to be a crash site of some sort. He’s walking through the shambles of something, but wherever he is, it’s illuminated by the same, vivid red glow. He’s staring straight into it. Now, this isn’t confirmation of anything. If he’s at a crash site, he could just be staring up into an emergency light for all we know, but that seems unlikely and not as fun to talk about. The other scenario is that Hawkeye (or we guess it would be better to call him Ronin now) has stumbled onto to the hideaway place Ultron possibly setup before going to Sokovia and that he is staring up at Ultron himself. So with the combination of this scene, the strange voiceover effect, and the knowledge of what we know Ultron is capable of, we now have a bit of ground to stand on concerning Ultron’s return. Now the question becomes: if Ultron did return, what role would he play exactly in Endgame?
Ultron’s Role
Well, the Russo’s have stated that we the audience don’t really know what Endgame will be about, and they've done an excellent job at making sure things stay that way. But they have stated that Endgame will be the conclusion to first MCU story arc--which we already knew--and there have been clues in other Marvel movies that hint at some events in Endgame.
For instance, before Doctor Strange said his famous line, “We’re in the Endgame now,” Tony Stark mentioned the term long before in the second Avengers film when referencing threats like Thanos. He says, ”That up there--that’s...that’s the endgame.” The second Avengers film starred Ultron as the big baddie, but that wasn’t his original purpose. His original design was to be the thing that protected the world from threats like Thanos. Now it’s obvious that Ultron would be no match for Thanos since he couldn’t defeat the Avengers, who lost to Thanos themselves, but the fact that the title of the final Avengers movie for the first story arc was mentioned in Ultron's film begs closer inspection.
If Ultron backed himself up as we presume, and if Hawkeye found him, then it would become obvious to the Avengers that they can’t really destroy Ultron: they have no idea if he has other backups and both Vision and the Mind Stone are gone. So instead, the idea would be to change Ultron's A.I. in order to make him a good guy. Bruce’s limited time with Shuri was enough to give him a better idea of how A.I. like Vision and Ultron worked, and he has access to Wakanda’s technology. If he wants, he could reprogram Ultron there to make him the Endgame failsafe that Tony had in mind in the first place. Sadly, Shuri probably wouldn’t be able to help since she’s missing according to the Endgame trailer.
