Avengers: Damage Control Recasts James Spader’s Ultron

Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will soon be able to step into it and exist with their favorite big screen heroes with Avengers: Damage Control. The virtual reality experience is coming to 11 cities, three in Canada and eight in the United States, to allow Marvel fans the opportunity to suit up in a Wakandan Iron Man suit, of sorts. While they are being recruited by Shuri to enter a training program, the drama unfolds and Ultron rises up from the ashes after rebuilding himself following the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. While many of the Marvel Studios actors do appear in Avengers: Damage Control, James Spader did not return to voice Ultron. Instead, Ross Marquand stepped into the role.

“Unfortunately we did reach out to James and we wished he could have done it, but the schedules just didn’t align. He was working and stuff when this was going on and so it didn’t work out, but we got a great voice actor, Ross Marquand,” a Marvel Studios executive producer told ComicBook.com. “He did an amazing job and he’s great to work with and a great actor and talented so it was fun having him on board and he was super excited. So it was great.”

This marks Marquand’s second effort with Marvel Studios after the actor previously portrayed Red Skull in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. “The kid in me, who grew up mowing lawns and babysitting just so I could buy comic cards from Mile High Comics in Denver… I have Marvel series one through three, Marvel Masterpieces,” Marquand told ComicBook.com at The Walking Dead‘s Season 10 premiere. “I used to collect their books, too, and, like, I drew all of these guys. Especially Red Skull, MegaRed, Mephisto, Logan. I mean, basically any character that looked crazy and scary. I would endlessly draw them. My parents thought I was crazy, but it was amazing. And, it’s like one of those moments where your childhood is coming back to you. And, it’s a fascinating feeling, you know?”

While Avengers: Damage Control picks up after events seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is not exactly canon and it doesn’t seem that fans should be expecting to see the impact of Ultron’s revival in a future Marvel Studios film. Still, the process of choosing Ultron as the villain was influenced by ideas from the MCU.

“We looked at other villains, we had conversations about doing someone new, we had conversations around is it this, is it that, but at the end of the day it was just fun,” the executive producer said. “It was fun to say, ‘Okay, if we’re going to bring him back, how can we do it?’ You know, and we haven’t seen him for awhile and we get to go to this new facility where maybe he’s been hiding out and rebuilding himself and that idea of going through a place where you have all of the different vehicles from across the Marvel universe in damage control that had been gathered up and he has no option but to build himself out of all of the different pieces of the Marvel universe. And secretly, that was a fun conversation for me, was let’s make him build himself out of all this stuff he hates, right? Like, let’s make him build themselves out of Stark tech and S.H.E.I.L.D. tech and Hydra and all these things that he looks down upon and he’s like, ‘Humans.’ So that was a fun conversation. And I think ultimately that’s why, because he’s a fan favorite and it was just fun to explore and bring him back in a new way and redesign him and do it differently.”

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Avengers: Damage Control becomes available on October 18. Tickets are available online now.