About five months ago before James Spader was announced as the titular villain of ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’, a rumor was going around that Tony Stark’s personal artificial intelligence software JARVIS would become Ultron in Joss Whedon’s upcoming Marvel movie. Furthermore, Paul Bettany, the actor who provides the voice of JARVIS in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, would be brought in to play the digital butler/crazed robot. Of course, that rumor was debunked and it was assumed that we’d only get Bettany’s voice in the crown jewel of Phase Two as opposed to the rest of him. However, late yesterday we learned that we would indeed be seeing the thespian onscreen after all.

The Daily Mail first broke the news that the actor from such films as ‘A Knight’s Tale’, ‘A Beautiful Mind’, and the upcoming ‘Transcendence’ will be moving on from Iron Man’s suits to a body of his own as Bettany is now slated to play The Vision, an android famously created by Ultron that eventually frees himself of the mad machine’s power and becomes a member of the Avengers. The report initially stated that the actor was spotted at Shepperton Studios near London with Jeremy Renner as the two participated in hair, makeup, and costume tests while meeting with writer/director Whedon. This report was then later confirmed by Variety and Deadline, who don’t usually pick up rumors as news, so this news seems to be pretty legit.

Bettany has been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the beginning as he has voiced JARVIS in all three ‘Iron Man’ movies and ‘The Avengers’, but this will mark the first time that he himself will appear on the silver screen alongside Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and the rest of the cast. But if the story stays true to the source material, then he’ll be mostly alongside Elizabeth Olsen after the all the origin stuff gets out of the way. I doubt that they’d go in this direction right away, but if the creative team behind Marvel’s movies decides to follow comic book history, then we should see a romance between Vision and Olsen’s Scarlet Witch. Personally, I’d love this because that would mean a greater possibility for a ‘Young Avengers’ movie, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet.

What do you think of Paul Bettany playing the Vision in ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’? How do you think that JARVIS will go from a disembodied voice to an android? And how much of a role do you think Tony Stark will have in the creation of Vision and Ultron? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments below.

‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ assembles in theaters on May 1, 2015.