Hot off the rumor posted yesterday that Jarvis could be Ultron comes this news that James Spader has just signed on to play the big bad in Joss Whedon’s ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’.

Here’s the press release announcing his casting from Marvel.com:

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James Spader will face off against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as the villain in Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the sequel to 2012’s record-breaking “Marvel’s The Avengers.” The Emmy Award-winning actor will play Ultron in the Avengers’ much anticipated return to the big screen from writer/director Joss Whedon. The film comes to theaters on May 1, 2015.

Spader earned three Emmy Awards for his role as Alan Shore on “Boston Legal” and “The Practice,” and will return to television this fall in NBC’s highly anticipated series “The Blacklist.” Most recently Spader was seen in the critically-acclaimed film “Lincoln” directed by Steven Spielberg and has previously worked with a long list of accomplished film directors including David Cronenberg, Curtis Hansen, Sidney Lumet, Mike Nichols, Tim Robbins, Robert Rodriguez, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone.  David Mamet also directed Spader in the Broadway play Race.

“Avengers: Age of Ultron” will bring the Marvel Universe’s biggest heroes together again to face one of their biggest villains, with “Marvel’s The Avengers” director Joss Whedon returning to write and direct the sequel. “Marvel’s The Avengers” was released in 2012 and went on to earn $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the third-largest grossing movie of all time.

Back in the day, Spader was a member of the Brat Pack, a name given to a group of actors who were friends and starred in many of the teen-oriented coming of age films in the 80s. The group included such stars as Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. He earned his membership starring in films such as ‘Pretty in Pink’ and ‘Less than Zero’ but broke out of the mold in the film ‘Sex, Lies and Videotape.’ Sci-fi fans may recognize him as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the 1994 film ‘Stargate’ that spawned the small screen series and spin offs. He was most recently seen in the Steven Spielberg film ‘Lincoln’ as W.M. Bilbo.

Little was mentioned beyond the press release above, so how Spader will be approaching the role or even how Ultron will be portrayed in ‘Age of Ultron’ is unknown. A call to Whedon’s reps has been made so hopefully more information will be given soon.

With this news, it gives speculation as to whether or not Paul Bettany, who was the voice of Jarvis for the last 3 ‘Iron Man’ films as well as in ‘The Avengers’, will be in ‘Age of Ultron’ as many had assumed. Is Jarvis going to turn into Ultron or will Bettany still voice Jarvis and Ultron is an entity of its own? Who knows? Joss Whedon is a man of many talents and may have a few surprises up his sleeves.

For now, the news is both surprising and exciting. What say you? Do you think Spader will make a good Ultron? Sound off below!