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Avengers: Age of Ultron Set Visit: The Film That Will Change Marvel Forever

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It’s a late afternoon in May, and Yahoo Movies is having a “pinch yourself” moment.

We’re in Shepperton Studios’ cavernous H Stage, standing on a glass balcony that’s part of the Avengers Tower interior set. Just below us, there’s a main atrium where the glitziest, most star-studded party you could ever dream of is taking place.

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Nearly all of the Avengers have assembled here today: Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is perched at the bar, talking to Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Meanwhile Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) has just greeted Captain America (Chris Evans) with a bear hug, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is chatting up some highly decorated military types.

And standing away from all the action, surveying the scene, is Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who’s sipping a martini and chatting with pal Rhodey Rhodes (Don Cheadle).

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The set is incredible. It’s Tony Stark’s ego run amok, writ large in stainless steel and polished glass. There’s a grand piano (which Evans gently plays between takes), a drum kit, and a full gym. Works of art line the walls, as do countless shelves of coffee table books. If it weren’t for the Quinjet landing platform that’s attached to the room’s side, it’d be easy to mistake it for an immensely swank hotel lobby.

"It’s wild, isn’t it?" Ruffalo says later, while we’re relaxing in his trailer. "It’s the ultimate bachelor pad-slash-gym-slash-laboratory."

Banner has his own lab in the tower (it’s suitably green), and Ruffalo explains his character has been working closely with his "Science Bro" Stark in the intervening years between the two ‘Avengers’ films: “Banner has his own space in the Stark empire. He’s working on some biotech stuff. He’s definitely got a lot on his mind, and some big stuff brewing.”

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Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. in ‘Age of Ultron’

If you’ve seen the first trailer, you’ll know that Avengers Tower plays a key part in ‘Age of Ultron’, as it’s the setting for an early confrontation between our heroes and the film’s titular villain, who crashes the tail-end of the party we’ve just seen on the set.

We point out to Downey and Hemsworth that having a huge Avengers sign on the tower makes it very easy for the bad guys to seek them out. “Yeah, that’s a challenge for us,” explains Hemsworth. “But it’s also a threat to the bad guys as well. This is where we are.”

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Adds Downey: “There’s always a little bit of hubris that comes with any winning team. You could have said that about the Lakers. There’s always the danger of not recognising that all things must come to an end.”

This ominous talk of things coming to an end is echoed in that first teaser trailer, which features a shot of a fallen Thor alongside Captain America’s indestructible shield in pieces. It seems like Ultron — the robot baddie voiced by James Spader — is definitely not to be messed with, and the casual conversational bonhomie the Avengers had with Loki in the first film is not going to be repeated.

"He’s a far bigger threat than Loki," says Hemsworth. "Loki was evil and was bruised from the past. He resented everything that was happening around him that Thor was involved in, and therefore he just wanted to destroy Thor’s world and what he was a part of… [Ultron] has a pretty just reason for his hatred, as well. It’s far more technologically advanced, obviously, but also it runs a little deeper in his paranoia."

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Adds Ruffalo: “[Ultron] has the same sociopathic streak that Loki has and is equally as fun a character, but he’s much more insane. His particular brand of insanity is much grander than Loki’s, so it’s truly diabolical. He’s a threat to all mankind…but particularly the Avengers.”

Ultron’s powers range from super intelligence and immense strength to the ability to manifest huge armies of drones that also featured heavily in the first trailer.

Recent reports about the film’s plot suggest that Ultron’s actions could alter the roster of the Avengers permanently. The three actors we spoke to on set all agreed: Things will never be the same again in the Marvel cinematic universe following the events of this film.

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"At the end of the film, there’s going to be a lot of shocked people, and a lot of loose threads that won’t be easily tied together again," says Ruffalo. "It definitely sets up the next ‘Marvel scenario’ for a lot of interesting stuff to happen."

Everyone is mum about the film’s twists and turns, though Downey compares them to the kind of wow moments more common in television than film nowadays:

"Part of what these ‘binge watch’ TV series have done to make them successful is those moments that make you go: ‘Wow, I really didn’t think that was gonna happen. And when I read the last page of ‘Age of UItron’ I had chills — and strangely, [my character] wasn’t on that page."

"None of us were," Hemsworth cryptically follows up. "That’s why we had chills: ‘Wait a second, I’ve got to find a job!’"

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Watch the trailer for Age of Ultron below:

Photo credit: AP Photo/Marvel, Jay Maidment