Marvel's Kevin Feige Confirms Avengers Line-Up Change

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed that the climax of 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' will see a new line-up for the superhero team.

It had long been rumoured that Captain America would be heading up a whole new team by the end of Joss Whedon’s eagerly anticipated sequel to Marvel’s 2012 blockbuster, which remains their biggest box office hit.

This notion seemed to tie in with later reports that the third ‘Captain America’ film would centre on Chris Evans’ Cap and Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man turning against one another in a big screen adaptation of the comic book storyline ‘Civil War.’

Now, Marvel’s head honcho confirms in a lengthy set report at Buzzfeed that the super-team will not look the same once their battle with Ultron comes to an end.

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Likening Marvel’s movie ethos to their traditional approach to comics, Feige says, “The ‘Avengers’ films, ideally, in the grand plan are always big, giant linchpins.

"It’s like as it was in publishing, when each of the characters would go on their own adventures and then occasionally team up for a big, 12-issue mega-event. Then they would go back into their own comics, and be changed from whatever that event was.

"I envision the same thing occurring after this movie, because the [Avengers] roster is altered by the finale of this film.”

Unsurprisingly, Feige does not go on to specify who we can expect in the new Avengers line-up - but obviously this isn’t going to keep us from speculating!

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For starters, Don Cheadle’s Rhodey crosses over from the ‘Iron Man’ series to join the cast of ‘Age of Ultron,’ so - while he is not pictured in action on the concept art we’ve seen - it seems entirely likely he may join the battle against Ultron as Iron Patriot/War Machine.

Plus we know of three new Avengers who will be introduced in the film: Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and The Vision (Paul Bettany).- and we shouldn’t rule out the possibility that Marvel have managed to keep secret the presence of even more new characters.

So the roster change is, essentially, a foregone conclusion; but even so, Feige’s comments would seem to be hinting at more. Assuming the Civil War plotline is followed - with some heroes siding with Steve Rogers and others with Tony Stark over a proposed super-powers registration bill - the next question is who will side with who.

And you never know -  there might even be a chance, however slim, that they could throw in a major shocker and kill off one of our heroes. Joss Whedon has certainly proven before that he has the nerve to do that (as the ‘Firefly’ fans who were in tears by the end of ‘Serenity’ will testify).

Well, whatever happens, we know that ‘Avengers: Age of UItron’ will spell yet more major changes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe - and we’ve got just under six months before we learn what those changes are, before the movie hits UK cinemas on 24 April 2015.

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Picture Credits: Marvel/WENN