James Spader will play the villain Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, writer/director Joss Whedon’s follow-up to 2012’s well-received Marvel’s The Avengers, Marvel announced today.

Unconfirmed reports have indicated that JARVIS., Tony Stark’s AI for the Iron Man armors, would become Ultron in the sequel, which lead to speculation whether Paul Bettany, who’s voiced JARVIS in the Iron Man films, would be cast as Ultron in what would likely to be a motion-capture performance.

The Avengers will see Spader back on the big screen with former co-star and friend, Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actors starred together in 1985’s Tuff Turf and more famously in 1987’s Less Than Zero. Spader was last seen in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film Lincoln, and is part of the cast for the upcoming NBC drama, The Blacklist, premiering on September 23, 2013.