When you have a world as expansive as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you have a plethora of characters at your disposal. Heroes and villains can be in the solo films, but they can also be in the ensemble ones like The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Joss Whedon‘s upcoming sequel will feature Ultron, a sentient robot who will have a brand new origins story never introduced in the comics. But there is a rumor now that The Avengers will have to contend with another villain. One of which comes from a faction we have seen before.

The rumor is that Hydra leader Baron Von Strucker is the film’s second villain. Described as a character who is in his 40s-50s, Strucker is a physically augmented human being who appears to be ageless. Though he has died more times than anyone can count, the Nazi officer has risen from the dead just as much, and vowed to rule the world or wipe it out via genocide. And apparently he won’t be alone. Hit the jump to see who Disney/Marvel is interested in filling the role, and which characters will join him in his fight against The Avengers.

Marvel officially announced this morning that Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Elizabeth Olsen (Spike Lee’s Oldboy) will join the cast of The Avengers: Age of Ultron as the brother-sister duo Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

There have been longstanding rumors that Olsen was being eyed as the Scarlet Witch while Taylor-Johnson was previously confirmed for the role of Quicksilver. It’s great to see Marvel finally providing the official announcement for both of them.

We heard back in June that Aaron Taylor-Johnson, star of Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and the upcoming Godzilla reboot, was wanted by Marvel for the role of Quicksilver in Joss Whedon‘s follow-up to The Avengers, titled The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and now that casting has been confirmed.

Taylor-Johnson’s schedule promoting Godzilla overlapped with filming on the Age of Ultron, which is why the casting had not yet been made official. Those scheduling conflicts have now been worked out, allowing the actor to take on the role.

It was just a month ago when Joss Whedon confirmed that James Spader would play Ultron in the highly anticipated sequel The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. It was too early to tell if the actor would do motion capture work or if he would be doing voiceovers. Anything was possible.

Speaking The Inquirer about the latest on the film, Spader dropped a few hints about his character, and the kinds of preparations he is doing to get ready for the character.

Back in July Joss Whedon was on hand at San Diego Comic-Con to reveal that the sequel to his smash hit The Avengers would be The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

I’m not sure how long it will last, but a new HD quality video has found its way to the web showing off Whedon’s announcement via a brief teaser trailer. You can (hopefully) see the teaser below!