Joss Whedon‘s decision to cast James Spader as the titular villain in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron was an interesting one at first, but after taking a few steps back to look at it, it was an excellent choice. The actor has an extensive career in both film and television, and has played a wide array of characters. But there are some who remain unconvinced that Spader could pull it off.

A new video from the Marvel web show, The Watcher, has Whedon explaining to fans why the actor was his “first and only choice” to play Ultron. Hit the jump to see the video.

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.

Marvel Comics tells us that Ultron was created by Hank Pym aka Ant-Man, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe will tell us a different story. With the Edgar Wright-directed Ant-Man film scheduled to open in theaters in November 2015, six months after the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the cybernetic threat’s origins will have to be explained. It’s being speculated that Tony Stark will be behind Ultron’s creation, which makes a lot of sense. So far this has been unconfirmed, but what if Ultron was already there, staring us in the face?

Now this is purely a rumor – a very big rumor at that – but Unleash The Fan Boy is reporting that J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Bettany), Tony Stark’s AI for the Iron Man armors, will portray Ultron in the highly anticipated Avengers sequel.

Marvel Studios is already one film into Phase 2 of it’s Cinematic Universe, which ends May 1, 2015 with The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. And before that we will get Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy. But no one gets as far as they do without any sort of planning. Hard to imagine that it started with just one Iron Man film. Since then, the studios has become a regular face of Hall H at the San Diego Comic-Con. Every announcement made during their panel is talked about for weeks. But it also gives us some insight as to what the studio has planned for its characters.

That kind of planning goes a long ways away. Even before films like Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, or even Guardians of the Galaxy, there was a great deal of planning to expand this massive universe that Marvel has in its hands. So Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige gives us a look into the planning process and reveals just how far ahead the studio has planned.

It’s time for another franchise-crossing Marvel Comics summer event. This year’s event is titled Infinity, a word Marvel is pretty big on these days in their marketing. The six-issue miniseries is being crafted by Marvel staples Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung, Jerome Opena, and Dustin Weaver.

We have a few pages from Infinity #1 for your perusal. Check ’em out here below and let us know what you think in the comments!