If you watched the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie trailer (and who hasn’t?) you may have noticed Andy Serkis of Planet of the Apes, Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings fame popping up for a few seconds. It got us wondering, just who is he playing in the movie? We speculate after the jump, but be warned, there may be spoilers!
We saw Serkis briefly in the trailer that leaked (and then officially released) last week. Since he is was not given a character name, it lead to a lot of speculation, but we think he may be playing Ulysses Klaw.
Ulysses Klaw first appears in flashback in Fantastic Four #53 (Aug 1966) as a physicist working in the field of applied sonics. Designing a sound transducer to convert sound waves into physical mass, Klaw steals the metal vibranium – a substance known to exist only in certain meteoric deposits in the small African nation of Wakanda – to power his device. In doing this, Klaw comes into conflict with the Wakandan ruler/superhero T’Chaka, whom Klaw murders in cold blood. T’Chaka’s adolescent son T’Challa, who followed his father to watch him combat the invaders, then attacks Klaw to avenge his father, maiming him by costing the villain his right hand as Klaw escaped.
Years later, Ulysses resurfaces with a sonic emitter/gun on his right wrist as a replacement prosthetic device for his missing hand that can create whatever objects or creatures Klaw can conceive, out of sound. He also has created a device that turns him into a being of solid sound, making him immortal in the process. Klaw as a professional criminal battles T’Challa (who has now officially become the newest Black Panther) and superhero team the Fantastic Four in New York state, but is defeated.
Klaw is imprisoned but freed by the Crimson Cowl, which turns out to be an alias of Ultron. Joining the second incarnation of the Masters of Evil, Klaw and the other villains battle superhero team the Avengers. The Avengers, however, defeat them, with the Black Panther subduing Klaw. Klaw would attempt to reform the second Masters of Evil to fight the Avengers, but his scheme would be foiled by the all-female team the Lady Liberators.
Managing to escape custody again, Klaw journeys back to Wakanda where he helps steal a device capable of augmenting the metal-disintegrating property of a vibranium alloy. Encountering the Thing, the Human Torch, and the Black Panther, Klaw is defeated.
Considering Serkis looks a lot like the Klaw in the above image (and in others floating around the Internet) AND considering Marvel just announced that the Black Panther movie is coming, my money is on Klaw. Am I right on target, or off the mark? Use the comment section below to share your thoughts!
7 Comments
While IMDB doesn’t name his character, if you look down the list there is a role for “Klaue’s Mercenary,” played by Bentley Kalu. So it sounds likely to me :)
You definitely nailed it in his appearance. But why wouldn’t the rights for Klaw be held by Fox, since they have the Fantastic Four rights?
Ronan The Accuser, from Guardians Of The Galaxy, was also a Fantastic Four villain…
If the character overlaps between the properties both Marvel and FOX (Or Sony) can use the characters as long as they don’t use or refer to the overlap. For examples Fox has a Quicksilver and Marvel have one now as well. And Marvel can do whatever they want with theirs as long as they don’t call him a Mutant or mention his dad.
Okay, I guess I just don’t understand how they drew the lines between properties, since they’re all part of the Marvel Universe… Excited regardless!
Rights issues can be pretty tricky, so you’re not alone. Sometimes contracts allow a studio exclusive rights to specific characters. In other cases, they might allow use of a character, but not exclusive use. So even though Marvel DOES own the characters. someone else may have exclusive rights to use the character until their contract expires.
Think he would be better playing The Puppet Master instead. Like Luke Evans would be better as Dr. Strange.