The superhero movie rumor mill is grinding away today at full force, with news out of England that Paul Bettany will be playing the Vision in Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. Bettany, if you recall, has been the voice of Tony Stark’s computer/butler J.A.R.V.I.S. in all of the Iron Man movies, as well as the first Avengers. And the Vision is an android from the comics. So it would kind of make sense for the artificial intelligence to just upgrade into a robot body.

I can see the resemblance, especially in the eyes

Right now, this casting is all rumor, I think. It’s all over the Internet today, but Marvel hasn’t said anything concrete. It was reported in The Daily Mail, who said they saw Bettany undergoing some make up work on the set. Then it got confirmed by Variety. I don’t usually like to post these sorts of rumors, but it’s a slow news day, and I actually really like this idea.

Join me for more after the jump.

The casting of the Vision like this makes a lot of sense, though it diverges wildly from the comic book source material – and I’m OK with that. I long ago accepted that there will be changes between the comics and films, and turning J.A.R.V.I.S. into the Vision just makes so much sense. Plus, since viewers are already familiar with J.A.R.V.I.S., he won’t require a any introduction to turn him into a superhero.

For those who don’t know, here’s how it all goes down in the comics: the Avenger and scientist Hank Pym invented the artificially intelligent robot known as Ultron, who then turned evil, as robots are wont to do. One he was a super-villain, Ultron decided that he wanted a friend/sidekick, so he created the Vision, an even better artificially intelligent robot. But the Vision betrayed Ultron and became a good guy, later joining the Avengers.

Seems simple enough.

But Hank Pym isn’t going to be in Avengers 2. We know that Ultron is going to be the villain because his name is in the title. So where will Ultron and the Vision come from? Tony Stark, of course! We already know that Tony Stark has invented artificial intelligence. He built J.A.R.V.I.S., which is a sentient, thinking robotic computer program. And he’s got that arm/camera robot Dummy in his workshop. So in the Marvel Movieverse, it would make perfect sense for Stark to upgrade and build Ultron, who turns evil, and then for J.A.R.V.I.S. to somehow step up and get himself a body to help fight Ultron.

Sounds good enough to me.

Also, the Daily Mail, who broke this story, reports that Bettany was spotted getting white face makeup to look like the Vision. That’s because, for a short period of time, Vision ditched his usual red, green and yellow color scheme and went with an all-white look.

The only option that looks worse than red, green and yellow

I think it might be more appealing on the big screen if he went with this look rather than his usual garish design. For a robot who can feel love, the Vision has never had very good fashion sense.