Avengers: Age of Ultron is shaping up to be one of the most highly-anticipated movies of 2015, which will help set the table for Marvel's Phase Three lineup. Director Joss Whedon recently spoke with Empire Magazine, where he offered new details about the villainous Ultron, portrayed by James Spader. When asked if the director has tweaked Ultron's powers from the comic books, Joss Whedon had this to say.

"Yeah, I did. The powers in comic books - they're always like, 'And then I can reverse the polarity of your ions!' - well, we have to ground things a lot more. With Ultron, we have to make him slightly less omnipotent because he'd win. Bottom line. Also, having weaknesses and needs and foibles and alliances and actually caring what people think of him, all these things, are what make him a character and not just a tidal wave. A movie about a tidal wave can be great, but it's different than a conflict between one side and the other. When Ultron speaks, he has a point. He is really not on top of the fact that the point he's making has nothing to do with the fact that he's banoonoos. And that he hates the Avengers for bringing him into this world, and he can't really articulate that or even understand how much he hates humanity. He thinks he's all that. That guy is very fun to write. He combines all the iconic stuff. The powers he has are slightly different - he can control certain things, he's not just firing repulsors."

Two of the new characters in the sequel are Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who were introduced in the end credits scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When asked about their origin story, the director had this to say.

"They have an origin but it's largely described. They're already good to go by the time we're up and running. You don't want to fall into Spider-Man 3 territory - and I say that as a guy who actually thinks pretty well of that movie, there's some great stuff in that movie - but there comes a point where you're overloaded with frontstory, backstory, origin story and it becomes very hard to juggle. My instinct is always, 'Don't put in more, work with what you have.' But I insisted on putting in more in this movie because I felt I needed more villains. I needed someone for Ultron to talk to, and I need more trouble for the Avengers. As powerful as Ultron is, if he builds more Ultrons, they're Ultrons. There's no reason for him to ever to talk to them because they're him. 'I need you to - I KNOW! I AM TOTALLY YOU! I DID IT EARLIER! I know that because I am also me.' That's not a good conversation. Actually, it sounded pretty good there. I think I'm onto something."

What do you think about these new details? CLICK HERE to check out the director's full interview with Empire, and stay tuned for more details on Avengers: Age of Ultron, which hits theaters May 1.