Why Spader Will Make a Great 'Avengers' Baddie

If there's one thing James Spader can pull off, it's playing the asshole. This is no slam against Spader himself — we're sure he's a perfectly nice gentleman — but, to be frank, the characters he's played since his Brat Pack days have been, well, gigantic bags of dicks. But considering Spader will be playing Ultron in the Avengers sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron, it's clear that all his hard, mean guy work has added up to one epic role.

Given that Spader's character is literally in the title of the movie, we're gonna take a wild guess and say he'll play a pretty prominent role in the film. Given, also, that he'll be following in the footsteps of Tom Hiddleston's Loki — arguably one of the most beloved superhero movie villains in recent memory — we'd also say he's got some tall, Shakespeare-trained shows to fill.

Looking back at his history, though, we're pretty convinced Spader can pull it off. He was so good as devilish yuppie Steff in Pretty in Pink that I kind of preferred watching him and Molly Ringwald's Andie interact onscreen than Andie and her actual love interest. He was really cute in that villainous sort of way, and you could tell he spent a lot of his time off-screen brooding. So who better to take over for Loki "Daddy Issues" of Asgard than someone who's proven to be able to have emotions on top of being an evil douche bag?

If you're looking for more proof that Spader's got this covered, all you've gotta do is take a look back at some of the proof:

Pretty in Pink

The Office

And here's a trailer for his new show The Blacklist, premiering on BC this fall

Spader, you're the asshole we love to hate.