Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer released early after leak

Marvel Studios has released the official trailer for the highly anticipated superherosequelAvengers: Age of UltronWednesday after an unauthorized clip hit the web earlier in the day.

• On mobile? See theofficial trailer forAvengers:Age ofUltronhere

The action-packed 2-minutesfeatures many of theoriginal superheros, includingRobertDowneyJr.'s Iron Man,Chris Evans'Captain America, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widowand Mark Ruffaloas a beleaguered-lookingBruce Banner.

It also features new Avengers charactersScarlettWitch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

Director/writerJoss Whedonis back at helm for this next chapter in the blockbuster franchise, which centres on the thesupervillainous robot,Ultron a TonyStark creation gone wrong.

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The videowas expected to air on ABC next Tuesday after an episode ofMarvels Agents of SHIELD.But it surfacedonline early Wednesday, forcing Marvel to show its hand, andacknowledgethe breachin a Twitter message, blamingthe leak onthe villainousorganization,Hyrda.

• On mobile? See the tweet here

Shortly afterthat, Marvelreleased the trailer, and then gave fans their first look at the movie's official poster.

• On mobile? See movie poster tweet here

The Marvel publicity machine appears to beworking full tilt, and the studio isclearly banking on a winner.

The first Avengerstook in a whopping$1.5 billion US in 2012, making it the third highest-grossing film of all-time.

Avengers: Age of Ultronis due intheatres May 1, 2015.