There’s only so much information on Avengers: Infinity War we can siphon from Marvel Studios, so for more juicy morsels on the grandest superhero movie yet, we turned to its masterminds: directors Joe and Anthony Russo.
The brotherly filmmaking duo faced the press underneath a tent at the end of a sweltering summer day in Atlanta, Georgia. They had spent the afternoon filming as much of the scenes in Wakanda before the sun set – which isn’t easy when your cast is dressed in layers upon layers upon layers of leather, breastplates, and other superheroic garb.
With much of the film’s secrets yet to be revealed, here’s what we could extract from our hospitable guests.
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier Laid the Groundwork for Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War and its still-untitled sequel are meant to wrap up the story that began with the first Iron Man in 2008, but it’s also a continuation of what began in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That was the first Marvel movie directed by the Russos, and they’ve been quietly laying the groundwork for a series of films.
“Since we entered the MCU as storytellers, and we picked up the story with Winter Soldier, we've been carrying a narrative thread forward from that point,” Anthony said. “For us, this movie is very much about, how do we move forward from [Captain America:] Civil War in a big way? And what happens to that division between the Avengers? And how does that affect them? What does that mean when the greatest threat they'll ever face comes to them, in that kind of a condition, in that kind of divided condition?”
Captain America: The Winter Soldier saw Cap & co discover Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and his old pal Bucky had been brainwashed into becoming a bionic super assassin. The results were to disband S.H.I.E.L.D. and leak all its information online. In Civil War, these events helped lead to a clash between Iron Man and Captain America, a battle that cracked the Avengers team and pit friends against friends.
In Infinity War, they’ll have to somehow work as a team again when the biggest threat they’ve ever faced comes to earth.
2. Infinity War Picks Up Two Years After Captain America: Civil War
How much time has passed in the movie world since Civil War? As Anthony said, they “always do everything based on when the last movie came out.” When we pick back up with earth’s mightiest heroes, it’ll be “roughly two years,” Joe noted.
3. Where’s Hawkeye?
One character we haven’t seen… really, at all is Clint Barton (a.k.a. Hawkeye). Anthony said that character “has a unique reaction to the Civil War situation that puts him in a special spot in this film.” When last we saw Clint, he was locked away in The Raft with the other heroes who fought alongside Steve Rogers. Though, good ol’ Cap came back to break them out.
“Coming out of Civil War, he's in the same position that Cap and Falcon are at the end of that movie -- characters on Cap's side coming out of the Civil War,” Joe said. “Some made certain decisions and others made other decisions that led to different paths in them dealing with oversight in this movie in a different way. So Hawkeye's on his own journey in this movie.”
4. Infinity War Is Inspired by 1990s Crime Films
If The Winter Soldier was a political-thriller, Guardians of the Galaxy was a space opera, and Thor: Ragnarok was a buddy road trip through the cosmos, then Infinity War is a heist movie. While the directors call the film “a combination of franchises” with the amount of characters they’re working with, Anthony remarked, “I would say it's an adventure film, but we were inspired by ‘90s crime films when we were working on the script. So it's got an energy to it, a bit of a smash and grab energy.”
“Like the heist genre,” Joe added.
Specifically, they pointed to John Herzfeld’s 2 Days in the Valley of 1996 and Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight of 1998.
5. Past Marvel Directors Were Involved With Infinity War
The Russos weren’t the only directors to contribute to Infinity War. “I would say collectively, everyone in the Marvel universe has been involved in this movie,” Anthony said. “We're very close with all the directors, we love them all.”
The filmmaking duo named Peyton Reed (director of Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp), Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange), Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) and James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2). Why? Because each character brings with them characteristics from their respective worlds — whether it be Wakanda (where a chunk of Infinity War is set) or space (Star-Lord’s domain). Who knows them better than the directors?
“We're working in a real collaborative, united artists approach to the movie in respect to where people are taking their characters,” Anthony said.
6. How Infinity War Connects to Avengers 4
At one point, Marvel announced Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 and Part 2. Then Part 2 dropped its title, and studio head Kevin Feige teased that its new moniker would be too much of a spoiler to reveal at the time. So now it’s just “untitled Avengers 4 movie” at the moment.
Joe said the two films connect to each other the same way The Winter Soldier connects to Civil War, and the same way Civil War connects to Infinity War. “There’s a narrative thread that is connecting these films, but at the same time, there's an independence in terms of what the experience is or where the story goes. It isn't a true two-parter, and I think the two-parter concept came back when Marvel decided they were going to culminate the MCU. It was going to be a two-movie deal, but as we developed the movie, it ended up being more of two singular expressions.”
7. Ant-Man and the Wasp Will Help Set Up Avengers 4
When asked which of the Marvel films have the most significant lead-in to Infinity War and Avengers 4, Joe had this to say: “I think from a plot standpoint, if there's any corollary, Ant-Man 2 probably has some elements that stitch in.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp hits theaters on July 6 -- just over two months after Infinity War opens. The film will see Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) fighting side by side with Hope van Dyne (Evangline Lilly). Considering the presence of Michelle Pfeiffer as Hope’s dimensionally displaced mother, Janet van Dyne, it looks like it will feature a return trip to that trippy Quantum Realm.
8. Captain Marvel Used to Be in Infinity War
When Fandango infiltrated the set of Infinity War in June 2017, press spotted mailboxes designated for each cast member. One notable inclusion was a box that had been put aside for Brie Larson, who will play Carol Danvers in the MCU. “Captain Marvel on set, is that official?” Joe asked a publicist in front of press. “If it's not, it's official now. I think Captain Marvel had a great outfit.”
Since then, things have changed. The Russos came out to say Captain Marvel won’t appear in Infinity War, but it looks like she’ll be coming in Avengers 4.
Fans will meet the comic book strongwoman on the big screen in March 6, 2019. Captain Marvel will be set in the 1990s, before the events of the first Iron Man movie and before Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury lost an eye. As for the villains, Carol will be battling the notorious shapeshifting aliens known as the Skrulls.
9. Be Careful What You Wish For
The Russos have heard the criticisms about how these Marvel heroes are seemingly becoming more indestructible by the day. So, if you’ve been wondering if anyone will actually die by the end of Infinity War, be prepared.
“We'll say this,” Anthony said. “We like mature storytelling. We like dramatic storytelling. We like intense storytelling. I think we appreciate conflict and we appreciate stakes, and without stakes, there really isn't a lot of value to the story. And I think if you look at the Marvel Universe as a story that's been told for 10 years, you can look at this as the climax. And the stakes will be higher in this movie than they've ever been -- times 10.”
10. Avengers 4 Will Close the Book on this Multi-Film Story
“If you were to think of the Marvel universe over the last 10 years [as a] book, this is the ending of the book,” Joe said. “And then there may be new books written, but this is certainly the ending of this book.”
In other words, the story that began with Iron Man will come to a close by the end of Avengers 4. But Marvel has already reserved a number of release dates for various superhero films, so the world will continue to expand. It’s just this particular story that’s ending.
“What it means for us is that, while you're always looking for cataclysmic events in a film -- to change a character, to challenge a character, to explore who that character is, and test who that character is -- it gave all of us in this film an opportunity to figure out what were those ultimate tests for these characters,” Anthony explained. “To go one step further even than how you would normally test the character in one of these films because we had the freedom to think of it in many, many cases as a final test.”
For more on the story of Avengers: Infinity War straight from writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, check out part two!
Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on April 27. Check out the film’s hub to see more top-secret files.
