Russo Bros. on High Stakes in INFINITY WAR, Spider-Man, and Cap's Suit in CIVIL WAR
Joe and Anthony Russo are currently working on Captain America: Civil War, and when they are done with that they are going to jump right into developing Avengers: Infinity War. The MCU is a locomotive of awesomeness and there's no stopping it now. We just get to ride along on Marvel's adventure, and it's exciting to think about the things that will eventually happen.
The two directors recently did an interview with Weeping Angel in China, and they talked a great deal about Civil War, and Captain America's relationship with Winter Soldier and Black Widow. They talk about the challenges of making the film, their approach in bringing Spider-Man to life in the Marvel universe, Cap's costume, and how the stakes have been raised for the Avengers in Infinity War.
When Joe was asked the awkward question of Cap and Bucky's relationship in the story and if it was somewhat sexual, he said:
"People can interpret the relationship however they want to interpret it. For us, we’ve always interpreted the relationship as two brothers. They’re very close characters, they have a relationship with each other that is very deep. The bond between them is very strong, [which is] what motivates the storytelling. These are both characters that came from nothing. Captain America was basically an orphan, and Bucky’s family took him in. When he was asleep for several years, he lost everything that was dear to him. And when he took the serum and became Captain America, he gave away a large part of himself for a patriotic cause. So, you have a character who is searching for the only thing that he has left from his past… and that’s Bucky. And people interpreted that relationship all kinds of ways and it’s great to see people argue about it what that relationship means to them."
He was then asked about Cap's relationship with Black Widow, which has been really fun to see grow over the years in these films. I love the kind of relationship they have, but things are going to be strained a bit in Civil War when Black Widow sides with Tony Stark.
"They do care very deeply for each other, I think, as much as any two characters in Avengers do, and I think you'll see that [platonic dynamic] again in Civil War. I think two of the most endearing scenes in the film are between Steve and Natasha. And of course, that relationship will carry forward into Infinity War. They have a real respect for each other, but they're very different and they admire the differences in each other, and they find a commonality in those differences."
The directing team is then asked how the new Spider-Man will be different from the previous iterations portrayed by Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Anthony gave the following answer:
"This is a completely new version of Spider-Man that’s introduced in Civil War. It was very important to us that we go younger with the character because what we love about Spider-Man is that he’s still a high school student. That’s a part of his vulnerability and it’s what makes him special in the Marvel Universe; he’s very unique. We wanted to play to that aspect of the character. We also wanted to think about ‘Who is Spider-Man today?’ A lot of times when you get interpretations of Spider-Man, they’re very nostalgic to the origins of the character. Sometimes there’s an old-fashioned patina to the tone of who Spider-Man is. We wanted to think about who is Spider-Man today if he’s living in Queens, what’s the texture of his life like, what’s the texture of his relationship with his aunt who lives with him. How can we make the relationship and character very contemporary? That’s our goal with the character."
Spider-Man is the character I think Marvel fans are excited about seeing introduced in this movie, and Marvel isn't giving us anything yet! They are keeping him locked up until they are ready to introduce the new Spider-Man to the world. The character is being played by Tom Holland, and Marisa Tomei is playing Aunt May, who will also appear in Civil War.
The Russos are later asked about how high the stakes will be for Earth's mightiest heroes in Captain America: Civil War as well as the two-part Avengers: Infinity War. Joe explains:
"The stakes of both Civil War and the Avengers: Infinity War movies are gonna be very high, and there will be a price to pay [for?] a lot of characters, and that’s the whole point of cumulative storytelling. We’re going to go on emotional journeys with these characters. We’ve got a lot invested in the emotion. We have responsibilities to be mindful of how these people feel about the characters and, at the same time, we also have a responsibility to carry through on the storytelling. As filmmakers, we believe in stakes. You can’t have good storytelling without strong stakes. So, there will be a price to pay in Civil War. There will be characters that..."
It trails off because you can't hear what he says in the video below. It then picks back up with Infinity War in which he explains, "the stakes will be raised to a whole new level." He continues, saying, "people should expect to be shocked when they see the movies."
As for Cap's new suit with the classic scale mail design, Anthony says:
"It is a new costume. We were trying to pull forward the work that we had done in Captain America: The Winter Soldier on Cap. So, the innovations that we made to his costume in that form are very much the tonal texture that we are pulling forward. Civil War is very much connected and rooted in The Winter Soldier. So, as far as the specifics of the costume, we don’t want to give too much away, but it is a new costume slightly different from what you’ve seen before. And it’s grounded in that Winter Soldier tone."
We've already seen a some promo art of Cap's new outfit, but it will be fun to see it brought to life. Captain America: Civil War comes out on May 6th, 2016, and there's no doubt it's going to bring all kinds of entertaining Marvel greatness.