The AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Films Will Feel "Very Different From One Another"
Captain America: Civil War is poised for a big reception from fans (it's already impressed critics so far), and though there are a couple of standalone films after that, the next really big Marvel Studios event is going to be the two-part Avengers: Infinity War. io9 caught up with directors Anthony and Joe Russo, producer Kevin Feige, and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to ask about what we can expect:
“The movies are very very different from one another,” said Anthony Russo. “It’s not a part one and part two scenario, necessarily. They’re just two different expressions. I think it creates a misconception that we’re shooting them at the same time.”
(Just to be clear: they are shooting the two movies back to back, but I think Anthony is trying to say that because of the shooting schedule, some people might think that it's just one big story that gets cut in half. It sounds like that's not the case.)
But what can we expect in terms of the story picking up from what we've seen before?
“For us there’s a through line from Winter Soldier, through Civil War, right to Infinity War,” said Anthony Russo. “In our mind, the storytelling arc moves that way.”
“There’s an overarching story that’s going to be told through all four films,” added Joe Russo. “And I think having the amount of characters we have in [Civil War] certainly prepares us to deal with probably triple the amount of characters in Infinity War.”
That sounds like an insane number of characters, which is something I've expressed trepidation about before. Maybe when I see Civil War, those concerns will be put to rest — and I really hope they are. Thankfully, Feige says that a lot of the set-up has already taken place:
“Much of the groundwork has already been laid,” he said. “That’s the truth. Doctor Strange will lay some more. Thor: Ragnarok will lay some more—but I think the majority of it is already there.”
That's good news. Everyone was tight-lipped when it came to story specifics, but the writers did mention that they're in the middle of working out the script right now:
“We sent in literally 60 pages of unrelated ideas,” Markus added. “Just like ‘Here’s some stuff that could happen in this insane movie.’ Then we came back from Atlanta and everyone had a copy of that [document] and they’d circle this, ‘This is cool, this is insane, this is cool, we’re not allowed to do that,’ and from there we’ve pieced it together very slowly. We’re in the middle of it now.”
Avengers: Infinity War — Part 1 hits on May 4, 2018, and Part 2 arrives on May 3, 2019.