AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR — Joe Russo On Attempting To Improve Upon CIVIL WAR

Marvel Studios has been churning out quality films for a while now, and while they all aren't bright spots (Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3) it's fair to say that most of them are pretty good, if not great. With Captain America: Civil War, Marvel put it all together. They gave us a fast-paced action-adventure film with fun and exhilarating set-pieces, the welcome comedic interaction between a cast of intriguing characters who all seem to fit into the story organically, and a great story in itself. Returning to the helm of the franchise with Avengers: Infinity War, Joe Russo and Anthony Russo offer an impressive track record in the MCU thus far, arguably making two of the best films in the Marvel Universe (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War). It's certainly exciting to have The Russo Brothers sharing the director's chair once again, but it begs the question: How can you top Civil War? Is there pressure? Here's director Joe Russo with the answer (courtesy of Comicbook.com):

"It's tricky, there could be a lot of pressure. We put pressure on ourselves, we feel the pressure. At the same time we have to be very zen and we have to step outside of that pressure because if you make decisions based on expectations and based on feeling that pressure, you're going to make bad decisions."

Yeah, it'll be tricky! They juggled twelve heroes in Civil War but seemed to find a certain place for everyone that worked within the film's overall narrative. Infinity War is aiming to find a place for every hero that's been introduced thus far in the MCU and with a film that jam-packed, it's going to be difficult to pull off. Joe elaborates:

"Ultimately, at the end of the day, the thing that we prioritize above all else is storytelling, and we just focus on the storytelling and the characters and how they fit into the narrative, and we just keep trying to tell the best story that we can every time out. That's all about script work, there's an intense amount of script work that we put in. It's months and months spent in a room with us and with [Christopher] Markus and [Stephen] McFeely talking through the story, talking through the characters, turning over every stone, rewriting every scene, talking about whether this is the best line into a scene, best line out of a scene, is this the best execution of this scene, what else could the story be here."

It's awesome to hear the effort that they're putting in on this film as it's definitely one that can't be approached haphazardly. With so much going on, it's going to be interesting to see how they can make a cohesive film, but they're not trying to think about it too much:

"We try to ignore any sort of external pressures because they can just lead you to a bad place creatively."

I'm pretty excited to see the fruits of their labor, but we're still going to have to wait until 2018 to witness Infinity War and 2019 for the yet-to-be-named Avengers 4. Are you excited for Avengers: Infinity War? Think it'll top Civil War? Let us know in the comments below!