AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Writers Discuss the Shifting Tones Between Character Team-Ups

At this point, we all know that Avengers: Infinity War is going to be packed full of characters, the number of which lands somewhere between a total of sixty and seventy! There's going to be a lot of juggling going on between those characters, but I trust that the Russo brothers will be able to effectively pull it off. 

There was a wall of characters that was made available to director  Anthony and Joe Russo and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to pull from as they developed the story. This was used to help them in the process of deciding what the best character combinations would be that would make sense for their story.

During an interview with ComingSoon, the screenwriters opened up about the process and talked about how the shifting of tones work as the film goes from one character combination to the next throughout the course of the film. Markus says:

"We had wall of characters and at a certain point you just go… 'That’s funny and that’s funny. What’s a story that could get those two (characters) together?'"

McFeely goes on to reveal that they had a word for their character combos:

“It’s a Joe Russo term, ‘strange alchemy.’ What is it when you put the two characters together, even in a fairly normal traditional situation, but since we’ve invested in those characters and known them, we sort of delighted in the idea of those two people rubbing against each other. So, we always chased delight – and terror. Lots of terror. “

I love what I've seen from the film so far and I love the character combos. I was most excited about seeing the Guardians of the Galaxy meeting all of these Avengers characters because it's so out of everyone's element. Their tone is so much different from everyone else's. When talking about the conflicting tones of the characters and mixing them up Markus says:

"You cut to the Guardians and it’s a breather. If you’re going from T’Challa and Captain America being very intense, you cut to Quill and Drax and it’s like, sighs. It doesn’t mean they’re not carrying as much plot, it just means the tone is different. But it’s also fun to drag people into each other’s tones. Pull someone into the Guardians and have them go, ‘What the f*ck is with you guys?'"

That's what I'm excited about and I can't wait to see how they actually end up pulling it off. It's crazy that these filmmakers were able to basically bring together four franchises, each one with a different tone and vibe, into a single film. That's not an easy task and I don't think it's ever been done before on this scale. The writers explain that they used Robert Altman’s 1975 film Nashville as their inspiration. McFeely says:

“One of the challenges we’ve had is how do you make sure this is not 25 people moving from one scene to one scene to one scene? So we talk, being a little facetious about it, but we talk about how it’s like ‘Nashville,’ right? So you’ve got four or five different stories weaved together and then come together and then break apart. So, you get all these different pairings and groupings of four and five and six."

Hey, whatever works in helping them get the job done a deliver a badass movie! Nashville is definitely a great film to use to help guide them in their efforts. While juggling all of these characters, the filmmakers also had to keep in mind all of the stories that we've seen in the previous films. Markus went on to say:

"And there’s also…we’re coming off 'Civil War.' We’re coming off 'Winter Soldier.' So that's there’s lots of backstory that still needs to play out in addition to the Thanos situation. Like, I just walked by Sebastian Stan out there. You could put Bucky in a room with anybody and they’re going to say, 'Oh sh*t! He’s a maniac.' He’s shot Black Widow twice as far as I can keep count, so it’s going to be interesting."

It seems like such a daunting task! So many different ways to go and so many different character combinations! I can't wait to see this thing!

Avengers: Infinity War arrives in theaters on April 27th.