The "Hard" Part of Making Avengers Movies Is Keeping Every Marvel Star Happy

Making an Avengers movie sounds like superhero filmmaking on hard mode. You’ve got massive action sequences, secretive scripts, ridiculous schedules, tons of characters to juggle, and enough moving parts to make even Nick Fury reach for the aspirin.

But according to the Russo Brothers, one of the toughest parts has nothing to do with explosions or visual effects. It’s making sure every major actor walks away happy with what their character gets to do.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a massive entertainment machine, with movies and streaming projects regularly expanding its collection of heroes, villains, and increasingly complicated timelines. Fans see the finished product, but getting one of these giant crossover movies from script to screen requires years of work.

That was especially true for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which brought together characters from nearly every corner of the MCU.

Joe Russo recently talked about the challenge of handling such a huge group of stars, explaining that he and Anthony Russo had to continually work through the material to make sure everyone felt satisfied with their role.

Speaking with CBR about Infinity War, Russo explained: “It's combing through, grinding it over again and again obsessively for the two and half years that we're working on on that project to make sure that he's happy. And Hemsworth's happy, and Holland's happy, and Evans is happy and Scarlett's happy. And everyone feels fufilled.”

That adds another layer to what already sounds like an insane filmmaking puzzle. When you think about Infinity War and Endgame, the obvious logistical nightmare is getting that enormous cast into the same movie.

Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., and the rest of the MCU crew all had their own franchises, schedules, character arcs, and expectations.

The Russos also shot Infinity War and Endgame back to back, which made an already enormous undertaking even more complicated. Yet scheduling everybody and managing the scale of production were only pieces of the problem. The filmmakers also had to give those actors material that made their characters feel important.

That’s tricky when you’re dealing with heroes audiences have followed across multiple movies. Captain America can’t simply stand around while Iron Man gets everything interesting to do.

Thor needs his moments. Black Widow needs hers. Spider-Man needs a meaningful part of the story. Meanwhile, all those individual character beats have to serve one movie rather than feeling like a collection of disconnected cameos.

The Russos pulled that off remarkably well with Infinity War and Endgame. Their MCU work, which also includes Captain America: The Winter Soldier, has generally put character and emotion alongside the giant comic book spectacle.

That approach is a big reason some of their biggest action sequences work as well as they do. The audience actually cares about the people throwing punches.

Now imagine trying to do all of that again with Avengers: Doomsday. The next Avengers movie brings the Russos back for another gigantic MCU crossover, and this cast is absolutely nuts. The film includes heroes from the Avengers, New Avengers, Fantastic Four, and returning stars from the original X-Men movies.

Then there’s Downey Jr. returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom, along with Evans making his own return. That gives the Russos an absurd number of characters competing for screen time, meaningful moments, and satisfying arcs.

If making Hemsworth, Holland, Evans, Johansson, and everyone else feel fulfilled on Infinity War was hard, Doomsday sounds like an even bigger creative juggling act.

It also makes you look at these Avengers movies a little differently. Fans naturally debate who got enough screen time, who deserved a bigger fight, or which hero should have been given a better moment. The filmmakers are apparently having many of those same conversations for years before we ever sit down in a theater.

Of course, Joe and Anthony Russo have already earned plenty of trust from Marvel Studios, the actors, and MCU fans. The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame showed that they know how to handle superhero spectacle without losing track of the characters audiences came to see.

Avengers: Doomsday will hit theaters on December 18, 2026. With this many superheroes, returning Marvel stars, and entire teams packed into one movie, keeping everybody happy might be one of the Russos’ greatest superpowers.