The INFINITY WAR Directors Discuss The Risks They Took and Not Consulting James Gunn on What They Did with The Guardians

During a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Russo Bros. talked a little bit about the process they go through after they come up with the stories for their Marvel films, and in the case of Avengers: Infinity War, who they decide to kill off. 

If you've seen the film, then you know that the majority of the Guardians of the Galaxy team didn't come out of it alive. The one left was Rocket Raccoon. The poor little rabbit lost his entire family, including Groot, whose last word to Rocket before he died was, "Dad". 

Turns out that the Russo Bros. didn't even consult with James Gunn on the decision to kill off Gamora. They just brought their story concept to Marvel Studios along with a list of characters they were going to kill off and then Marvel gave them the greenlight! They explain:

"Basically we set out a story we want to tell, and we present that to Marvel. And we got no pushback from that choice. We didn't have a direct conversation with James about the Gamora choice, but I'm sure, certainly, Kevin did. And there was no pushback on it."

We still have yet to see who of the Guardians team will actually come back or how it will happen. But a lot of fans seem to believe that if there is one character that's not coming back, it's Gamora. Joe Russo goes on to talk about Marvel allowing them to take risks of the benefit of the story.

For us, I think, again, at the end of the day and part of the reason we made four movies with Marvel is that they're very good at allowing each movie to be what it needs to be. Nothing is sacred. They take risks, and they've gotten better at taking risks, illustrated by their run of Ragnarok, Homecoming, Black Panther, and now this movie. And I think that there was a change of guard at Marvel quite a few years back that just really allowed for more significant creative freedom and it's highlighted our time there. They've been great about allowing us to make really extreme choices and game changers at the end of each of these films that we've worked on with them.

I know a lot of people think that these dead characters are coming back, and I'm sure some of them will. But in the end, there are still going to be characters who really die and don't come back. We just don't know who those characters are yet. 

What characters in the MCU do you think will come back to life, and which of them do you think are going to stay dead for real by the time Avengers 4 comes to an end?