The Russo Bros. Offer an Update on AVENGERS 4 and Explain Why INFINITY WAR Was so Gratifying
We've still got a long way to go before we see how the story of the Avengers will continue in Avengers 4. But directors Anthony and Joe Russo have been hard at work developing the next chapter in the story. In a recent interview with Deadline, Anthony offered an update on where they are in the process of completing Avengers 4:
"We’ve worked on the edit all summer and we’re excited to finally get these missing pieces in the film and then we expect to be in post through the fall and winter. We hope to be done by March."
He went on to talk about what is so gratifying about working on these final two Avengers films, saying:
"It was so gratifying that in a movie with this scope and scale and that wide of an audience, that we were able to end with a gut punch and yet the audience stayed with us and found value and kept coming back.
"It’s a rare thing to find in commercial filmmaking and we know it had a lot to do with the capital that’s been built up around these characters for the last ten years of Marvel filmmaking. The audience is so invested in these characters that they’re willing to stick with them even through the hard stuff. It has been our great pleasure as storytellers to take them through that hard stuff and have it be a cathartic and even entertaining experience at times."
Avengers: Infinity War was certainly filled with all kinds of emotional gut-punch moments and I imagine as the surviving Avengers attempt to save the day in Avengers 4, there will be other sacrifices that need to be made. Joe Russo went on to talk about Spider-Man's death, saying:
"It was probably when a 10-year old boy at a Q&A was crying as he asked us why we killed Spider-Man. From the time we came to Marvel, our goal was to surprise the audience and not give them the same thing but rather to challenge them."
And, obviously, they wanted to make ten-year-olds cry. That's got to be the most gratifying part for them! They go on to explain that with every Marvel film they make, that want to bring some kind of controversy to it. They want to push the audience and make things emotionally complex for us.
"That the audience has shown up wanting more is a testament to the hard work everybody has put in over those last ten years of films."
What are your thoughts on what the Russo Bros. had to say here? Avengers 4 opens May 3, 2019.