Avengers: Infinity War Directors Tease New Characters And New Beginning For MCU

The cast of characters operating within the Marvel cinematic universe has grown considerably since Iron Man kicked the whole thing off in 2008, and directors Joe and Anthony Russo have had the privilege and responsibility of introducing a few of the major players. In 2014, the Russos reintroduced Bucky Barnes to the universe as a soviet assassin in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and just this year the Russos introduced in Captain America: Civil War both Black Panther and Spider-Man, ahead of each of those characters' own solo films.

The directors are hinting that they'll continue that trend when they direct Avengers: Infinity War, which will release in 2018. The directors say that the film will both be the climax to the Marvel cinematic universe so far, and begin a new era for the film universe, and a new beginning means introducing new characters.

"I can't get into too much detail about who we're introducing, but these two movies are intended to be the culmination of everything that has happened in the MCU since the very first Iron Man movie," Anthony Russo tells IGN. "In being a culmination, these movies are in some ways going to be an end to certain things, and in some ways, they're going to be the beginning of certain things."

While they wouldn't offer any further story details about which characters they were referring to and what story threads would be wrapping up in Avengers: Infinity War, they did explain that process of choosing characters is a mix of picking characters they like and characters that serve the narrative.

"It's a little bit of both, because you always have to make sure that your choices feel organic to the storytelling, and really, you have to sort of structure them in the way that they need to be there," Anthony Russo said. "You have to have them, or they shouldn't be in the movie. It's a little bit of a dance between the two, where you have big eyes, and you want everybody included in the movie, but you have to go through the process of... what's the best story that you can tell."

Check out when Avengers: Infinity War and other movies are coming out in ComicBook.com's Movie Release Schedule.