Russo Brothers Tease MCU Ending Current Run After 'Avengers 4'

The end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it is looming, though the stories of Marvel Comics heroes on the big screen will inevitably continue.

ComicBook.com's visit to the set of Avengers: Infinity War didn't come with the standard plot details of most set visits. Instead, one scene and some costumes were unveiled, actors teased how terrifying Thanos really is, but most of the film's spoilers were well-kept. The sibling directors Anthony and Joe Russo, however, did claim their ensemble movie would mark the end of an era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"If you were to think of the Marvel universe over the last ten years as a book, this is the ending of the book," Joe Russo said. "And then there may be new books written, but this is certainly the ending of this book."

"I think as story tellers, what it means for us is that while you're always looking for a cataclysmic event in a film, to change a character, to challenge a character, and to sort of explore who that character is, and test who that character is, I think it gave all of us in this film an opportunity to figure out, well what were those ultimate tests for these characters?" Anthony Russo adds. "To sort of go one step further even than how you would normally test a character in one of these films because we have the freedom to sort of think of it, in many cases, as sort of a final test."

The film itself is also the end of an era for the Russo Brothers, who began their journey with Marvel Studios on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and had an overarching story in mind. "Since we entered the MCU as storytellers, we picked up the story with Winter Soldier, we've been carrying a thread forward from that point, a narrative thread," Anthony Russo said. "For us, this movie is very much about how do we move forward from Civil War in a big way, and what happens to that division between the Avengers, and how does that affect them. What does that mean, when the greatest threat they'll ever face comes to them, in that kind of a condition, in that kind of a divided condition."

"It's been a personal journey, frankly, I think for us, as filmmakers from Winter Solider," Joe Russo adds. "There were seeds set in that movie that I think that we then tried to expound upon in Civil War, that then led to Infinity War. How we feel about the characters, as comic book fans, the story that we wanna see, re-imagining these characters through a very personal point of view. It's not only a culmination of the last 10 years of Marvel storytelling, but for us, it's a culmination of our journey as directors to the Marvel Universe."

Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on April 27, 2018. If you have any questions about ComicBook.com's time on set of Avengers: Infinity War, leave them in the comment section below or send them to @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter!