'Avengers: Infinity War' Will Mesh Character Tones Into a Heist Movie

Ever since Avengers: Infinity War was announced a couple of years ago, Marvel fans have been losing their minds over the idea of seeing all of their favorite characters on the same screen, working together to fight the villainous Thanos. However, those same fans have also been left wondering, "How are they going to fit everyone in?"

For directors Joe and Anthony Russo, the answer is quite simple. They're going to treat Infinity War like a '90s heist movie.

Last summer, ComicBook.com had a chance to speak with the Russo brothers on the set of Infinity War, and they explained just how they were handling the massive amount of characters that they were handed when making this movie.

"There's a lot of characters in these movies that have tones that they're bringing from their own franchises," Joe explained. "I think it's a very unique film. I don't think there are a lot of movies that have the kind of tone that this movie has, because it's a combination of franchises. I don't think we've ever seen that before, on this scale. It's got a really unique tone to it. I think it's propulsive. I would say it's an adventure film, but it has elements of a ... We were inspired by 90s crime films when we were working on the script, so it's got an energy to it, a bit of a smash-and-grab energy."

"It's like a heist genre, in a sense," Anthony added.

When you think about heist movies, this comparison to Infinity War actually makes a lot of sense. Let's take Ocean's 11 as an example, since it followed a pretty standard framework for a heist film. Danny Ocean (George Clooney) put together what seemed like a very odd group of individuals to pull off a crazy plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos at the same time. All of the men Danny recruited were weird in their own right, and they seemed to belong to completely different movie genres, but that's what made them all work together. They all had different strengths, and the film itself utilized them all in different scenes to highlight those strengths. This is what made guys like Bernie Mac and Casey Affleck, polar opposite in their acting styles, work well on screen together.

Like Ocean's 11, Avengers: Infinity War will utilize the strengths of different characters, from vastly different films, and put them together to achieve one common goal. The ability to mesh genre characters while allowing them to still be themselves is what will make a scene featuring Tony Stark, Star-Lord, and Doctor Strange work so well.

Joe Russo furthered this point as he dove into just how important the characters are in this movie.

"Everything has always got to be character-based," Joe said. We know we can't, if we're sitting in the edit room, watch a sequence for more than 20 seconds, without a character having a point of view, or moving the action forward. My brain just shuts down, and I start thinking about my laundry. The action, for us, it's always character-based."

Anthony went on to say that mixing the tones of those characters was the most important aspect when it came to bringing Infinity War to life.

"Again, for us, when you are dealing with all these different types of characters, and all these different tones that have been established in the various films and storylines, it's like it becomes our organizing principle for tone, in terms of what the world is that we're creating, what rules are we playing by, and how does that filter ... Every character, no matter where they're coming from, has to intersect with the reality of that tone and that genre."

One thing is for certain: Infinity War is going to be unlike anything the superhero genre has ever seen before, and it will likely change the way these movies are made in the years to come.

Marvel's Black Panther is currently playing in theaters around the world, and Avengers: Infinity War is set to debut on April 27.

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