Avengers: Paul Bettany Shares New Behind The Scenes ‘Infinity War’ Photo

When making a movie with the scale of a Marvel Studios production, there’s a lot of downtime on […]

September 13, 2017, 3:29pm

When making a movie with the scale of a Marvel Studios production, there’s a lot of downtime on the set for the actors. But actor Paul Bettany knows how to pass the time — by signing a stack of comic books.

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The actor posted a photo taken by Mark Ruffalo to his Instagram account showing him in full Vision gear, makeup and all, signing some copies of the source material that inspired Avengers: Infinity War.

@markruffalo took this picture of me catching up on paper work.
A post shared by Paul Bettany (@paulbettany) on Sep 13, 2017 at 12:39am PDT

The photo was likely taken during the production of the upcoming Avengers movie, with the production of the fourth Avengers movie still being tightly guarded. The Vision appears to have the Mind Stone intact on his forehead, meaning there might be hope for the character surviving a battle with Thanos yet.

With a gold Sharpie in hand, he appears to be adding his signature to a blank sketch variant of Marvel Comics’ Infinity, by Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Justin Ponsor, and Chris Eliopoulos.

The comic seems to be a major source of inspiration for the film. Infinity features Thanos coming to Earth in search of the Time Gem, which he hopes will help him attain the other Infinity Gems which have been destroyed. He’s aided by the Black Order, characters who debuted in the pages of the Marvel event.

One major difference between Infinity and Avengers: Infinity War is that the Avengers are off world, dealing with a threat in outer space. Thanos has failed in his attempts to invade Earth before, so this gives him an ample opportunity to succeed.

In the film, many of the Avengers are divided after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Thanos and the Black Order arrive just in time to capitalize on the fragmented superteam.

With Bettany adding his John Hancock to the cover alongside what appears to be many other signatures, this should be a valuable comic book. No word yet on how it could be obtained, if it’s even possible. Don’t be surprised if it’s auctioned for charity or raffled off for a good cause.

Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4, 2018.