‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Writers Explain How They Landed ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’

Marvel Cinematic Universe architects Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely say their firing from the third Chronicles of Narnia movie lead to their first Marvel Studios gig in 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger.

"We chased [Captain America], for sure," McFeely said during a live Q&A hosted by Fatman on Batman's Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, adding the writers "sort of got fired off the third Narnia."

"We had done the first three Narnias, right, and that third one was troubled, and the Writer's Guild went on strike, and [the studio] called and said, 'Hey, when the strike's over, don't come back,'" McFeely said.

"We went 'okay, fine.' So we had nothing to do but try to look for a job, and we spent all year sort of saying no to 'It stars a 13-year-old girl in a magical world of mystery,' and we went, 'we sort of want to do something else.'"

In 2008, Marvel Studios released their first-ever self-financed production in Iron Man, the first of many planned productions in a shared universe that would crossover down the line.

"And Iron Man came out and made it clear that they were going to make a whole run of stuff, including a period Captain America movie," McFeely added. "And we went, 'oh, we should get that.' And we had to spend all of 2008 — say from the summer on — convincing them that we were the right guys and that, you know, it took a while."

After a six-month writing process, McFeely said, "We got the gig in, like, Christmas 2008 and sort of never left Marvel."

In the years since, the writing duo co-scripted Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and both Avengers: Infinity War and the yet-to-be-named Avengers 4.

The writers also opened up about scripting Marvel Studios' first $2 billion-plus grosser, saying the film's position in the top four highest-grossing films of all times is "nuts."

They next continue work on the in-the-can Avengers 4, which has reshoots and post-production in the works ahead of its May 3, 2019 release.