‘Avengers: Infinity War’: Anthony Russo Reveals Why Thor’s Ship Was Redesigned

It’s certainly no secret that Avengers: Infinity War took the Marvel Cinematic Universe to some dark places, and it looks like that even transferred over to the film’s aesthetic.

During Infinity War’s new directors’ commentary, the creative team behind the Marvel Studios blockbuster addressed the cosmetic changes in film’s opening sequence. When Thanos (Josh Brolin) and the Black Order are seen holding their domain over the Asgardian jump ship, it’s clear that the interior of the ship is much bleaker than in Thor: Ragnarok — for a good reason.

“I think this is a good example of how things change tonally when you go from movie to story to story.” co-director Anthony Russo explained. “This ship in Ragnarok was very brightly colored, you know. It had the vibrancy and whimsy of that film, which works so very well there. We are telling a very different story here, so we redesigned it with a different texture and tone to support this story.”

“[The] moral of the story being: never have the Russos redecorate your house,” co-screenwriter Christopher Markus joked.

“We’ll burn it down.” Russo echoed.

All joking aside, it definitely makes sense for Infinity War to have taken some cosmetic leaps from Ragnarok, especially considering the earlier film’s upbeat, colorful palette. And according to Markus and his co-writer Stephen McFeely, Ragnarok proved to be an interesting challenge narratively as well.

“We’re starting this script in January of 2016,” McFeely said during the directors’ commentary. “There’s no Ragnarok script. They are in various stages of development, so the first scene of this movie changed a bunch. Until we found out that they were going to end on a trip off of a destroyed Asgard, we didn’t know where Thanos would find Loki.”

“We did know we wanted Thanos to come to Loki,” Markus added. “We have drafts of it in any number of places.”

And even as that Asgardian ship scene has proven to be tragic – and fairly controversial – it did place Marvel’s God of Thunder in a pretty interesting storytelling opportunity.

“I think it’s very similar to Captain America’s situation when we picked up his story in Winter Solider when Joe and I came on to do our first movie for Marvel,” Anthony Russo said before Infinity War was released. “Cap was in a place where we were very much catching him up in the modern world and seeing what that meant to him, and figuring out how you move a character that far forward, and that far away from where they started back during the 40s. So I think in Thor, we have similar opportunities with that character in this movie is that he’s going through a radical transformation, and he’s moving forward in a way where he can never go back. And that’s always a fun place to be with a character as a storyteller.”

What do you think of how Infinity War picked up from Thor: Ragnarok? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Avengers: Infinity War is now available on Digital HD. Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, and Avengers 4 on May 3, 2019, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019.