By its end, Avengers: Infinity War proved to be the deadliest movie in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with tough choices being made by the sibling directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo.
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Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War follow. Major spoilers!
Not only did Thanos bring death to Loki, Heimdall, and Gamora, but with the snap of his fingers he erased Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Drax, Mantis, Star-Lord, Spider-Man, and more heroes from existence. Half of the universe went with them. As for the heroes, the directors tell ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview that the choices regarding which heroes to take were made creatively to serve the narrative moving forward.
“Joe and I can’t go into too much detail because we’re not gonna talk about where the story goes from here,” Anthony Russo says. “All of our choices are based on story. It’s based upon the road that these characters have traveled, in not only this movie, but throughout the entire MCU up to this point because, again, these movies are the culmination. So all we can say is that they are very focused story choices. That’s our motivation for everything. And, again, that’s why we love Marvel so much is they never let the tail wag the dog. The creative choices always lead the process and then they figure out how to pull off the miracle of making it work on a business level.”
While this leaves a bit of hope for those characters who were wiped away to be brought back to life in some way, the directors are quick to shut down any chance at redemption for Star-Lord after his punching Thanos in the face disrupted the plan of getting the Infinity Gauntlet from him. “No,” Joe Russo said when asked if the character will win some fans back, “because he’s dead.”
Don’t expect many clues for Avengers 4 any time soon, either. With the film still in need of some reshoots and being far from complete as far as an editing process goes, the directors promise the trailer is nowhere close. They do, however, admit that “Avengers: Forever” is the closest guess for Avengers 4‘s title which they have seen.
As for the killing choices as they went and were shared behind-the-scenes, the Russo Brothers had no easier of a time bringing the moments to life than audiences had watching their favorites go.
“A lot of tears,” Joe Russo says. “They’re never easy conversations to have with people. But I think that people are understanding that the story comes first and a lot of these people have really amazing careers and lots of films that they want to make so, ultimately, I think they go through a grieving process like anyone but you come out the other side at some point and understand what being part of the Marvel Universe did for you. And, like with us, when we move on from Marvel, it’s done amazing things for us and allows us a lot of other opportunities in our careers.”
Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War are now playing in theaters. Ant-Man and The Wasp is set for release on July 6, 2018. Captain Marvel will follow it on March 6, 2019, with the untitled Avengers 4 set to tie everything about the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a bow on May 3, 2019.
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