’21 Bridges’: Russo Brothers on New Chadwick Boseman Crime Thriller

Following their work on Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War before it, Anthony Russo and Joe Russo will shift from a directorial role to a producing job on 21 Bridges. The upcoming crime thriller will star Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman in what looks like an intense ride through New York City’s streets. The first footage was revealed at CinemaCon, where ComicBook.com caught up with the filmmaking duo to hear about the upcoming project.

“It was awesome,” Joe Russo said of re-teaming with Boseman for 21 Bridges. “I mean, a lot of our experience over the last seven years with the cast and crew at Marvel is everyone’s like a big family now and, you know, we grew up on a genre. The Winter Soldier is an example of how thrillers were really important to our cinematic upbringing and this one is awesome. I mean, it’s intense. The action is fantastic. It’s the kind of movie that they’re, I feel like they’re not really making a lot of anymore. It’s a real throw back to a 70’s thriller. It’s, it feels like a Lumet movie.”

Directing the film under the production of the Russo Brothers is Brian Kirk, who previously directed episodes of Game of Thrones. “He did an amazing job,” Joe Russo said.

“He’s a very savvy director,” Anthony Russo chimed in. “I mean, he really, like again, Joe was saying, we love genre and Brian has a very sophisticated sense of genre. Just to watch him sort of structure the movie, very, so intricately was really impressive. We really admire the work he’s done and he collaborated with the cast wonderfully and the cast is really amazing in that movie.”

The cast beside Boseman includes Sienna Miller, Taylor Kitsch, J.K. Simmons and Keith David. In fact, the high level of talent helped draw Boseman into the project.

“Several things, I would say that it was a combination of being able to have a fast paced action movie,” Boseman said during STXFilms’ CinemaCon presentation. “When I read the script, I could tell that this was gonna be a ride. It’s a ride when ou watch it. At the same time, it took me back to my theater days where you have the fast-paced language… I lived in New York for years. I feel like this movie sort of captured that sort of things.” He went on to compliment the impressive talent of his co-stars.

“The whole thing has been a great experience,” he added. “You see those roles in there and just start to think, ‘Who could do this?’”

Though 21 Bridges is one of many projects pulling the Russo Brothers away from Marvel (one of which includes Spider-Man actor Tom Holland), they expect a homecoming to within the studio sometime down the line — after a considerable break.

21 Bridges will hit theaters late this year. The Russo Brothers’ directorial effort on Avengers: Endgame will hit theaters on April 26.

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