Avengers: Infinity War Director on Role of Black Order

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Avengers: Infinity War Co-Director Describes Role of Black Order

By Jacob Hill

Published Jul 23, 2017

At Comic-Con International in San Diego, Joe Russo opens up about why he's looking forward to menacing the Avengers with the Black Order in Infinity War.

The next Avengers movie will finally show what happens when Thanos gets out of his space throne and takes matters into his own hands. He won't be menacing Earth's mightiest heroes alone; with him is his Black Order, who were shown off at D23. At SDCC, Infinity War co-director Joe Russo went into more detail of just how big a fan he is of the Black Order.

“We get inspired by a lot of different material when we’re working on the movie," Russo told Superhero Hype. "We pulled from both "Infinity" runs for this, and look, there are a scary bunch of characters who I happen to think, when I read the Infinity run, were super cool. And when I got the opportunity to make this movie, I said I have to do the Black Order."

The Black Order is a team of villains which includes Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Supergiant Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian (who goes by the perhaps goofier name Black Dwarf in the comics). They were created by Jonathan Hickman in his epic run on the Avengers comics to give Thanos a supporting cast of his own.

"You know, we have so many characters and Thanos needs to be teased out," Russo continued. "You can’t have the characters challenging him every step of the way. There has to be characters that they have to go through to get to him. The Black Order is the perfect cast of characters to do that with.”

As he describes it, it sounds like the Black Order will be the center of some pretty wild setpieces, and give the Avengers a chance to match wits and brawn against some terrifying villains before facing the Mad Titan himself. Think of Thanos as the final boss fight, and his Black Order as the foes who must be bested along the way.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Infinity War boasts a sprawling ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Benedict Wong, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie. The film arrives in theaters May 4, 2018, with the untitled sequel opening May 3, 2019.