Infinity War Directors Knew Spider-Man's Death Scene Would Be a 'Gut Punch'

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Infinity War Directors Knew Spider-Man's Big Scene Would Be 'a Gut Punch'

By Justin Carter

Published May 8, 2018

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo say they fully committed to Spider-Man's meme-inspiring scene from Avengers: Infinity War.

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War, in theaters now.

The ending of Avengers: Infinity War is devastating, but no moment is quite as emotional as Spider-Man's. As one of the victims of Thanos' dramatic finger-snap, Peter Parker pleads that he doesn't want to die before crumbling to ash in Tony Stark's arms.

Speaking with Uproxx, directors Joe and Anthony Russo acknowledged they knew the loss of Spider-Man would be deeply felt by fans. "With Peter specifically, we knew that would be a gut punch," Joe Russo said. "I mean, that was my favorite character growing up."

"Once we commit to a story idea, we commit to the fullest version of that," Anthony Russo added. "The potency of that moment is a function of us following that creative choice." Joe Russo continued, "We kept pushing it on set farther and farther with the emotional performance that we wanted. And part of it was improvisation on Tom Holland’s part."

Holland's repetition of "I don't want to go" was borne of the directors explaining that Peter was a child who didn't understand why he was dying.

Spider-Man's death scene spawned a meme, which the Russo brothers find hilarious. "People keep forwarding them to me," Joe Russo said. "Interestingly, I haven’t seen a Trump one yet."

In theaters now, Avengers: Infinity War stars 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.