Infinity War Directors on the Film's Unique Challenges & Marvel's Futures

Thanos is coming, and there's nothing Earth's Mightiest Heroes can do about it - or is there?

Ahead of Marvel Studios' latest superhero blockbuster's theatrical release, CBR spoke with co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo about Avengers: Infinity War. While the pair refused to divulge any spoilers regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe's biggest ensemble film to date, the pair were more than willing to open up about the daunting nature of tackling a project with such high expectations attached to it.

The brothers also promised CBR that yes, much like their previous two outings (Captain America: Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War), Infinity War will end with a game-changing moment, and deliver on the hype that has been building around Thanos for over half a decade.

CBR: When I've talked to people about this movie, there's a lot of excitement, but there's also a sense of nervousness about it -- that it's going to be an emotional, maybe traumatic viewing experience. How do you react to that? Is there validity to it, and how heavy do things get?

Joe Russo: We like complex storytelling. You can go back and you look at Winter Soldier, and you look at Civil War, we're not afraid to take swings, we're not afraid of stakes. We appreciate stakes, especially as comic book fanatics and comic book fans. For us, I don't know how else you can tell the story of Thanos and Infinity War without incredible stakes. There are going to be a lot of surprises, and we've told people to prepare themselves for those surprises. Ultimately, we don't want to say any more than that. But it will be a complicated experience.

Anthony Russo: And I would point this out -- if you look back at our road in the MCU, Winter Soldier ended with a game-changer; the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Civil War ended in a game-changer for the MCU; the Avengers split up, and Steve Rogers' and Tony Stark's relationship is destroyed. Most likely, if you carry that forward, Infinity War's going to end with a game-changer.

While the tone does look very serious, at the same time, knowing both of you and your body of work and Marvel movies in general, guessing there's still plenty of room for some levity there?

Joe Russo: Without question. I think if the movie were to get complicated at points, that you have to balance the film out. A lot of these characters deal with crisis through humor. They've illustrated that, and it's part of their character traits. I think what is important for us is to honor that. When you get Thor and the Guardians together, there's going to be a very specific tone.

As the movie progresses, the stakes get higher, so the tone will shift as the movie progresses. But certainly early on, as these characters meet each other, these are big personalities, these are big egos. Stark and Strange in a room together is two narcissists -- one's a man of magic, one's a man of science -- they're just naturally going to conflict with each other, and a lot of humor comes from conflict.

Anthony Russo: When you're dealing with a large ensemble like this, each individual character has a different relationship to what's happening in the story. For example, Civil War was a story about the Avengers splitting apart. But there were certain characters in that film, like Spider-Man or Ant-Man who weren't really involved in that conflict. So they were able to enter the film and have a different tone to them, because they didn't have all the baggage of the central conflict.

Similarly, in this movie, there are characters like Gamora and Nebula, who are daughters of Thanos. They're uncomfortably close to a very dangerous person. That creates a certain tone of them in the film. Whereas other characters have different relationships with him -- [some] characters have never even heard of Thanos when this movie starts.

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Speaking of Thanos, things have been building to a real big Thanos story for six years in the MCU. People are always interested in the villains of Marvel movies, and there has been a lot of conversation around that topic. What was the approach in justifying the hype around Thanos and delivering on that promise of a character who has loomed so large?

Joe Russo: We like complicated villains. Villains help define the heroes in a movie, the heroes are only as good as the villain. We look for way to make the audience have an intense reaction to the choices that the villain makes. Thanos in the movie is at turns violent, at turns psychotic. He also has moments where he's empathetic and vulnerable. So he's very complicated. Broil's performance is incredibly sophisticated -- at times horrifying, and at other times, charismatic.

I think that certainly a villain is defined by his villainy, and Thanos certainly does some pretty terrible things in the movie. I think just by the mere fact of how the story unfolds, he will be perceived as the great villain in the MCU.

It came out some years back that you both were interested in Spider-Man, in a different context. Now you've introduced the new version in Civil War, and he's a full-fledged Avenger in this one. How fun has that been, to get a chance to redefine Spider-Man, and now put him in a position viewers haven't seen from him in on the big screen?

Joe Russo: It's incredible, because he was my favorite character growing up. As a kid, I collected more Spider-Man books than I did anything else. It was the character I related to the most.

When we were working on Civil War, and were talking about bringing Spider-Man back, the thing we were adamant about was casting someone very close in age to Peter Parker. I felt, as a fan, that I loved the other interpretations, but they were played by actors who were men. So it was critical for us, and we fought for Tom Holland in the part, because we wanted that interpretation. We felt 1) that was the truest correlation to the Peter Parker I knew from the books, and 2) that he would bring a very different flavor to the Marvel Universe, because there are no children heroes. He's it.

I think that as stakes grow in these stories, that a teenage hero, certainly the stakes get higher for the other characters to protect that hero. I think it creates a really rich, fertile story area for the other characters.

Coming off of Winter Soldier and Civil War, you've got a close association with Captain America. In this movie, he's one of many Marvel characters, but a pivotal one -- what did you like about the role he has to play in this story, and his arc in this movie?

Anthony Russo: The arc that we've taken him on -- going from this representative of patriotism to being an insurgent -- that was extremely thrilling for Joe and I on a storytelling level, because it's about as big an arc you can give a character. Starting as one thing, and then ending as the opposite, which is a pretty amazing journey. We were very excited to carry him forward after that point at the end of Civil War, when he puts that shield down. Now it's thinking about him more as Steve Rogers than Captain America.

That's really the ground we're exploring in here. Who is Cap when he doesn't have the star on his chest any longer, or is not carrying the shield? Who is that person? What code of ethics is he following? Who does he serve? That's really the issues that surround Cap in this film.

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With three Marvel films under your belt, soon to be four, you've obviously covered a lot of ground, and a lot of different characters and genres. All that being said, the Marvel Universe is a huge place -- which characters would you still like a chance to work with?

Joe Russo: Hopefully they'e about to get their hands on a few of them. Listen, my second favorite character growing up, and one of my prized possessions in my comic book collection is Incredible Hulk #181, which of course is the first appearance of Wolverine. I feel like the mission of the Marvel Universe is to keep expanding and surprising people. Surprise them with casting choices, surprise them with story choices. If we're moving into this world of crossover events, certainly that affords opportunity for other large-scale stories from the books like Secret Wars -- which was another favorite comic of mine as a kid.

There's big potential moving forward if the Fox/Disney deal closes.

That being said, having directed four Marvel movies now, including two Avengers movies back to back -- can't imagine what a draining experience that was, though surely also thrilling. Do you still have a lot of gas in the tank for this franchise?

Joe Russo: I think so. I think we have a lot of personal stories that we want to tell, as well. But we're workaholics, and we've obvious been very industrious in our careers, and done a lot of content. We're up for challenges all the time.

Anthony Russo: Right now, we don't know what that movie would be. But if an idea comes along, or we have one, where it's like, "Oh, my God - this is the next perfect Marvel movie!" then we're in. We're always driven by, "What creative possibilities can we chase?"

We'll move forward based on that. We have a big load to carry for the next year, finishing up this next movie. Sometime in that next year, towards the end of that period, we'll probably be able to start thinking about the future.

It's been neat to see how much you've been involved in comic book-based material in general -- such as the Deadly Class TV show that's in production.

Joe Russo: We love comic book material. It's an amazing place to find inspiration for storytelling.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Infinity War stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Tom Hiddleston, and Josh Brolin. The film arrives April 27.