If Avengers: Infinity War proved anything, it's that Marvel Studios isn't afraid to up the stakes and deliver surprises we're not expecting. As you no doubt already know, the movie wrapped up with Thanos snapping his fingers and wiping out trillions of lives, including many fan-favourite characters. Since then, we've all been left reeling and trying to come to terms with the fallout from that.
Now, in an interview with Variety, Joe and Anthony Russo have addressed their decision to end the movie on such a shocking note and the former pointed to Captain America: The Winter Soldier as playing a role in why they weren't afraid to do something many superhero adaptations wouldn't dare.
"When we started working with Marvel on ‘Winter Soldier,’ we wanted to do such a radical departure from their first [Captain America] film. We said, ‘The character is moving forward in time. The interpretation we’re interested in is much more modern than what you had done on the last one,’ and they said, ‘Great. Do it. Let’s see what happens.’ So they’ve always been risk-takers … If you look at every film we’ve done for Marvel, there are huge, game-changing events at the end of the movies. We are interested in pushing the boundaries and pushing the story forward in unexpected ways, surprising the audience as much as we can.”
As for why he believes it's important to tell the right story and make decisions which don't necessarily make moviegoers happy, Joe went on to elaborate on their thought process heading into the film.
"We do our best work when we follow our instincts and tell the story we want to tell. We’ve had one or two experiences early in our careers where we didn’t do that and we learned a very hard lesson: When you try to predict what an audience wants, you’re going to make mush. When you commit to the story you want to tell, it tends to have a much more resonant impact on the audience … The audience can tell you they love chocolate ice cream, but if you give it to them every day, they’re going to get sick of it real fast. You’ve got to stay ahead of them."
Many fans believe that Marvel will easily bring back all those dead characters with the Time Stone or by having one of the heroes use the Infinity Gauntlet but Anthony was quick to make it clear that they're committed to many of the decisions they've made in Avengers: Infinity War moving forward.
"I will say this: There is a real commitment on our end to the stakes. Yes, this is a fantasy world, and yes, remarkable things can happen in a fantasy world, but-" Joe then finished that thought, saying: "They come at an incredibly high cost. For us, there will always be stakes and the stakes have been progressing from film to film. And I think you can extrapolate that they will continue to deepen in ‘Avengers 4.'" Who will die in Avengers 4? Well, "Just you wait," Joe adds with a Thanos-like grin.
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