We’ve all assumed that Marvel Studios have grand, long-term plans for character arcs and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. Kevin Feige, the head of the studio, does a really good job convincing us that every move they make is mostly calculated and mapped out over a long period of time. Well, according to one of the franchise’s most prolific directors, that might not exactly be the case.
Joe Russo (“Avengers: Endgame”) spoke to Deadline at the Sands International Film Festival in St. Andrews, Scotland, and has pulled the curtain back little, suggesting there isn’t as much of a plan as one would have initially assumed.
“The way it works at Marvel, and I’m sure at some point somebody will talk in detail about this, but part of [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige] ’s brilliance is that there isn’t really a plan,” Russo told Deadline.
“There’s an idea, but you can’t have a plan if the movie you’re making tanks. There’s no plan after that. Right? So, it’s really about, as the movie succeeded, there was sort of an enthusiasm about well, what else could we do? And then that’s when new ideas would come out, And there was hopes. Oh, we hope one day that we can get to the story, if we keep doing this right maybe we could all get there, you know, like ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame.’ But a lot of the stuff was made up in between the movies. And some of the best call forwards or callbacks were thought of after the fact.”
An example used by the filmmaker was having Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, as the brainwashed HYDRA assassin, killing Tony Stark’s parents in 1991 and becoming a key plot device in “Captain America: Civil War” to place a wedge between the heroes was simply “happenstance.”
This is not the first time Marvel has retroactively connected characters and events, having Carol Danvers being the namesake and inspiration for “The Avengers” is another instance.
We still don’t know if Russo will be returning to the MCU anytime soon, and he has voiced concerns about the Multiverse.
During the dust-up between Scarlett Johansson and Disney over a backend/bonus dispute (since resolved before a lawsuit could move forward) concerning the hybrid release of “Black Widow,” it was revealed that The Russo Brothers were in talks with the studio for an unnamed project. It’s unclear if they ultimately found something to coax them back to the MCU, but they’ve previously said in interviews that they were keen to get their hands on “X-Men” member Wolverine or tackle “Secret Wars,” a big crossover event from the comics that could be sparked by upcoming villain Kang The Conqueror and The Multiverse.
The next big project from The Russos will be Netflix’s “The Gray Man,” an expensive spy film starring Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, and more.