Having left the Marvel Cinematic Universe in their rear-view mirror – for now, at least – Joe and Anthony Russo have nonetheless seen fit to continue operating almost exclusively in the world of franchise fare.
The Avengers: Endgame directors are heavily involved in Netflix’s expanding Extraction universe, while their most recent effort The Gray Man has both a sequel and spin-off in the works at the same streaming service, without even mentioning their desire to get involved in James Gunn’s revamped DCU, even if they ruled themselves out of The Brave and the Bold.
It’s Joe Russo’s opinions on the future of cinema that have seen him take a pounding online, though, after the filmmaker revealed in an interview that he believes artificial intelligence will soon be capable of writing and creating feature films all by itself, and it’s something he doesn’t sound as though he’s entirely opposed to.
Naturally, it didn’t take long for such a terrible take on a development that could theoretically destroy both the entire industry and the livelihood of those who work within it to gain a life of its own on social media, and the MCU veteran has been getting dragged over burning hot coals as a result.
There’s barely a high-profile creative mind out there who has even a solitary or even back-handed compliment to pay to the ominous looming threat of the AI revolution, but if you can monetize it, then it’s probably something Hollywood will take a vested interest in. Let’s just hope they don’t ask Russo for any pointers.