Coming out of Avengers: Infinity War, it soon became clear that Joe and Anthony Russo went to great lengths just to throw audiences off the scent.
There was the trailer misdirects, for one, which, coupled with the reams of fake scripts, allowed the Russo Brothers – not to mention screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely – to craft their Herculean epic with a sense of confidence, knowing that Infinity War‘s plot was relatively safe from spoilers and leaks.
It’s a strategy that paid dividends, and while reflecting on his role as Vision, Paul Bettany spoke candidly about his own experience with the fake screenplays, including why he actually spent 18 hours poring over every little detail, only to throw his hands up and give up before reporting to set.
You know what? I’m dyslexic and I read the fake script. They kept trying to get me to read the real one and I read the fake script three times, which altogether, is about eighteen hours of my time. After eighteen hours of sitting in those trailers reading something I was never going to be making, I thankfully gave up and I can’t actually remember.
Dealing with some much false information must have been a pretty strange experience for the Avengers: Infinity War cast, as even key players like Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) were left in the dark about the sequel’s biggest twists and turns.
Such is the Marvel way, of course, and given Avengers: Infinity War‘s total gross stands north of $2.03 billion, few would argue against the studio’s bulletproof master plan. Up next? The so-far untitled Avengers 4, which is draped in its own thick veil of secrecy.