Barring some unforeseen hiccup, Avengers: Infinity War is about to become a global box office phenomenon.
It is, after all, building on a superpowered legacy stretching all the way back to 2008, when Jon Favreau and the fresh-faced Robert Downey Jr. defied all odds and transformed Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man) into a household name. A full ten years have passed since that historic feat, and in that time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ballooned into an industry of its own, replete with A-list stars, a seasoned architect in Kevin Feige and many, many characters.
Yes, if there’s one element of Infinity War that continues to fuel debate online, it’s who exactly we can expect to see in the film. At this point, it really does sound like everyone who’s still breathing in the MCU will be involved and as such, it’d be foolish to think that the whole cast will get an equal share of the spotlight. In fact, we heard just yesterday that it’ll be Thor and Thanos who get the most screen time. But what of those who may get shoved off to the sidelines in favor of the heavy hitters?
Well, according to Joe Russo, the heroes who may not be featured too prominently in Infinity War will get their due in Avengers 4. Speaking with Fandango, here’s what he said:
“We knew that because we had two films, ‘Avengers 3’ and ‘4’, that in one movie we could push people to the forefront but then we could pull back in the second film and push other characters to the forefront who had less screen time in the first movie. We did have the opportunity to divide it up that way. So if you feel like one of your favorite characters didn’t get enough screen time in Avengers 3, well then wait ’til ‘Avengers 4.'”
This makes a lot of sense, and already we’ve heard that folks like Ant-Man and Hawkeye (or should that be Ronin?) won’t get much time to shine in Infinity War. Instead, they’ll step up in its currently untitled sequel. Ditto for Captain Marvel, whose role from the film was actually cut completely, with the studio saving her for her own standalone outing before she joins Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers 4.
Anyways, back to the interview, and elsewhere, Joe was asked about having to balance such a massive ensemble cast, and he explained that him and his brother’s experience on projects like Community and Arrested Development certainly helped with that.
“You know, we’ve had a lot of experience balancing ensembles. Our first film ‘Welcome to Collinwood’ was an ensemble, ‘Arrested Development’ was an ensemble, ‘Community’ was an ensemble, ‘Happy Endings’ was an ensemble.
We had a lot of experience working with and telling stories with a lot of characters and making sure that each of those characters was serviced either in an A story, a B story or C story in some regard – either driving the plot, or they’re driving their own personal story. It’s a lot of hard work and it’s part of the reason that we decided to make Avengers 3 and 4, was just the pure level of ambition involved in the movies. It’s an unprecedented amount of characters I think in a commercial film.”
If we had to guess, it’s going to be characters like Iron Man, Cap, Widow and the rest of the original Avengers who get most of the spotlight in Infinity War, as they work to set up a conclusion that’s been 10 years in the making. Once that’s in place, the sequel will then probably go about laying the seeds for the new guard to take over, with Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Spidey, Bucky and more featuring heavily.
As for the Guardians of the Galaxy, well, that’s still a mystery. Chris Pratt’s said that he really only has a cameo-like role, but we also know that Rocket and Groot will be off with Thor for most of the movie, and the God of Thunder is said to have the most screen time after Thanos.
For now, all we can really do is wait and see how this all shakes out. But if one thing’s for certain, it’s that we have full faith in the Russo brothers and can’t wait to see what they deliver with Avengers: Infinity War.