With each passing movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we get closer to Avengers: Infinity War, the big multi-film crossover event. Comic book fans are familiar with it already, but how much do they really know what's going on? According to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, those who are familiar with the Infinity Gauntlet comics may be just as surprised by what happens as those who do not.
In the immediate future, being the movies, we've announced... I think those with knowledge of the comics may expect things that will not be happening in the movies. Those who don't know what has happened in the comics will be shocked at what we do. But yeah, once that Gauntlet is on, as the poster of Doctor Strange says, "the impossibilities are endless." How do you fight that? How can you defeat that? So we play into all of that. We play into all that stuff. I don't know that we'll get into Earth 1 thru 616 in any one moment anytime soon.
It would seem that if you're familiar with the comics, you may have an idea of the sorts of things you'll see in Avengers: Infinity War though the specifics may not be the same. On the flip side, those who have not been exposed to the comics are apparently completely unprepared for whatever may come during the movie.
On the whole, Kevin Feige's comments to Slashfilm fit with what we know of the MCU so far. While the films have taken inspiration from the comics, they have never been entirely beholden to them. Plot lines and motivations have changed bit by bit and as each of those changes has added up to the whole that is the MCU, it has put this universe in a very different place than the comics were at this same point.It wouldn't make sense for everything to play out here exactly as it did in the comics. Too much is different here.
Although, we do have to wonder about exactly what would "make sense" when we're discussing the Infinity Gauntlet. Once Thanos has it he will have control over all of reality. The entire multiverse, which was introduced in Doctor Strange, could be impacted by the events of the film. Kevin Feige's comment about Earth-616, the part of the multiverse in which the traditional Marvel Comics take place, has one wondering if we could end up seeing multiple versions of our heroes in the film. Could our crossover event not only combine all the different characters from the MCU, but versions of those characters from other Earth's as well?
It would certainly be an interesting way to replace actors whose contracts are set to expire following the end of Avengers: Infinity War. What do you think we'll see when the film hits screens in 2018?
