The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn't shied away from releasing ensemble-led movies, but Avengers: Infinity War is on another level entirely. With dozens of MCU characters returning and a handful of new characters being introduced, Infinity War is juggling a lot of players, and while that's great for the moviegoers who've read Marvel Comics for years and wanted to see this big a team-up realized on the big screen, it's nonetheless a daunting task including so many folks in the story. To that end, Infinity War writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus noted that the upcoming Marvel movie will feel a little like Game of Thrones, a show with one of the biggest TV casts of all time, in how it brings these MCU characters the closest they've ever been to one another. As the duo explained:
McFeely: One of the challenges we've had is, how do you make sure this is not 25 people moving from one scene to one scene to one scene? So we talk, being a little facetious about it, but we talk about how it's like Nashville [the movie], right? So you've got 4 or 5 different stories weaved together and then come together and then break apart. So, you get all these different pairings and groupings of 4 and 5 and 6.Markus: And even now, not unlike something like Game of Thrones, where you have this vast canvas with characters... you've been watching this guy over here molesting this girl over here in the East for years, and only now does it have that feeling of massive plates shifting and finally bringing these characters near each other.
Because Avengers: Infinity War boasts such a large cast, I get Stephen McFeely's comparison with the 1975 movie Nashville; it'd be almost impossible to ensure that all these characters are sharing scenes together, hence why it's necessary to split off into groups. As for the Game of Thrones comparison he mentioned to CinemaBlend and other outlets during a set visit last year, while the previous Avengers movies and Captain America: Civil War have previously brought people from different corners of the MCU together, it's never been done to this scale. Not only are the Guardians of the Galaxy finally interacting with their fellow heroes, but Thor and Hulk have been up to their own adventures since the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Doctor Strange finally gets to jump into the wider world of superheroes. There's no guarantee that every hero in Infinity War will get to meet one another, but at least the paths are overlapping.
Even though Avengers: Infinity War has been touted as Marvel's biggest movie yet, the giant ensemble fun doesn't stop there. Next year brings Avengers 4, which is no longer being considered the second half of the same story Infinity War is telling, but will still build off the events of the third Avengers movie. Avengers 4 shot back-to-back with Infinity War last year, so it was just as important to pull off the same kind of balancing act with the cast. While no Avengers 4 plot details have been released yet, ideally that movie will allow for different interactions and pairings from what we saw in Infinity War to spice things up a bit.
Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on April 27, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news surrounding the movie. In the meantime, don't forget to scan through our Marvel movies guide to learn what else the MCU has in development.
