Barely two week in theaters and Avengers: Infinity War is already on the verge of being the highest grossing superhero movie ever made. Everyone is talking about the movie, whether it's about that ending, the excellent action, or the incredibly fun character pairings. In the case of the latter, one of the best combinations of characters is Doctor Strange and Tony Stark, two men of massive egos who routinely butt heads with each other. It's a fun use of the two characters, but the pairing is actually inspired by an unlikely source: the TV show Frasier.
Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had a colossal task in front of them: writing the script to Avengers: Infinity War, combining 18 movies worth of characters and storylines into a single movie. If you've seen the movie then you know they did a pretty great job at this task, and must have had a blast coming up with the character pairings. Originally, the duo planned to keep Doctor Strange and Tony Stark separate because they were so similar, but realized they should share the screen for the same reason. As Markus tells it,
To take Tony and Dr. Strange, who are quite similar --- they both have goatees, they're both arrogant --- the impulse might be, 'Well, let's keep them separate because they occupy the same space, and everyone will get their own Arrogant Goatee Man. But to put them together, one, is funny, and their powers are totally different. But also it helps Tony go, 'Wow, arrogant people are really annoying ... I'm arrogant, huh.' This is how we become better people in life.
In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed that they were inspired to keep their two most arrogant characters together by the TV show Frasier. The writing duo explains that most shows would have created a brother who was the exact opposite of the intelligent but arrogant Frasier Krane (Kelsey Grammer). However, the Emmy-winning Frasier used David Hyde Pierce's Dr. Niles Crane, a sibling who was "even more like Frasier than Frasier." This allowed Fraiser to see how annoying he could be, creating character growth, and Markus and McFeely wanted to do the same for Stark.
The Doctor Strange and Iron Man pairing is definitely a highlight of Infinity War, giving us all just one more reason to be thankful for the existence of Frasier.
You can see this pairing for yourself in Avengers: Infinity War, which is out in theaters at right this very moment winning all the money. For more Marvel movies, here's our Marvel release guide, and check out our full 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
