No matter how you look at it, The finale to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 3 was a major undertaking. Bringing home storylines across over 20 films in a conclusive, satisfying, and suitably epic way, was going to be a major task for whoever took responsibility. However, Marvel Chief Kevin Feige says that he knew that Joe and Anthony Russo were the men to create Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame after watching them at work on the set of Captain America: Civil War.
There were a lot of characters and storylines to juggle for these last two Avengers movies, but the same was true, though to a lesser degree, in Captain America: Civil War, the film was essentially an Avengers movie, even if the name was something else, with a lot of moving parts.
Seeing how well the brothers were doing with this film apparently gave Kevin Feige and Marvel the confidence to know they were the best choice for what the studio had planned as its next big event. As Feige explains in one of the special features attached to the Avengers: Endgame Blu-ray...
We were midway through production on Civil War and we saw the amazing job that Anthony and Joe were doing, handling all these different characters, telling this very unique storyline. We knew where we wanted to head with the next Avengers film and it was then that we started talking to them about coming from Civil War onto Infinity War.
Captain America: Civil War was in production in 2015, about three years before Infinity War would be released, but Marvel Studios seems to have a clear view on where everything is going, and so even though the Russos may not have realized that Civil War would be setting the table for something even bigger, it certainly was.
The connection is pretty obvious. While the Russo Brothers had only really dealt with a few major Marvel characters previously in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War jumps right into things with several more characters, all with their own arcs and connections to the universe. Civil War does a great job of giving everybody enough screen time so you know what they're doing and where they're headed,
Avengers: Infinity War takes that to another level. Every character who has meant anything to the MCU appeared in that movie. While we certainly would have all loved to have spent more time with our favorite characters, the big thing about Infinity War is that nobody feels like they've been short-changed.
If anything, Endgame was likely easier since half your major names spent most of the film dead.
And most would agree that both Avengers films succeeded in the Herculean task in front of them. Whoever your favorite MCU characters are, they're story is either brought to an epic, if potentially heartbreaking, close, or they're setup to take their next steps into a brand new world. Not bad for a couple of guys who directed a bunch of episodes of Community.
Avengers: Endgame is now available in Digital HD and it will arrive on Blu-ray August 13.
