CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: What isnt it about?
This is about the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Who hopefully will come together in a way that will be satisfying?
That is the word I would use most often.
How long does it take for Thanos to take the screen?
STEPHEN MCFEELY: In many ways its Thanos movie.
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I think we will surprise the hell out of people.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: OK. We will surprise people.
Whats a story that could get those two [characters] together?
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STEPHEN MCFEELY: Right.
We talked a lot about, its a Joe Russo term, strange alchemy.
So, we always chased delight and terror.
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CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: And theres also…were coming off Civil War.
Were coming off Winter Soldier.
So thats theres lots of backstory that still needs to play out in addition to the Thanos situation.
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Like, I just walked by Sebastian Stan out there.
You could put Bucky in a room with anybody and theyre going to say, Oh sh*t!
What about bringing in the cosmic universe?
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That seems to be something were all very curious about.
How are the Guardians coming in?
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Thats part of the strange alchemy, right?
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So youve 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 four and five and six.
[Laughs]
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Im absolutely telling you that.
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STEPHEN MCFEELY: Its going to blow that away.
What can you say about how it starts?
Because as it stands now, all the characters in the MCU are scattered.
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Where does this pick up?
Nah, everythings fine now.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Theyre ill-prepared to handle this.
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CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Villain is a derogatory term that Thanos wouldnt agree with.
Its just a bad guy, you know?
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You get bored pretty quickly after hes torn off the first few heads, and we have 2 movies.
[…] Hopefully youll come away from this the same way you do in the comics.
He started off as a rogue villain but hes his own thing now.
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Where you go, I cant say he was wrong.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Oh geez, almost all of them.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: A giant bound Infinity Gauntlet, but we read anything that had Thanos in it.
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Anything that had the [Infinity] Stones in it.
A lot of Archie [Laughs]
Can you talk about how much of this will be on Earth?
How much will be cosmic?
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STEPHEN MCFEELY: We cant give you a percentage but its fairly split.
Thats part of the nature of all these groups coming together.
Its this sort of Earth-ist point of view that you have to tell.
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for conquer the universe I have to take over this one little tiny planet.
Can you guys talk about the collection of the Stones?
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Theyre still spread out.
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Remember, one of our jobs, were big structure guys.
Big choices have been made.
We had to do the same thing here and yet we had 6 MacGuffins.
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It can be relentless if you do this right.
It has to do something characterful.
Hes pathetic but, we take this from [Jim] Starlin.
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Thanos is an amoral philosopher.
Hes not the Devil although he does sometimes have the Devil standing next to him.
We wanted that all the way through.
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To have a villain with understandable motivations and emotions.
Thanos has 2 daughters that we know of.
Thanos has 8 million back stories in the comics but theyre all kind of sad.
And he totally doesnt see himself as the villain.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: For sure.
And screen time, right?
A lot of screen time for both of those characters.
Chris is right, they both have these weird family relationships.
So Thanos will get the benefit of both of those things.
This is not an origin story.
If anything, its the opposite.
Our heroes are foils for the villain, whose story we need to tell at large.
Chris, can you clarify what you were saying about Devil?
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Oh, Mephisto in the comics.
I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of Mephisto.
Hes often seen in hell, but hes not the evil.
Hes something more elemental, more primal.
You talk about structure.
Are you structuring it as one huge movie or one movie, push it aside, second movie?
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Both.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Cant have the second one without the first one.
But our hope is that its breakfast and then lunch.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: It does not feel like you hit pause and then unpaused it.
It is two very different…
Because there are movies that come out in between, right?
Have they influenced Part 4?
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Yes, by the way another nightmare.
[Laughs]
Is there anything it’s possible for you to share about Captain Marvels possible involvement?
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Well, super excited to have her, for one thing.
How much of the Infinity Gauntlet story is going to be in this?
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: I can no longer keep track of which thing thats called Infinity is what.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Is Gauntlet Pip the Troll?
Yeah he comes to Earth, he gets reincarnated…
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Yeah theres a car accident.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: They assume the bodies…
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: All of it!
[Laughs] Thats why were so conversive in it.
It has elements of everything that had the word Infinity in front of it.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Thats right.
We steal all the things that are helpful to us and were not slavish to anything that doesnt.
Silver Surfer is flying all over those things but its like, Youre in [Defenders].
Unfortunately he flew to Century City and never came back.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Thor 3.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Well at least thats before this first movie.
Black Panther is, too.
Why are Ant-Man and Wasp not in Infinity War Part 2?
So we gotta work on that and figure it out.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Peyton Reed and his group of writers are going to make whatever movie they want.
We had very small requests like, It would be great if right there that person wasis that okay?
You always make the best movie you’ve got the option to.
Same thing with Black Panther and same thing with Captain Marvel.
Matching the tones too.
How do you work with that?
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Well, I mean sometimes you play into it.
You cut to the Guardians and its a breather.
- It doesnt mean theyre not carrying as much plot, it just means the tone is different.
But its also fun to drag people into each others tones.
Pull someone into the Guardians and have them go, What the fuck is with you guys?
Is it a disaster movie?
STEPHEN MCFEELY: It is difficult to explain.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Its Oscar-worthy.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Can we not have that conversation?
So Lord of the Rings, big epic thing right?
This is 23 movies!
When is someone going to get [Kevin] Feige the Thalberg Award?
All its doing is remaking Hollywood, like!
Just to follow up on that, because the Oscars are notoriously against the superhero genre.
Im curious what you guys think it will take for a Marvel movie to actually get that attention?
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: I dont know, I mean people mumble about it with various movies for various reasons.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: you’re able to work very hard on a crappy movie.
Youre not just rewarding work.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: No but, Return of the King is no better or worse than the other two.
It got cumulative awards.
Maybe they had extra Oscars that year.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Two Towers is better, lets face it.
Its a civil rights drama and were the victims.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Star Wars was nominated for Best Picture.
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: And that movie kicked my ass all over the place.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Its like diving.
The degree of difficulty.
I think sometimes people are like, That movie was really simple and pure and should get an award.
But the Oscars are not actually an accurate measure of anything.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Did we whine enough there?
Can you say anything about who is Thanos supporting cast?
How did you crack that?
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Yes, you needed to see to it that he wasnt just all by himself.
At the end of Ultron he said Fine, Ill do it myself.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Not our movie.
Where was he when he did that?
There was also the other gauntlet inGuardians.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Another delightful, delightful problem.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Odins a bit of a showman.
Weirdly I think hes the most understandable guy in the movie sometimes.
Does he have an arc in this movie?
So we want to give him a full weighted emotional story.
Aliens attack New York City, what are you gonna do, not fight them?
No you have to.
I might not have done that.
We see a bunch of Avengers here on set today, but theres no Iron Man or Hawkeye.
Can you talk about their roles?
STEPHEN MCFEELY: As I said earlier, its Nashville, so everyones in a different bubble.
Some bubbles come together and break apart, some bubbles come together for the third act.
That kind of stuff.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Other people are utterly CG, so what are you gonna do?
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Thats right.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Oh hes in the scene.
STEPHEN MCFEELY: Sure you just didnt see him.
Ant-Mans all over that.
