Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel are upcoming American superhero films based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. They are intended to be the sequels to Marvel's The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and to serve as the nineteenth and twenty-second films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) respectively. Both films are directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from screenplays by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, and feature an ensemble cast composed of many previous MCU actors.
Development of the films began in Marvel Studios' early films by introducing the Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet. Casting began in mid-2013 with Robert Downey, Jr. signing on to reprise his role as Tony Stark / Iron Man, with the films officially announced a year later as Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2. The Russo brothers and Markus and McFeely joined the project in early 2015. In July 2016, Marvel revealed that the Part 1 and Part 2 of the titles would be removed, with the former first part known simply as Avengers: Infinity War and the former second part to be renamed at a later time. Both films are being shot back-to-back at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia. Production of Infinity War began on January 23, and concluded on July 14, 2017, with additional filming in Scotland, England, the Downtown Atlanta area, and New York City. Filming of the untitled sequel began on August 10, with additional filming in the Downtown and Metro Atlanta areas, and Scotland. It is scheduled to last until July 2018. They are the first films to be shot entirely in IMAX, using a new 2D digital camera developed alongside Arri.
Production on the films is set to be completed for the scheduled release dates in the United States of May 4, 2018 for Avengers: Infinity War, and May 3, 2019 for its sequel.
Video Production of Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled Avengers sequel
Development
Since their early films, Marvel Studios had begun planting the seeds for an Avengers film that adapted the Infinity Gauntlet comic arc, by introducing the powerful Infinity Stones as MacGuffins: the Space Stone as the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avenger; the Mind Stone inside Loki's Scepter in Marvel's The Avengers; the Reality Stone as the Aether in Thor: The Dark World; the Power Stone as the Orb in Guardians of the Galaxy; and the Time Stone within the Eye of Agamotto in Doctor Strange. Additionally, the Infinity Gauntlet, a glove designed to house the stones, is briefly seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron, in the possession of the villain Thanos, who covets the stones in the comics. An additional, separate Gauntlet first seen in Thor was revealed to be a fake in Thor: Ragnarok. Many fans expected Thanos to be the antagonist of the second Avengers film after making a brief appearance at the end of the first, but Joss Whedon, the writer and director of the first two Avengers films, explained that "Thanos is more powerful. He is so powerful, he is not someone you can just try to out punch. Like in the comics, you want him to be threading through the universe and to save the big finale for the big finale."
While all non-Avengers films in the MCU were considered set-up for this storyline, laying "much of the groundwork", producer and president of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige said that Black Panther in particular would be "a very important" link to the Avengers sequels in Phase Three of the MCU, as was Thor: Ragnarok. The sequels were described as "the culmination of everything that has happened in the MCU" since Iron Man was released in 2008, bringing "an end to certain things, and in some ways... the beginning of certain things."
In June 2013, Robert Downey, Jr. signed on to return as Tony Stark / Iron Man for a third Avengers film, and Josh Brolin signed a multi-film deal the following May, to play Thanos. In July 2014, Feige stated that there were "some notions" to where Marvel would want to take a third Avengers film and that actors from previous MCU films were under contract to return. He also said that the studio was aiming for three years between Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015 and a sequel. In September 2014, Jeremy Renner confirmed he was signed on to reprise the role of Clint Barton / Hawkeye in a third Avengers film.
In October 2014, Marvel announced a two-part sequel to Age of Ultron, titled Avengers: Infinity War. Part 1 was scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018, and Part 2 was scheduled for May 3, 2019. After the announcement, Feige talked about the scale of the films and the possibility of the characters from Marvel Television's Netflix Defenders series appearing, saying, "Infinity War is going to be big. There are a lot of people from the movies in Infinity War. A lot of it is about space, and a lot of it is about just what happens between now and then. But all of those things inhabit, however far on the outskirts, the same continuity. So certainly that opportunity exists." Feige also mentioned that Mark Ruffalo would return for Infinity War, reprising his role as Bruce Banner / Hulk, while Downey and Brolin were clarified to be appearing in both parts of the film. In November, Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2 were scheduled to begin filming back-to-back in late 2015, and Tom Hiddleston signed on to return as Loki for both parts.
In January 2015, Whedon stated that he was "very doubtful" that he would be involved with the two Infinity War films. By April, Anthony and Joe Russo reached a deal to direct both parts of Avengers: Infinity War after directing the latter two Captain America films, with filming expected to begin in 2016. Whedon cited the series' increasing scale as to why he chose not to return, explaining, "Every movie I have ever made has been an ensemble piece of increasingly enormous proportions... That many balls in the air, it's only going to get bigger with Infinity War. I'm not going to be able to give it what I would need to." Feige said that "because they [have] such shared elements, it felt appropriate... to [subtitle the films] like that. But I wouldn't call it one story that's cut in half. I would say it's going to be two distinct movies." Anthony Russo reiterated that the two Infinity War films were "very very different from one another. It's not a part one and part two scenario, necessarily. They're just two different expressions. I think it creates a misconception that we're shooting them at the same time." While promoting Age of Ultron, Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor, revealed that he and Chris Evans, who plays Steve Rogers / Captain America, both had the two parts of Infinity War on their contracts. Scarlett Johansson, who plays Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, said it was "too early to say", but believed she would be involved with at least one of the films. At the end of April, Evans revealed that filming was scheduled to begin in late 2016 over nine months, lasting until August or September 2017.
By May 2015, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely signed on to also return from the Captain America films, writing the screenplays for both parts of the film. The pair began work during the filming of Captain America: Civil War "as soon as they start[ed] shooting [when] we don't have much to do for the next six hours," McFeely said. "We'd go to the office, read comic books, write down ideas, put everything on the wall and just go 'These are all the characters we could have.'" Markus added, "We sent in literally 60 pages of unrelated ideas. Just like 'Here's some stuff that could happen in this insane movie.' Then we came back from Atlanta and everyone had a copy of that [document] and they'd circle this, 'This is cool, this is insane, this is cool, we're not allowed to do that,' and from there [we] pieced it together very slowly." That month, William Hurt expressed interest in appearing in Infinity War as his character Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. In September, Feige said the films would explore the visions the Avengers had in Age of Ultron, saying going forward, "were those little visions? Is that kind of like your worst fears being projected at you? Is that a prediction of the future? Or is that a sense of an ending doom that haunts you and keeps you awake at night? I think that'll be something we have to explore in Infinity War to kind of figure out how literal or not those are." In December, Anthony Russo stated that integrating characters from the MCU television series into Infinity War would be "complicated", due to the series' serial nature of storytelling, and the fact that, despite all existing in the MCU, Feige controls the films under Marvel Studios, and the television series are controlled by Marvel Television, with separate oversight.
Maps Production of Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled Avengers sequel
Pre-production
In January 2016, the Russos stated that they were "breaking ground" on the films, and in the middle of the month, revealed that filming would take place in Atlanta, Georgia, beginning in November 2016 lasting until June 2017, and that Markus and McFeely had begun work on the screenplay for the first film. In March 2016, the Russos explained that they were exploring new ways to deliver additional material to audiences for the films, usually reserved for physical home media releases. Given the declining sales for Blu-ray and DVD, Anthony stated, "We're just in the beginning phases of figuring [this] out. Yes, DVDs are gone but there is this wonderful internet platform out there called YouTube." One example he provided was creating "more elaborate versions of trailers ... that are shot specifically for online that will never appear in the movie but that may appear as a kind of short film." Joe added that the duo were "also talking to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram about ways to feed ancillary content to them and to viewers because it'll go viral there and you can reach millions of people." The following month, Markus revealed that they were "in the middle" of piecing together the film, and Jon Favreau confirmed he would once again serve as executive producer on the films, having done so on the previous Avengers films after directing the first two Iron Man films.
In early May, the Russos revealed that they would be retitling the two films, to further remove the misconception that the films were one large film split in two, with Joe stating, "The intention is we will change [the titles], we just haven't come up with [them] yet." The next month, Alan Silvestri, who composed the score for The Avengers, was revealed to be returning to score both Infinity War films. By late July, Marvel announced that Part 1 would simply be known as Avengers: Infinity War, while Part 2 was referred to as Untitled Avengers film until a title was chosen. Anthony Russo stated that the title of the second film would not be revealed "for quite some time." Markus and McFeely also provided an update on the writing of the films that month, saying they were working on the third draft of Infinity War and the second for its sequel, with Markus stating, much like how they were planned to be filmed, "On any given day, you're only working on one but that doesn't mean that next week, you aren't working on the other one." In October 2016, Feige announced that filming would begin in January 2017. By that time, Eric Pearson, one of the screenwriters of Thor: Ragnarok, was flown from Ragnarok's set in Australia to Atlanta to assist Markus and McFeely. Pearson felt he was brought on board because Markus and McFeely "were just so crammed for time", and given Pearson had previously worked with them on the MCU television series Agent Carter and his other Marvel work, he thought "they were comfortable with me coming in and whenever they are working on one [of the films], I was kind of keeping the other one moving forward." Additionally, because Ragnarok "was so different than" the previous Thor films, Pearson helped keep the continuity going for Thor, Hulk, and their arcs.
From April 2016 to January 2017, the following actors were confirmed to be reprising their roles in the films: Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord in both films; Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch in both films; Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange in both films; Paul Bettany as Vision in Infinity War; Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier in Infinity War; Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot in Infinity War; Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne / Wasp only in the sequel, in order to preserve her debut as the Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp; Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill in Infinity War; Benedict Wong as Wong in Infinity War, Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye in both films; Zoe Saldana as Gamora in Infinity War; Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer in Infinity War, and Karen Gillan as Nebula in both films. Diesel also stated the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy would also appear.
The Russos also hoped to have another actor from their TV series Community make a cameo appearance, after Danny Pudi and Jim Rash appeared in The Winter Soldier and Civil War, respectively. Stellan Skarsgård, who portrays Erik Selvig in the MCU, said he believed he would appear in Infinity War as he had one more film left on his contract, and would not be appearing in Thor: Ragnarok, while Krysten Ritter, who plays Jessica Jones in the Netflix series of the same name, also expressed interest in appearing, saying "it'd be really exciting to be a part of those giant, huge movies with those great characters who are already established, so it'd be awesome ... There's always the chance that could happen." The Russos had teased the inclusion of Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel in the films in April 2016, though Feige indicated that Danvers was slated to be introduced in her own film first, which is scheduled to be released in between Infinity War and its sequel. Tom Holland, who portrays Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the MCU, said the possibility of him appearing in the films was "all up in the air", but that "some sort of deal is in the mix," since Sony Pictures Entertainment still holds the film rights to the character.
In early January 2017, Peter Dinklage was in negotiations to appear in the films. Renner, Olsen, and Bautista noted that the actors appearing in the films had not received scripts before the start of shooting, with Bautista specifically stating on January 22, 2017, that he had not received a script, despite beginning his filming on January 23.
Writing
Joe Russo highlighted the film's large scope, saying that the audience would "not be disappointed in the amount of characters" featured in the films, adding that they had a character board showing all previously introduced and available MCU characters "with like 67 characters on it." Markus and McFeely clarified that having that many characters available to them did not mean that all would appear in the films or be lead roles, and also noted the board did not include any potential new characters. On whether choosing the characters to appear in the films were personal preferences or dictated by the story, Anthony Russo said, "It's a little bit of both, because you always have to make sure that your choices feel organic to the storytelling, and really, you have to sort of structure them in the way that they need to be there... It's a little bit of a dance between the two, where you have big eyes, and you want everybody included in the movie, but you have to go through the process of... what's the best story that you can tell." Joe added that there would be "a lot of unexpected characters" featured in the films, including "characters that have made small appearances [previously] that are really getting fleshed out".
Joe Russo described the concept as "the Marvel universe [uniting] to battle the greatest threat to the world and universe that you've ever seen". He noted their approach to the cosmic elements of Infinity War would be "with the same fervor that we did the earthbound work we've been doing" and "applying the same rules that we like to apply to the last two films that we've done" (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War). "We also are going to work really hard to bring a psychological realism. We obviously can't bring a naturalism to it because it doesn't really exist outside of science fiction, but we can bring that psychological realism to it, to the characters, and that's going to be our focus." Anthony added that Infinity War would deal with the "themes of fate and destiny and the essence of what it means to be a hero." The Russos felt it was important that both films were "distinctly different. It's important for them to have different tones, different narratives, and to have different surprises for the audience," working "really hard with Markus and McFeely in ensuring that the films are tonally different and structurally different." Anthony noted that Infinity War was being crafted as a heist film with the brothers looking at many films "that had that heist-style energy to them" as Infinity War "has that energy of the bad guy being one step ahead of the heroes."
McFeely called writing Civil War "a walk in the park compared to these" films, noting the fact that they were writing scenes for characters who had not been cast yet. Additionally, Joe Russo said that he and Anthony wanted "a strong through line" from The Winter Soldier to Civil War and into the two Infinity War films, saying, "We look at [Civil War] as setting the stage for Infinity War, how it starts and what condition everybody's in." Joe Russo also expanded about crafting the story of the films with so many characters, saying that they hoped to "focus on a handful of characters" with many of the other characters appearing having "ancillary roles" in order for the story "to be built around the characters' emotional arcs." He also added that the number of characters in Civil War was preparing the brothers to "deal with probably triple the amount of characters in Infinity War". The Russos and Markus and McFeely noted that they were "talking to the directors and writers of the other Phase Three movies on an almost weekly basis" in order to ensure "everything lines up right." Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson spoke on this, explaining that he is "kept in the loop" on how the Avengers films would use Strange because of his close relationships with Feige and Joe Russo, and stated that he had discussed the plot of both Avengers films with Joe "outside the men's room at Marvel", and had given notes on them, saying, "this is why this is great, this is so the way to do this... [and] no, this is why that'll never work..." James Gunn, director and writer of the Guardians films, who is involved with the films in an executive producer role, stated that he worked with the Russos, Marvel and Feige "to make sure that any of the characters I'm involved with that are in [Infinity War] are well taken care of and are as funny as they should be and is [sic] honest and truthful as they should be."
Anthony talked about the films being told from multiple perspectives, saying, "You're going to be moving around through different perspectives of the characters. It's like Nashville for super heroes. It's storytelling that is vignetted storytelling. It's to composite all of them under one story--everybody." Markus also talked about how he and McFeely were handling Thanos, a character that the audiences knows is the threat of the films, yet until these films, had little scenes and screen time to divulge his history and motivations. He said, "We don't get an element of surprise [with his introduction]... You can count on a lot of scenes where we illuminate a lot about him very early [in the first film]," with McFeely adding, "It is incumbent upon us to give him a real story, real stakes, real personality, and a real point of view." Theoretical physicist Clifford Johnson consulted on the films, having previously done so on the second season of Agent Carter and Thor: Ragnarok. Production designer Charles Wood also noted the films would be introducing "many, many, many new worlds" outside of Earth and others previously established in prior films.
Filming
Principal photography for Avengers: Infinity War began on January 23, 2017, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, under the working title Mary Lou, with Trent Opaloch serving as director of photography. Additional filming occurred in Scotland, with filming taking place in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Scottish Highlands, with studio work taking place at Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld. Filming in Scotland began on February 28, 2017. From March 18 through April 21, 2017, filming occurred in Old Town, Edinburgh on and around the Royal Mile, including High Street, Parliament Square, Cockburn Street, and Roxburgh Close and Old Fishmarket Close, as well as Waverley Station. Filming also took place at Durham Cathedral in Durham, England in early May 2017, and in St Abbs. Additional filming also occurred at St Giles' Cathedral and Inverness Castle. In late June 2017, filming occurred in Downtown Atlanta, as well as Atlanta's Central Park in early July, before moving to Queens, New York in the middle of the month.
After the start of filming, Sean Gunn revealed he was involved with the films, serving again as the on-set stand-in actor and motion reference for digital character Rocket. He has also previously appeared in the Guardians films as Kraglin, while Pom Klementieff also revealed she would appear in Infinity War, reprising her role of Mantis. By early February 2017, Johansson was set to appear in Infinity War, Brolin revealed that Benicio del Toro would be filming scenes for Infinity War, reprising his role as Taneleer Tivan / The Collector, and Marvel confirmed that Holland would appear as Spider-Man in both films. Jim Starlin, creator of Thanos, Gamora, and co-creator of Drax, indicated he was interested in having a cameo appearance in the films. At the end of the month, Dan T. Cathy, co-owner of Pinewood Atlanta, noted the films were "the largest film production ever with a $1 billion budget," which Feige later stated was false. In March 2017, Terry Notary revealed he would appear in Infinity War as Thanos' right-hand man, and Isabella Amara revealed she would be reprising her role as Sally from Spider-Man: Homecoming in Infinity War. Also that month, in terms of the Guardians of the Galaxy's roles in the films, Gunn stated despite them being mainly Avengers films, the Guardians are "a part of Thanos's stories, so, they are in there, and they have, not the biggest, but, an integral part to that." At Wizard World Cleveland 2017, Anthony Mackie confirmed he would reprise his role as Sam Wilson / Falcon in both films.
The following month, Saldana confirmed she would return, along with the other Guardians, for the sequel film as well, and Black Panther was slated to appear in Infinity War, with Chadwick Boseman confirming he would reprise the role in June 2017. Also in April, Feige stated that the films would not be filmed simultaneously as originally planned but rather back-to-back and indicated that filming for the Infinity War sequel will commence in August 2017. He explained, "We're doing them one right after another. It became too complicated to cross-board them like that, and we found ourselves--again, something would always pay the price. We wanted to be able to focus and shoot one movie and then focus and shoot another movie." The films were originally scheduled to be shot concurrently, with the Russos suggesting that "some days we'll be shooting the first movie and some days we'll be shooting the second movie. Just jumping back and forth." Anthony Russo originally felt it made more sense to shoot the films simultaneously due to financial and logistical reasons considering the large number of cast members, even though each part is its own distinct film. In June 2017, Evans confirmed that Ant-Man was intended to appear in the films, with Paul Rudd appearing on set the following month. Also, Danai Gurira was scheduled to reprise her role as Okoye in Infinity War. Additionally, Johansson commented on the amount of characters featured in the films, and felt the films would feature over 60 characters, with at least 30 appearing together in one scene. Filming of Infinity War concluded on July 14, 2017. In mid-July 2017, Bautista confirmed his return for the sequel, and Favreau hinted that he would be reprising his role as Harold "Happy" Hogan in the films. Samuel L. Jackson also stated he had not been asked yet to appear in either film as Nick Fury, despite stating throughout 2016 that he would.
Filming on the untitled sequel began on August 10, 2017, also at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, under the working title Mary Lou 2. Soon after, Bettany confirmed he would return in the sequel, with confirmation also coming for Johansson, Favreau, and Gwyneth Paltrow, who reprises her role as Pepper Potts. Also in August, additional filming occurred in The Gulch area of Downtown Atlanta, near the Five Points MARTA station, and Piedmont Park. The following month, Stan, Don Cheadle, and Klementieff were confirmed to return in the sequel, and it was revealed that Hiroyuki Sanada had been cast in an undisclosed role. Rudd was confirmed to return in October 2017, while Brie Larson was confirmed to appear as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel by November, and Stan confirmed the involvement of Jackson, Hurt, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne, and Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster in the films. Filming will also occur again in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland in July 2018.
The Russo brothers announced that both films would be shot using IMAX/Arri 2D digital cameras, thus marking the first time that a feature film was shot entirely using IMAX cameras and its exclusive aspect ratio. The films were captured on the Arri Alexa 65 with IMAX then digitally processing the footage. Opaloch noted that the production would use 12 of the Alexa 65 cameras, and that Arri was working on lenses with additional focal lengths for the camera, with the hope they would be available by the start of filming since the production would "need all the accessories and lenses" since it was "such a behemoth of a project."
Post-production
At D23 Expo 2017, Marvel revealed that Cheadle would reprise his role as James Rhodes / War Machine in Infinity War, while confirming the involvement of Brolin, Bettany, Olsen, Klementieff, Gillan, Bautista, Mackie, Cumberbatch, Stan, Boseman, Ruffalo, Hemsworth, while footage screened confirmed Hiddleston, Johansson, and Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket. They also announced the inclusion of the Black Order, Thanos' children in the film, Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, and Cull Obsidian. On including the Black Order, Joe Russo said, "we have so many characters and Thanos needs to be teased out. You can't have the characters challenging him every step of the way. There has to be characters that they have to go through to get to him. The Black Order is the perfect cast of characters to do that with." He also spoke on why Supergiant, a member of the comics version of the Black Order, was not included, noting "consolidation seemed like a smart thing to my brother and I because they were starting to overlap each other", with the exclusion in service of the storytelling. The Black Order in the film have altered powers than their comic versions, with the Russos "altering their powers to things that [they] felt were in better service of our storytelling. But also things that [we] think are cooler and things that [we] want to see." Later in July 2017, Joe Russo stated there were a couple of unfinished scenes for Infinity War that would be shot "in the next few months".
In August 2017, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor confirmed he would appear in Infinity War, in an unidentified villainous role, as did Letitia Wright, reprising her role as Shuri. In October 2017, Jacob Batalon revealed he would be reprising his role as Ned in Infinity War, and the next month, the film's first trailer confirmed the inclusion of Winston Duke as M'Baku and Florence Kasumba as Ayo, both reprising their roles. The trailer also revealed the inclusion of the alien species Outriders, from the storyline Infinity. Visual effects for Infinity War were created by Framestore and Industrial Light & Magic. Framestore created the models and textures for Spider-Man's Avengers costume, which was first seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming and implemented in that film by Trixter.
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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