Primarily known for their work on non-blockbuster TV shows like “Community” and “Arrested Development,” Anthony and Joe Russo were hired to direct “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” for Marvel, and the decision seemingly came out of left field. TV directors with no action movie experience to take on a big Marvel tentpole? Not only did the Russos convince the skeptics, but they knocked ‘Winter Solider’ out of the park, granting further legitimacy to Marvel’s desire to make seemingly off-kilter but collaborative choices. The brothers essentially took over Joss Whedon’s role as Marvel’s in-house consigliere —not bad for their first time at bat on a major studio picture.
That film’s success led the Russos to this year’s “Captain America: Civil War,” a much more ambitious movie that on cursory inspection could easily be mistaken for an ‘Avengers’ film. ‘Civil War’ also leads to a deal to make the two part “Avengers: Infinity War”; indeed, these former “just TV” directors now have the keys to one of the biggest franchises on the planet right now.
With four Marvel movies on their slate, three of which function as collective team movies (not to mention the fact that ‘Civil War’ brings fan-favorite Black Panther to the screen for the first time, as well as debuting the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s Spider-Man), the Russos quick ascension through the Marvel ranks is remarkable.
The Playlist recently sat down with the Russo siblings to discuss “Captain America: Civil War” and the idea of the brothers being the most significant creative guides at Marvel currently. We also spoke about the secret plan that brought Spider-Man back into the Marvel fold, the decision to use IMAX as an exclusive shooting format for the two ‘Infinity War’ films, and much more.
Joe Russo: We’re telling a story that starts with ‘The Winter Soldier’ and ends with the conclusion of ‘Infinity War.’ There’s certainly a through-line that we are shepherding, and we are very close with a lot of the other filmmakers that are working in the Marvel Universe right now. The very nature of our relationship with each other is collaborative. We love collaboration: we’ll text other [Marvel filmmakers] all the time, email ideas, and we’ll jump in the room sometime. We spent time with Peyton Reed a couple weeks ago talking about where he wants to go with “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” and how that might affect our storytelling in ‘Infinity War.’ So it’s all very collaborative, almost like an artist collective more than a “godfather” situation. We’re all very respectful of each other. We get excited by ideas, and we’re more excited by being surprised by ideas than we are in dictating the course of events. We’ve found that leads to more interesting storytelling.
Anthony Russo: I think Kevin Feige really sets that tone at Marvel. We’ve always really respected the way he treats every movie as its own thing and gives it the space to become what it wants to be. He doesn’t put too many expectations on what it needs to hit narratively. There can certainly be ideas that a movie has to get to in order to tether it to the rest of the universe, but it’s always kept to a minimum. And Marvel is never more happy than when filmmakers start doing things they didn’t expect. That’s when they know they’re in a good place. All credit to them for creating an environment where we can look like that.
Was there a point in “Captain America: Civil War” where Spider-Man was not a factor?
Anthony: If you go through the development process, in a sense, yes. When we first started to circle the idea of ‘Civil War,’ he wasn’t necessarily in the conversation. As we started to fill the idea out of what we wanted ‘Civil War’ to be, he came up right away on a creative level. The reality of him being able to be in the movie was lagging far behind that.
So it was kind of a scary place for us to be in creatively, because we were so in love with the idea of having him in the movie for a variety of reasons. To give you one, the movie is complicated. You’ve got Captain America and Iron Man in a very serious conflict that goes to a dark place. We’re big fans of balance in storytelling, and we like movies that hit every emotion. We wanted this movie to be balanced and layered. So it was important for us to bring characters into the movie who didn’t have the same investment in the very difficult storyline that is ripping the Avengers apart. That’s why characters like Spider-Man or Ant-Man are so valuable, because they show up in the movie not having the baggage everyone else has, and they have have different moments or hit different notes than the other characters who are in a more serious conflict can have.
Since Joss Whedon’s work on “The Avengers,” there’s been the idea of a creative “godfather” for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, working closely with Kevin Feige. Are the two of you in that role now?
Joe: It creates variance in the tone.
Anthony: So in our goal of making a balanced movie, we thought it was very important to have that. Then the fact that we are actually able to have the character in the movie is a mind-blowing gift that we could never have counted on. But since Kevin Feige and Louis D’Esposito are running Marvel, they figured out a way to work with the good people at Sony to share this valuable property and bring him to the MCU.
Did you have a contingency plan to either cut Spider-Man out or replace him with another character in the event that the Sony deal didn’t work?
Anthony: No. This was a difficult thing. We were developing the script with [screenwriters] Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for months based on the idea he’d be there. You have to commit to him. The only reason he’s in the movie is because he has to be in the movie to make the story work. Otherwise, he shouldn’t be in the movie.
Joe: If there’s an option for him to not be in the movie, then with all the complicated dealmaking, energy and effort required to do it, people will find a reason not to go through with the deal.
You’d effectively be undermining yourself by providing an out.
Joe: Yes, you have to will it into existence.
Anthony: They always said “guys, you have to have a plan B!” We said “don’t worry, we’ve got a plan B” —and we never had a plan B.