avengers infinity war

Jon Favreau directed two Marvel movies and then left to work on other projects. Joss Whedon directed two Marvel movies and left after some “really, really unpleasant” disagreements with the studio. James Gunn has said he can’t even think about returning for a third Marvel movie at this point. Yet, Joe and Anthony Russo have just finished their second Marvel movie and are so excited to return for two more movies, they’re not even taking a break. Captain America: Civil War is in theaters today and on Monday they start work on the two-part Avengers: Infinity War; a massive project that will be filming for over 10 months later this year. They seem almost invincible to the exhaustion and struggles other directors have had to endure. I spoke to the Russos at a swanky New York City bar just two days before their movie was set to open in theaters. They moved with almost complete anonymity, despite holding some of the biggest secrets in Hollywood. There they told me that they expect the Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming to be different than the one in their movie, that Avengers: Infinity War will be “telling a very different story” than the one in the classic comic series and talk about why they still haven’t seen Batman v Superman.

The next Avengers sequel was announced last year as part of Marvel’s Phase 3, with Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 set to arrive in 2018 followed by Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 in 2019. And with Inhumans off the table, it looks like the second half of Infinity War will now close out the third phase of the MCU. But it’s probably getting a new title pretty soon.

No matter how great the divide between Marvel’s TV and movie universe, fans have always quietly banked on Avengers: Infinity War uniting all its live-action heroes in one universe-shattering showdown. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo don’t want to get your hopes up, however, noting “our focus is on telling the stories of the characters that currently exist on the movie side.”

Captain America: Civil War directors Joe and Anthony Russo previously sent the internet into a slight tizzy when they revealed that their epic two-part Avengers: Infinity War will have something like 67 characters. That would seem like a lot of superheroes, if you took the Russo brothers’ comments literally. And just in case you did, Infinity War scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are here to assure you that’s not actually the case, but there is one character in particular who will be in the film — and he’ll have a much bigger role.

Jon Favreau is reportedly returning to direct a sequel to The Jungle Book, the live-action / CGI reimagining of Disney’s classic animated film, which took the top spot at the box office over the weekend. But that’s not the only project that has Favreau sticking around — the director has revealed that he’ll be returning to Marvel to serve as an executive producer on Avengers: Infinity War.

This is not a surprise to anyone who has been paying any attention, but Thanos will be the big villain in Marvel’s two-part Avengers: Infinity War finale. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building up to this ever since that Mad Titan’s debut in the Avengers post-credits scene back in 2012. He’s an evil, powerful supervillain who has the power to destroy the entire universe. Despite that, at this point he has appeared on screen for less than one minute and has a grand total of zero of the six total Infinity Stones (Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality, and Power). James Gunn has already said Thanos will not return for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, so Avengers: Infinity War is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to properly introducing audiences to the big man.

Lots of news from the Marvel Cinematic Universe today as directors Joe and Anthony Russo make the rounds to promote Captain America: Civil War. As you might expect, the Russos are already looking ahead to Avengers: Infinity War, and they just basically confirmed a bit of casting news that’s pretty exciting — especially for all those fans who keep asking James Gunn when we’ll see the Guardians of the Galaxy crossover with the rest of the MCU.

Superhero movies are a dominant force in modern blockbuster cinema, but with so many heroes appearing on our screens it can be tough to keep up with the release calendar. To help make it a little easier for superhero fans to know which weekends to keep free over the next few years, designer Dylan Todd has created this infographic featuring all the upcoming releases from Marvel Studios, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros and more, starring characters from the DC Universe, the Marvel Universe, the X-Men books, Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Valiant Universe, and more.

It’s strange to realize that the end of the first Marvel Cinematic Universe trilogy is almost here. It feels like not that long ago, Marvel was ambitiously releasing Iron man in theaters, hoping for a mild success. But as Captain America: Civil War opens in theaters this May, it is most definitely the beginning of the end and specifically setting up the two-part Avengers: Infinity War finale. Fans of Marvel comics and readers of the Civil War storyline may have an inkling of what to expect and directors Joe and Anthony Russo have hinted that Captain America: Civil War will have a “very dramatic” and “controversial” ending.

Josh Brolin is very excited about his place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he’s playing Thanos, the villainous mastermind scheming to destroy Earth and The Avengers. He is not so excited about his first role in a comic book movie, 2010’s Jonah Hex, based the DC Comics character of the same name. Brolin did not mince words recently when he said he “hated it.” And if you didn’t quite understand how serious he was, he repeated it one more time. “Hated it.”