“Avengers: Endgame” directors Joe and Anthony Russo sat down with TheWrap at the recent press junket in downtown Los Angeles, where they discussed the film — and the delicate balancing act of including the remaining characters in the movie that survived that horrible finger-snap at the end of “Infinity War.”
“Let’s use ‘Infinity War’ as an example,” said Joe Russo. “It’s a very disciplined process that we go through with (screenwriters) Markus and McFeely, who are our main collaborators on all the movies. We sit in the room for months on end talking and nosing through every possible, every story possible.”
“How we decide to put characters together is purely based on storytelling,” added Joe Russo. “It’s not an exact science. There have been many iterations of all the movies we’ve done where there were other characters in the stories that were then removed because they couldn’t get them to make sense or be motivated by the events of the story. Everything you’ve seen where we end up in is the final draft.”
Anthony Russo added, “We talk about so many different scenarios that we might chase down. It takes a long, a very long time to arrive at a shape. And a single road that we’re gonna follow with the story.”
Early projections for “Avengers: Endgame” predict a $220-260 million opening, with the upper end topping the record $257.6 million domestic opening weekend total set by “Infinity War.” But with presales breaking every record imaginable, all bets are off for this film. The possibility of the first-ever $300 million domestic debut is now on the table, though analysts who spoke to TheWrap say they expect a lower, but still record-breaking, $270-280 million opening.
“Endgame” is also expected to break the record $640 million global opening of “Infinity War,” as unlike that film, China will open day and date with all other global markets this month.