If they have been among the great architects of the MCU’s success for a good decade, Joe and Anthony Russo have had some setbacks during the production of “Captain America: Civil War”. Difficulties that almost made them leave the ship.
When the Russos take back the Captain
Directed by Joe Johnston, Captain America : First Avenger has enjoyed satisfactory critical and commercial success for Marvel Studios / Disney. However, he lacked a certain personality. It is in this context that Joe and Anthony Russo were hired to realize Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The result was grandiose. Indeed, this second part of the adventures of Steve Rogers is still considered as one of the best movies in the MCU. This is not only due to the dantesque action scenes. But also to its intrigue release of the best spy movies of the 70s. And the presence of Robert Redford in the casting, a real star of this kind of feature film at the time, is far from trivial.
Whether visually, scriptwriting or even musically, the Russo brothers therefore brought this identity that was missing from a film Captain America. No wonder, therefore, that they have stacked up to make in 2016 the third episode entitled Captain America : Civil War. No wonder they later took over from Joss Whedon to direct, either. Avengers : Infinity War and Avengers : Endgame, final episodes of the Thanos arc. Therefore, it’s easier to understand why Marvel / Disney is still willing to collaborate with Joe and Anthony, despite the latter being currently overbooked.
Divergences d’opinions
As a reminder, Captain America : Civil War sounded like an Avengers reunion ahead of time. We thus found there the Captain, Falcon, Black Widow, Iron Man, Black Panther or even Spider-Man. A meeting which led to a real disorder since the Avengers found themselves divided into two camps.
However, it is recounted in the book The Story of Marvel Studios : The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (book retracing the behind the scenes of the production of the 23 films of the Thanos arc) that the Russo brothers and Marvel / Disney did not really agree on the turn of this civil war.
As pointed out Collider, if the director duo wanted Captain America and Iron Man to face each other in the final part of the film, the producers, on the other hand, wanted the Avengers reunite to take on the super soldiers who could be brought back by the film’s antagonist, Helmut Zemo. Suffice to say that if Marvel / Disney had gone in this direction for the third arc of the blockbuster, it would probably not have brought a great flavor – especially since it would clearly have been a pale copy ofAvengers: Age of Ultron, released a year earlier.
In the book, therefore, it is said that, following this difference of opinion, the Russo brothers threatened to leave the film. It then took the intervention of the big boss of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige, to calm the tensions. He thus agreed with Joe and Anthony’s opinion. Alan Horn himself (president of Walt Disney Studios) also supported the Russo brothers in their choices. The final confrontation between the two flagship superheroes of Team Avengers has therefore taken place. You can watch it again on Disney +.
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