Directors Joe and Anthony Russo hype up the finale of Marvel Studios’ 22-film arc in Avengers: Endgame. The Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off in 2008 with Iron Man and over the course of a decade, it grew to an $18 billion empire that significantly affected how Hollywood does movies nowadays. With the burden to wrap up the so-called The Infinity Saga resting on the Russos and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s shoulders, the directing duo are confident that the Phase 3 capper will deliver.

Picking up after the events of last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame will tackle the aftermath of Thanos successfully wiping out half of life in the universe and the remaining heroes attempting to avenge those fallen, doing whatever it takes. The film will also see the re-assembly of the core Avengers who had been separated for the most part the last couple of years with Hawkeye taking a brand new persona in Ronin. Demand for tickets was record-breaking with the film projected for a massive opening weekend haul. Considering the hype surrounding the film, not to mention the build up to Avengers 4, there’s definitely high expectation for the film, and while they can’t get into specifics just yet, the Russos are satisfied with how the conclusion to MCU’s first overarching narrative turned out.

During Endgame’s global press conference event where Screen Rant was in attendance, host Jon Favreau asked Joe and Anthony about how Infinity War’s ending affected the tone of its sequel, and without giving anything plot detail, the directing duo maintained how committed they are to the stakes of these films. Anthony pointed out that they’re not oblivious to the immense time and effort it took for the MCU to arrive at this point, saying they’re hoping that fans are content with the ending they crafted for the “grandest experiments in movie history.”

At this point, there’s really no clear path as to how Endgame will pan for both the surviving heroes and Thanos. Both the concept of time travel and Quantum Realm are expected to factor in the narrative, but it’s uncertain how they fit in the film. It doesn’t help that Disney is running a measured marketing campaign so as not to give away any clues what the future lies for the characters. The fact that the Russos even admitted to footage manipulation in trailers is another thing that fans should be cautious with when coming up when their own theories.

ANTHONY RUSSO:

So, the ending of Infinity War, Joe and I have mentioned this before, one of our favorite storytelling adages is write yourself into a corner. And what we take that to mean is, put yourself in place on a narrative level where you have no idea how you can possibly move forward from there. And that’s a very exciting place to be. It forces you to anticipate creative ways forward. And we try to do that to the endings of every single Marvel movie we’ve done. In fact, never more so, of course, than Infinity War. We are very committed to the ending of that movie. We think that stories lose their meaning and relevance and resonance unless there are real stakes. And for us, moving into this new movie, into Endgame, the story is very much about how do these characters, how did these heroes deal with loss? A resounding loss, true loss, devastating loss. That’s what they’ve experienced in Infinity War. And that was a unique experience for all of them. And how does a person move forward from that? In other words, how does a hero move forward from that moment? And how we’ve wrote it in the story, how is everybody, on an individual level, dealing with that experience and then how do they collectively cope with it.

JON FAVREAU:

And Joe, what do you want audiences to experience when they watch it?

JOE RUSSO:

This is I think a really unique experiment in movies, this grand mosaic, and depending on how you count it up, 11 franchises interwoven into one big narrative. And I think a lot of people have invested a lot of heart and soul into the characters. And taking place around the world is really heartwarming to see people come up to you and say, ‘Hey, I started watching this with my classmates when I was 10 years old. Now we’re all 21 and we’re going to see it together.’ Or, ‘My parents have taken me to every movie.’ ‘My grandpa has taken me to every film.’ It’s a real sense of community and sharing these stories and believing in them. And with Endgame, we can get the opportunity to finish off one of the grandest experiments in movie history and bring it to, as Kevin said, an epic conclusion. So, what we’re hoping for is that people feel satisfied with the conclusion.

It’s more likely for the better than fans have very little knowledge of what’s going down in Avengers: Endgame. In this day and age of social media, the way they’re able to keep Infinity War’s tragic ending tightly under wraps until the film’s release was an achievement. Considering that its sequel apparently has more spoilers than Avengers 3, it’s safe to say that Marvel Studios went to greater lengths to ensure that no spoilers come out before the movie hits theaters all over the world.

More: RDJ Calls Avengers: Endgame the Most Unpredictable MCU Film Ever

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