“I remember in the big manifesto thing that we did, where the first work we did on these movies where we just… every possible storyline that you could take from what’s around, that Nova has the Xandarian Worldmind,” Markus explained to ComicBook.com (opens in new tab).

The Xandarian Worldmind, for those unaware, is essentially a sentient Wikipedia, detailing the lives and history of the planet of Xandar. Nova would have absorbed all that knowledge, which would have been handy in the wake of Thanos’ off-screen razing of the planet (which featured in Guardians of the Galaxy (opens in new tab)) to steal the Power Stone.

Markus elaborated further about his role in Infinity War: “In this conception, he would be the herald, not unlike the Hulk, who was actually standing in for the Silver Surfer, but that one member of the Nova Corps survived Thanos’ attack. The Xandarian Worldmind would be the voice of Glenn Close, because you had her and why not? And that he would be Richard Rider and he would come to Earth.”

So, instead of Nova (or even Silver Surfer) warning the likes of Doctor Strange and Iron Man about the imminent threat of the Mad Titan, it happened to be a certain Jade Giant. At least we got a Hulka-Hulka Burning Fudge joke out of it. That almost makes up for no Nova. Almost.

Here are some of the best superhero movies (opens in new tab) ever made, from Endgame to Into the Spider-Verse

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The story, as it goes, is included in the Art of Infinity War book (H/T ComicBook.com (opens in new tab)) and features an amazing note outlining, “how they created a version of the script where Loki would get away in an escape pod at the beginning of the movie.”

So far, so very normal. For Marvel anyway. Paul Bettany has already told us about how fake scripts were given out (opens in new tab) and, as Loki dying at Thanos’ hand was a pretty dramatic moment to kick off the movie, it’s a given that everyone would want that to be kept under wraps by swapping it out for a low-key moment. And, no, I’m not apologising for that terrible pun.

But here’s where it gets weird. Some members of the crew – it doesn’t say who, though you can imagine certain runners and the like weren’t privy – were simply expecting an escape pod scene. As the book says: “When we started shooting that particular sequence, we had crew members who were thoroughly confused. We had to let them know that those were fake versions of the script that they read.”

Amazing. Just the thought of everyone standing around looking massively puzzled while Josh Brolin chokes Tom Hiddleston out sounds like the funniest thing ever to me. Still, I’m glad it got sorted out in the end. Though, it begs the question: what other porkies were told to keep secrets under wraps? Thanos’ click of the fingers replaced by a dab? Red Skull being replaced by Howard the Duck? We may never know…

I have a lot of questions about that process. But not as many compared to the ones we have about Avengers: Infinity War ending (opens in new tab).

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Bear in mind these are digital comics, not printed copies, and you’ll need to read it via a Kindle device, Kindle cloud reader, or the Kindle app (available on iOS and Android). But, this is still a fantastic selection, especially if you want to get an idea of where the MCU might be headed or just see what other adventures the likes of Iron Man, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and the rest get up to when they’re not dominating the box office.

Pretty much everything is on sale (and I only say “pretty much” because I want to leave room for error, but truth be told every Marvel-published comic I’ve seen is 50% or more off sticker price), but if you want some suggestions, here are a few suggestions:

Infinity Gauntlet (opens in new tab) was a major source of inspiration for Avengers: Infinity War (opens in new tab), and likely Avengers 4 as well. If you want to see how the Marvel universe responded to Thanos and the Infinity Gems (yes, they’re gems in the comics, stones in the movies) before, check it out.

Captain Marvel (2014) (opens in new tab) will introduce you to the most recent incarnation of the character. Though there have been other Captain Marvel stories in the past, this is likely to be the closest analogue to what the Captain Marvel movie will portray in 2019.

Venom: Lethal Protector (opens in new tab) is said to be a major source of inspiration for the upcoming Venom movie, and it is so deliciously ’90s. If you’re a fan of this edgy anti-hero and haven’t already read this tale, you owe it to yourself to pick it up.

If you’re more of a Star Wars fan, I highly recommend Star Wars: Darth Vader (2015) (opens in new tab). Taking place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, this series digs deep into the Sith Lord’s lore and backstory, introducing several characters which even got their own spin-offs. Just make sure you go for the 2015 series. The 2017 run has not been, in my humble opinion, nearly as good.

Got others to recommend? Let us know in the comments!

If that isn’t enough Marvel-ous goodness for you, why not check out every new Marvel movie (opens in new tab) coming soon, as well as our ranking of the best Marvel movies (opens in new tab).  

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The Easter egg in question comes from Reddit (opens in new tab) (where else?) and, honestly, it’s a little surprising no-one’s picked up on this before. Cull Obsidian, during he and Ebony Maw’s first foray to Earth at the beginning of the movie, clearly has some familiar-looking red and blue fabric hanging from his belt. Take a look.

While nothing’s been officially confirmed, that sure looks like a strip of Captain Marvel’s suit hanging from the Black Order member’s midriff.

What could that possibly mean? For one thing, if the Easter egg rings true, it’s very likely that Carol Danvers and either Thanos or the Black Order have had a scrap before. Worse still, it appears as though Captain Marvel came off worse, judging by the use of her suit as a ‘trophy’ and her absence from Infinity War.

So, are we going to see what happened to Captain Marvel? Her standalone movie is ripe for the picking when it comes to explaining the missing gaps in her tale, and by introducing Cull Obsidian and Ebony Maw already, the movie’s got a potential set of baddies just ready and waiting in the wings.

As for what happens next – that’s anyone’s guess, but part of me thinks that Ms. Danvers isn’t going to be too happy with Thanos when she rocks up again – and she might want to avenge one of her first defeats. But that’s a story for another day…
 

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Note: There are mild spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War from this point on. 

Having worked on many a Marvel movie before, including Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as The Chronicles of Narnia film franchise, Markus and McFeely are no strangers to big budget screenwriting, but surely even they were a little nervous about how they would balance 18 movies worth of backstory in Infinity War and Avengers 4? “We tried not to freak out about it,” laughs McFeely. “And then we gave ourselves permission to give everyone varying sized arcs and participation. So it’s not one movie where 25 people are in a room scene after scene after scene, it’s smaller stories that weave together and come together and break apart so that everyone eventually will feel like they have a good sized role in the movie.”

That also meant ditching anything which wasn’t 100% necessary to the story. “We jettisoned early on any sort of checking in before the story starts of ‘I wonder where Tony lives now?’ or ‘I wonder when Black Widow gets her guns?’” Markus adds. “Anything that didn’t involve the hard Thanos storyline, there was no room for.” Bringing everything back to the big bad wasn’t the chore it sounds like though, as Markus and McFeely really enjoyed writing for the purple giant. “He was sort of delightful because he’s not a maniac, but he’s certainly amoral, he’s smarter than most of the people in rooms he’s in.” McFeely tells me. Markus adds: “Thanos has been a huge amount of fun, because he’s so big and so ambitious and so philosophical that, when you get scenes with Thanos in them, they’re automatically interesting because he’s not going to just glower and do bad guy things, he’s going to be as three-dimensional as we can get him. But he’s also simultaneously trying to do the biggest, craziest thing anyone in any of our movies has ever done, so he’s just a candy store of things.”

What’s next?

Every new Marvel movie (opens in new tab) coming until 2022 – from Avengers: Infinity War to Spider-Man: Homecoming 2

Before the pair could have fun writing for Thanos though, they had to come up with a story for him. Where do you even start writing such a vast and packed plot? Well, Marvel Studios has a plan, so all Markus and McFeely had to do was follow that plan, streamline a few things, and write the dialogue, right? Wrong. “There was very little prescription,” Markus tells me. “It was basically: ‘It’ll have Thanos in it and probably the Infinity Stones (opens in new tab) – come up with some stuff.’” After getting that helpful and detailed brief from Marvel the writers set to work in the midst of making Captain America: Civil War (opens in new tab). “In-between setups and basically the back-half of every shooting day, Chris and I would retreat to our office and read comics and start coming up with a sort of memo to give to Marvel saying ‘Here are all the things we could do with this idea.’” McFeely explains. “And then we basically got the powers that be to go through it like a menu and circle things and go ‘I like that, and I like that…’ and then we’d sit there and go ‘Well, you can’t do B if you do A, but you can do C if you do A’,” adds Markus. 

How to write a Marvel movie

Once Marvel had picked from Markus and McFeely’s smorgasbord of storyline goodies, they locked themselves in a room for the last four months of 2015 and started writing. “The Russo brothers would come in when they weren’t editing Civil War,” McFeely tells me. “And Kevin [Feige] would come in when he wasn’t doing one of six other things and we slowly marched through outlining two movies by the holidays, and then Chris and I went off and wrote those two movies in the first four or five months of 2016. And then we have just been re-writing those movies for the last year and a half.” If that endless rewriting sounds intense, it was only the beginning. “With all moving parts of it, it was kind of important to have us on set,” McFeely adds. “We’ve been on set for all the movies we’ve done for them – I should say all three Cap movies – so, particularly with the Russo brothers, we do a lot of nipping and tucking and tailoring and adjusting as the dailies come in and the best performances come in. It’s a living beast for that whole year.”

But back to the characters! (There are a lot of characters.) Not everyone was as fun to write for as Thanos, as Markus reveals: “In some ways I would say Black Widow and Steve Rogers [are the hardest to write because]… neither of them are big talkers to begin with, so any time you wind up writing a scene where they sit down and have a chat, it’s going to get cut because it doesn’t feel right. They’re very much on stories, so it’s hard particularly in a movie where you’re not spending all the time with them to find the room to give them a three-dimensional portrait.” If having seen Avengers: Infinity War, you’re thinking that’s true because Cap and Black Widow are barely in it, that’s apparently all going to change in Avengers 4. He starts: “I think we did… over the course of both movies… those two have a… there’s a big… I just want someone to gesture to me and say ‘Shut up!’ [laughs]” Clearly, Markus was getting too close to telling me something about Avengers 4 and had to just stop – I’ve no problem with that, I want to be surprised – but it will at least put some fans’ minds at ease to know that Cap and Black Widow’s Avengers 4 roles will make up for their more minor parts in Infinity War. “Over the course of both movies, everyone gets equal time, put it that way,” Markus finally says. McFeely confirms: “Rest assured, even if your favourite character in any one particular movie didn’t feel like the star, over the course of two movies they’ll have had plenty of screen time and story.”

The same goes for missing characters. If you were disappointed that Ant-Man didn’t make an appearance in Infinity War, don’t worry, because it sounds like he could play a significant role in the next movie. “On a side note, I love writing for Ant Man,” says McFeely. “He’s always the new guy in all these situations, and he’s always got this wide-eyed thing, and we know that [Paul] Rudd will beat it very often, so whatever line you give him, he’ll pull a little salt and sugar out of it and it’ll be hilarious.” That sounds like Ant-Man alright!

When you’re writing for so many different characters – all with their own agendas, voices, and relationships – the MCU itself can be a great resource in helping writers. “You can refer to them now,” says Markus. “They’re all in the previous movies, so you can study the actor, study them in how the character has behaved and it’s pretty obvious when you’ve gotten it wrong, it just feels wrong. If you’ve given Nebula a five-page emotional theme, then you’re not getting it.” He adds: “One of the nice things, and particularly nice in these movies, is that we get to contrast people. Their voices become clearer when they’re talking to someone who doesn’t talk like them. So, Tony and Cap are always fun to put together because they’re so completely different. Peter Quill and Doctor Strange do not talk the same way, so that’s another.”

Nothing lasts forever

Having spent so long – in some cases years – writing for these characters, it’s hard to imagine Markus and McFeely saying goodbye to them, but it’s unlikely all our favourite superheroes will make it into Marvel’s Phase Four. Captain America is a strong contender to bow out in Avengers 4 after Chris Evans revealed that his contract was up at the end of the Infinity War sequel, and having written all the Cap films, Markus and McFeely couldn’t speak more highly of the character… or the actor who made him famous. “I will say one of the reasons that Captain America has become one of the top couple of important characters in the MCU is because of Evans,” says McFeely. “I like the fact that we’ve been able to slowly bring him forward to a place like in Civil War where he kind of makes a selfish decision, or a self-interested decision – maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong – I like that progression that we’ve been able to do.” Markus adds: “And if he does put down the shield, so to speak, it’s been very satisfying over the course of five movies to give him as complete an arc as we’re ever going to have the opportunity to give someone, and we have taken him from a 90-pound kid in 1943 to god-knows-where, and that has been fantastic.” McFeely chimes in: “And that’s a rare privilege for writers, you know?”

It wasn’t just an abundance of differing characters Markus and McFeely had to contend with when writing Infinity War and Avengers 4 though. There’s also the little matter of the fact that both movies are linked… but not too much. They were originally Parts 1 and 2, but then became just Avengers: Infinity War and its sequel, and now they’re totally different movies? Or are they? “I mean they can stand alone in that they certainly have a beginning, middle, and end,” says Markus. “The first one doesn’t just go to black in the middle of something and tell you to wait a year. It is a complete story. Taken together though, they are one huge epic.” Having now seen Infinity War I’m not sure how much I agree with that statement, but McFeely assures me that Avengers 4 is much more standalone. “I would say the second one is completely independent of the first one.” He says. Markus agrees: “They are very much related, but they are two very different kinds of movies. The second one is not just more of the first one, it’s a different genre, almost.” What genre, Markus wouldn’t tell me (“A romantic comedy!” He jokes), but I’m intrigued to find out. 

Read more

Avengers: Infinity War post-credits scene (opens in new tab): What happens, and what it means for the MCU

Another MCU hallmark is how funny the best Marvel movies (opens in new tab) are, but with a storyline as serious and action-packed as Infinity War, how do you balance the humour we’ve come to know and love from these films with, effectively, the end of the world? “Generally speaking things can start lighter before the stakes become apparent,” explains McFeely. “Before players get taken off the board, before complications happen… So it means that it’s lighter up front and then when you get a joke late, it’s very often a big relief because you’ve probably been in the grips of something serious for a while.” Markus adds: “I also think people make jokes under stress, and so having humour during a serious situation, I find more realistic and more satisfying. If you have people just being hilarious before the story has started, it tends to get annoying.”

The best thing about working on Infinity War and Avengers 4 for McFeely was no doubt the challenge of the project. “It’s like with diving; it’s a really difficult dive to pull off! The degree of difficulty is high,” he tells me. “The logistic dance of telling these two big stories, basically all at the same time, or at least back-to-back, was mind boggling. Like, it is the most complicated movie to produce, I’m pretty sure ever, maybe since Apocalypse Now! [Laughs]” For Markus is was more about finally – finally – getting to a point the MCU had been promising for a long time. “In the MCU, like a lot of times when you’re making a movie, there’s some future thing that, in success, we might get to do this thing and in that thing people will be epic,” Markus adds. “It’s the peak of the storytelling and we were no longer implying the thing might happen in the future – we’re actually doing the thing, and to be able to let loose and take the characters to their absolute furthest point is really fun.”

Confused about the Avengers: Infinity War ending (opens in new tab)? Let’s talk about the nine questions we need answered in Avengers 4.

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How Avengers: Infinity War packs in all of the superheroes to great effect – The Guardian (opens in new tab) (4/5) (MILD SPOILERS)

“In theory, all these superheroes crammed into one movie should trigger the law of diminishing returns and the Traveling Wilbury effect. And yet somehow in its pure uproariousness, it works. It’s just a supremely watchable film, utterly confident in its self-created malleable mythology. And confident also in the note of apocalyptic darkness.”

Does Thanos work in Avengers: Infinity War? – The Telegraph (opens in new tab) (3/5) (SPOILERS WITHIN REVIEW)

“Given the vast scale the Russos are working on, resorting to your typical collect-the-gems plot game seems disappointingly basic, but there’s a thornier problem with Thanos in general: he’s a huge hulk of a being, twice human size, but the effects job on Brolin thwarts his usual authority as an actor.”

The surprisingly dark tone of Avengers: Infinity War – Nerdist (opens in new tab) 

“First and foremost, this is the Empire Strikes Back of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you treat everything they’ve made so far as one giant franchise, then this is the chapter where everything lands on our heroes with both feet. Everything has built to this, and they somehow make it still feel like a story, not a whole bunch of fan service thrown in front of a camera.”

Avengers: Infinity War and its beautiful locations – Den of Geek (opens in new tab) (4/5)

“This is a knockout sci-fi movie that travels around the universe and back, and not only does it capture the vastness of that but it’s also perhaps the most beautiful, colorful film Marvel has released to date. Some of the action is still a bit hard to follow at times, but the brothers prove that they can shoot a spectacular interstellar adventure with the best of them.”

Is Avengers: Infinity War too long? – Slate (opens in new tab)

“But as Infinity War flits from one group of heroes to the next, ping-ponging around the galaxy in a strained quest to give its more than three-dozen regulars something of import to do, you may start to wonder if the movie’s mauve madman has a point about overpopulation. Sitting through its 2 hours and 30 minutes is like gorging on tapas: You wind up both overstuffed and unsatisfied.”

On whether the payoff of Avengers: Infinity War lives up to the hype – Toronto Sun (opens in new tab) (4/4)

“The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s newest entry is its biggest, most ambitious piece of storytelling in the studio’s 10 years of existence and the minute you exit the theatre, you’ll be lining up at the box office to buy another ticket.”

It’s that good.

If, after that, you’re eager for a little bit extra, then you’ll want to find out just how many Avengers: Infinity War post-credits scenes (opens in new tab) there are.

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There are plenty of candidates up for grabs by the icy claws of death, with one of the longest cast lists in the history of cinema attached to Avengers 3, but some are more likely than others. So who do you think will die? With Infinity War out in a matter of days, vote in our poll below to let us know who you think is going to bite the dust. Right now it’s not looking good for Cap who’s dominating the votes… could that have something to do with Chris Evans revealing that his Marvel contract is up after Avengers 4 (opens in new tab)?

We haven’t included everyone who’s in Infinity War, because that’s almost impossible, but you’ll find all your favourite (*sob*) MCU characters in the list below, as well as Thanos himself (the good guys might win, right? RIGHT?!). You can vote for more than one character if you think that’s likely, but there’s also an easy-to-click ‘EVERYONE’ option at the bottom just in case you think our theory that everyone will die (opens in new tab) will come true. Then again, maybe everyone will walk out just fine… Yeah… 

Get your fill of MCU goodness with the best Marvel movies (opens in new tab) around and the new Marvel movies (opens in new tab) coming soon! 

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“The Star Lord Jacket is an authentic recreation from the movie Avengers: Infinity War, worn by Chris Pratt as Star Lord in the film,” says Angel Jacket’ (opens in new tab)s description. 

“This Avengers: Infinity War jacket is ideal for all the Marvel comics fans and for casual fashion lovers.”

To enter, just head over to the GamesRadar+ Twitter account, give us a follow, and retweet this tweet. We’ll pick a winner next week, so make sure you’ve retweeted by April 3 at 12pm PT. The winner will be chosen at random, and our choice is final. Click here for the full terms and conditions.

GamesRadar+ readers can also grab a $15 discount on the Infinity War collection (opens in new tab). There’s a catch, though – you need to spend over $115 to apply it, and it’s only available to the first 20 customers who use it. Head over to Angel Jackets now to be one of the lucky few. 

For all the details on Avengers: Infinity War head over to our comprehensive primer. 

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During an interview with Fandango (opens in new tab), the Russo Brothers revealed that certain characters would be getting the lion’s share of screen time. First up and – this is hardly a surprise – is the Mad Titan, Thanos. But not for the reason you might be expecting. The directors are all about shaking things up…

“We wanted to tell a story that they [the audience] weren’t expecting, and the story is told from the point of view of a villain, which I think is also really unique and risky for a commercial film that will surprise the audience,” says Joe Russo.

That’s one. Who’s the other? Thanos may have an “incredible amount of screen time,” but it sounds like it’s going to matched by an Avenger who has taken a backseat during other superhero smash-ups: the God of Thunder, Thor.

“I think you’ll find that Thor has a really interesting arc in the film,” teases Joe Russo. “He hasn’t been at the forefront of other Avengers movies, but he certainly has a very important role in this film.”

That’s all but confirmed Thanos’ quest for the Infinity Stones will be at the heart of the movie’s story. Thor’s narrative arc is very much up in the air, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him hot on the heels of Thanos because, as we’ve seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron (opens in new tab), he’s the one on the tail of the galactic despot. He may have lost an eye and his hammer, but Thor is definitely not going to lose in the screen time stakes, that’s for sure.

If we’re following Thanos for large parts of the movie, it might be time to brush up on his plan: read the definitive guide to Marvel’s Infinity Stones. (opens in new tab)

The post The Avengers: Infinity War directors reveal which two characters are getting the most screen time appeared first on Game News.

Thanos may bear more than a passing resemblance to a squashed grape, but he’s not to be trifled with. Speaking to Sina Weibo (H/T ComicBook.com (opens in new tab)), co-director Joe Russo was asked which character he’s excited for fans to see. His answer was unequivocal: Thanos.

“I’m most excited for the audience to learn about [Thanos]. I think he’s a very interesting and complex villain. That’s why I like him. That’s why I’m excited for the audience to learn about him. I think his motivations, albeit psychotic, are compelling,” reveals the younger Russo brother.

Read More…

The definitive guide to Marvel’s Infinity Stones (opens in new tab)

Thanos’ one-track mind on hunting down the remaining Infinity Stones is surely going to be riveting but, if you want to read between the lines within Joe Russo’s words, the Gauntlet-wearer will completely dominate proceedings: “I think that in a lot of ways this is his movie, so it’s going to be very interesting to see how people respond to Thanos in the film,” he says. A lowkey Thanos movie inside an Avengers movie? Now that is interesting.

Marvel might have finally fixed their big, bad Big Bad problem. I mean, sure, the decade-long build-up to his arrival helps, but having a movie revolve around Thanos (which makes a whole lot of sense when there’s a fourth Avengers flick just around the corner) means everyone – even casual Marvel fans – will know straight away that he’s a big deal. Well played, Marvel. Well played.

Image: Marvel

The post A “psychotic” Thanos is going to be front and centre in Avengers: Infinity War appeared first on Game News.