Infinity War director explains the heartbreaking process of choosing who dies in the movie
By Mia Johnson
Somebody had to die Infinity War, and apparently the process of choosing who was very intentional. How dare you, Russo brothers?
Warning! Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War ahead. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you’ll definitely want to come back later.
It’s hard to explain why Joe and Anthony Russo are both my favorite and least favorite directors at the same time. But anyone who’s seen Avengers: Infinity War would know why.
Infinity War had the most devastating ending of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies thus far. It took away many of our favorite characters, from Black Panther to Agent Maria Hill. Pretty much no one was safe. Now, we have a few answers on how the Russo brothers so heartlessly decided who should die.
The choice mainly depended on what the characters’ path had been so far, according to Anthony Russo.
“All of our choices are based on story,” he said to Comicbook.com. “It’s based upon the road that these characters have traveled, in not only this movie but throughout the entire entity up to this point because, again, these movies are the culmination.”
So they didn’t just throw darts at the Infinity War theatrical poster and picked who it landed on.
Russo continued: “So all we can say is that they are very focused story choices. That’s our motivation for everything. And, again, that’s why we love Marvel so much is they never let the tail wag the dog. The creative choices always lead the process and then they figure out how to pull off the miracle of making it work on a business level.”
This kind of process, given the story of Infinity War, definitely does need to be methodical and not random (sorry, dartboard). If you think about it, most of the people who are left by the end of the movie are our original Avengers: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow and Bruce Banner (and Hawkeye?). These were the number one characters many of us had expected to die by the end of this movie. Instead, them being left alive shows that something larger is at play.
In the future, we know that there are planned MCU movies, like Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, planned through 2025. That gives it away that these characters definitely will be returning. But first, we need a final hoorah for our original Avengers, who will save the day one last time in Avengers 4 and then pass the torch to the newbies.
How they will undo Thanos’ damage, we don’t know. But by the time Avengers 4 is over, we can likely expect to have a much happier ending than in Infinity War (at least we hope).
Related Story: Groot's final line from Infinity War revealed
So while it may seem heartless to have to choose who dies and who doesn’t, Avengers 4 will likely give us a much different headcount by the end of the movie. We’re putting a lot of trust in the Russo brothers to tell the next story. We just ask that they try not to break our hearts anymore.