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158-593: Marvel Studios Special Presentations are a series of television specials produced by Marvel Studios for Disney+ , set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the franchise's films and television series . The Marvel Studios Special Presentation banner was revealed alongside the announcement of the first television special, Werewolf by Night (2022), in September 2022. The approximately hour-long specials are envisioned to provide

316-687: A Halloween -themed television special for Disney+ was in development, reportedly centered on Werewolf by Night . At the D23 Expo in September 2022, Marvel confirmed the Halloween special as Werewolf by Night , which was released in October. At that time, the "Marvel Studios Special Presentation" banner was revealed, under which Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special would be marketed. Marvel Studios executive Brian Gay called

474-876: A plot device to bring Gamora back in Endgame so that Gunn could use her in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Hope van Dyne / Wasp and Danvers both only appear in Endgame , in order to preserve their debuts in Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel (2019), respectively, which were released between Infinity War and Endgame . Other characters, such as Clint Barton / Hawkeye and Scott Lang / Ant-Man , were excluded in Infinity War for "a very specific story choice". Joe Russo said "we have

632-474: A beard and Romanoff with blond hair). The writers did not dwell on the romance between Romanoff and Banner, as established in Age of Ultron , beyond including a "loaded look between the two" because they considering it unrealistic as they would be more focused with Thanos; Maximoff and Vision's relationship was implied to have further developed since the events of Civil War . Markus and McFeely had originally killed off

790-518: A cameo appearance, after Danny Pudi and Jim Rash appeared in The Winter Soldier and Civil War , respectively. David Cross was invited to make a cameo appearance as Tobias Fünke in Infinity War , his character from the sitcom Arrested Development (2003–2006, 2013–2019), which the Russo brothers had previously worked on; this was prevented by a scheduling conflict, but Fünke still appears in

948-402: A depressed Thor were meant to still evoke his traditional costume, such as a bathrobe in the same red as his cape. For the digital characters in the films, Makovsky created clothes for small maquettes of the characters which the visual effects team could then replicate. The time-travel suits in Endgame were designed by Marvel's head of visual development Ryan Meinerding to combine elements of

1106-419: A dream-like quality. The location of Nidavellir took more inspiration from the comic books. Costume designer Judianna Makovsky focused on making clothes that fit the realistic style of the Russo brothers. For the civilian clothes worn early in Endgame , Makovsky wanted to adjust the color palette to be less bright than previous films to not draw away from the characters and storyline. The clothes worn by

1264-457: A future storyline with Thanos as the villain. Downey Jr. signed on in June 2013 to reprise his role as Tony Stark / Iron Man in the films, Brolin was cast as Thanos the next May, and many other actors were confirmed to be appearing in the following years. The films were officially announced in October 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 and Part 2 . The Russo brothers and Markus and McFeely joined

1422-403: A lot of drama. Discussing how they handled the character, who the audience knows is the threat of the films but has so far had little scenes and screen time to divulge his history and motivations, Markus said, "We don't get an element of surprise [with his introduction]... You can count on a lot of scenes where we illuminate a lot about him very early [in the first film]", with McFeely adding, "It

1580-503: A non-linear structure, and also had backstories for the " Children of Thanos ". Though this draft was not used, writing out Thanos's narration helped give Markus, McFeely, and the Russos more insight into the character. The other draft began the film after Thanos had already acquired the Space Stone, but this was rejected because "it felt like he had too many Infinity Stones to start". Going with

1738-460: A page count, and began writing them individually. They combined their work at the end of the week and repeated this until they had a "Frankenstein Draft" that McFeely described as long and repetitive but with some "gold" in it. They worked together to re-work these into a functional first draft. Completed first drafts for both films were handed to Marvel on May 1, 2016. While the films were in pre-production

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1896-482: A really interesting story cooked up for both of those characters, and part of that story required that they be under house arrest [in Infinity War ]." Because Captain Marvel had not been made when Markus and McFeely began writing the films, they "didn't have much to go on" for Danvers. They wanted her to have more than a cameo appearance but because of how powerful she is they were careful to not have her take over Endgame . McFeely said that would not have been fair to

2054-736: A script, despite beginning his filming on January 23. No actor in Infinity War had the entire script, though some who were in the film had access to more scenes than others. Additionally, fake and redacted scenes were used to help protect the secrecy surrounding the film. In April 2017, Feige revealed that the sequels were no longer being filmed simultaneously as originally planned, but rather back-to-back, and indicated that filming for [the Infinity War sequel] Endgame would commence in August 2017. He explained, "We're doing them one right after another. It became too complicated to cross-board them like that, and we found ourselves—again, something would always pay

2212-914: A short look at new characters or concepts to the MCU. The Special Presentations are accompanied by a special fanfare and opening reminiscent of the CBS Special Presentation intro from the 1980s and 1990s. Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022) are included in Phase Four of the MCU, both of which are holiday-themed. Marvel Studios is open to the idea of additional specials. The Special Presentation format has been praised for how it allowed Marvel Studios to tell contained stories that experiment with genre and style, and could introduce more obscure characters, while also not being beholden to long-form storytelling as with their films and television series. By September 2018, Marvel Studios

2370-596: A single, major sponsor to operate. As such, a good deal of programming was one-off shows, accommodating smaller sponsors and not requiring a loyal audience following. As the industry matured, this trend reversed; by the 1950s, most networks aimed to provide stable, routine, and proven content to their audiences. Television executives, such as CBS president James Aubrey , sought to avoid any disruption in viewing habits which might cause viewers to move to another network. These weekly series, though, typically became too expensive for any single sponsor, so stand-alone shows offered

2528-424: A special multicolored intro with bongo drum music, reminiscent of the CBS Special Presentation theme featured before animated holiday specials of the 1980s and 1990s. Giacchino (who directed and composed for Werewolf by Night ) composed the fanfare, calling the opening a "love letter" to the broadcast networks' special presentation logos, which were used to indicate unique programming, something Marvel Studios wanted

2686-503: A timeline to allow the writers to work towards those beats. Once this was completed, Markus and McFeely compiled the cards into an initial outline that included moments, scenes, dialogue, and jokes. They re-wrote the outline to be more readable, and sent it to Marvel for approval. The writers began work on the actual screenplays in January 2016. Each week they took several scenes from the initial outline (there were around 80–90), assigned them

2844-731: A way to continue accommodating the single-sponsor practice, leading to shows like Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951, sponsored by Hallmark Cards as part of the Hallmark Television Playhouse ) and the Ford 50th Anniversary Show (1953, a two-hour variety show simulcast on both CBS and NBC). In 1954, NBC president Sylvester Weaver pioneered an innovative style of programming which he called "spectaculars". These stand-alone broadcasts, usually 90 minutes in length, were designed to attract large, new audiences and bring prestige to

3002-611: A wedding when the crew shot Tony Stark's funeral. According to Smulders, no actor had to be digitally inserted into the scene, as Marvel was able to include all the actors whose characters attended Stark's funeral in spite of potential scheduling conflicts. Further filming locations in the Atlanta area included a lakeside cabin in Fairburn, Georgia , which is where the Stark family lives in the film, as well as several locations that were used to portray

3160-442: Is incumbent upon us to give him a real story, real stakes, real personality, and a real point of view". The writers avoided the comic book storyline where Thanos tries to woo the female manifestation of Death , and instead paired him at times with Gamora, since "they had a lot of history we wanted to explore" and would add layers to Thanos that would avoid him becoming a simplistic antagonist who "wants ultimate power just to take over

3318-454: Is set approximately two years after the events of Civil War , as the Russos always set "everything based on when the last movie came out". In addition to Starlin's "Infinity Gauntlet", Markus and McFeely drew inspiration from Jonathan Hickman 's " Infinity " (2013) comic. Infinity War was crafted like a 1990s heist film , with the brothers looking at many films "that had that heist-style energy to them", as Infinity War "has that energy of

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3476-466: The X-Men film Logan (2017), which they used for a blueprint due to Feige's admiration for the film. The funeral scene was inspired by large splash pages in comic books where numerous heroes are depicted at a funeral following the death of a fellow hero, and was described by Markus as a "tour" through the MCU and all its characters while saying goodbye to the character that started the franchise. The scene

3634-638: The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy fail to prevent Thanos from collecting the six all-powerful Infinity Stones and he uses them to kill half of all life in the universe. In Endgame , the surviving Avengers and their allies attempt to reverse Thanos's actions. Development of Infinity War and Endgame began with Marvel Studios' early films, which introduced the Infinity Stones as plot devices and teased

3792-565: The Captain America films, along with Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Idris Elba as Heimdall from the Thor and Avengers films; Iron Man supporting actress Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts ; Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan / The Collector from Guardians of the Galaxy ; William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross , who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk (2008); and Kerry Condon as

3950-514: The Captain America films, writing the screenplays for both parts of Infinity War . McFeely later recalled that the pair had started negotiating to write the two films without ever actually being asked to do so by Feige or Marvel. Anthony Russo described the two Avengers sequels as the culmination of all the MCU films since Iron Man (2008), bringing an end to some things and beginning others. Marvel called this overall storyline " The Infinity Saga ", comprising Phases One , Two , and Three of

4108-643: The Downtown Atlanta area, and New York City. Filming for Endgame took place from August 10 to January 11, 2018, with additional filming in the Downtown and Metro Atlanta areas, the state of New York, Scotland, and England. Final reshoots for Endgame were held in January 2019. The films were the first Hollywood productions to be shot entirely in digital IMAX , using a new camera developed with Arri . Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt edited both films, and Alan Silvestri returned from The Avengers to compose

4266-451: The Guardians of the Galaxy scene where Taneleer Tivan / The Collector explains the origins of the Stones. Thanos , a villain who covets the Infinity Stones, was introduced to the MCU in a brief appearance at the end of The Avengers . Many fans subsequently expected Thanos to be the antagonist of the sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). However, Joss Whedon , who wrote and directed

4424-433: The Infinity War poster, McFeely said there was an early decision to not have "scene after scene [with] 23 people in a room moving from plot point to plot point", which would mean many popular actors and characters would have nothing to do in each scene. Instead, the writers divided the characters into smaller groups so each scene could be valuable for all the characters present. Those groups were weaved together as required by

4582-561: The Netflix series of the same name , expressed interest in this. Anthony Russo stated that this would be "complicated" due to the television series' serial nature of storytelling and the fact that Marvel Studios and Marvel Television have separate oversight. Markus and McFeely talked about possibly including Daredevil or Luke Cage during the scenes set in New York City, but they felt that including them for quick cameos would not have satisfied

4740-455: The Quantum Realm . Champion only had a one-day shoot which he spent with Paul Rudd , whom he felt to be one of the friendly actors he has worked with. Reginald VelJohnson was cast as a fire chief for an Endgame scene which took a week to film in Atlanta after the Russos contacted his agent due to being fans of his work; VelJohnson's scene was not kept in the theatrical cut of the film, but

4898-791: The Royal Mile , including High Street , Parliament Square , Cockburn Street , and Roxburgh Close and Old Fishmarket Close , as well as Waverley Station . Filming also took place at Durham Cathedral in Durham, England , in early May 2017 and in St Abbs . These scenes were actually shot for Endgame , with Durham Cathedral portraying 2013 Asgard, and St Abbs doubling for the town of New Asgard in Norway. Filming also occurred at St Giles' Cathedral and Inverness Castle . Other scenes shot for Endgame in 2017 were that of 1970 Camp Lehigh and 2012 Loki escaping with

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5056-542: The "Stonekeeper" guarding the Soul Stone. Marquand replaces Hugo Weaving , who had expressed reluctance to reprise the character from The First Avenger ; Weaving was approached to reprise the role, as he had originally signed for three films. However, Marvel pushed back the contracts that they agreed early on and offered him less money than he got for The First Avenger under the pretext that it would be only simple voice work . Consequently, Weaving desisted from reprising

5214-438: The "biggest movie" in the world. Vaughan-Lawlor, Notary, Ganderton, and Shaw reprised their roles as the "Children of Thanos" from Infinity War respectively; Coon was unable to reprise her role as Proxima Midnight due to a scheduling conflict, so Ganderton played the role solely and the character was given a non-speaking part with no close-ups . Ty Simpkins reprised his Iron Man 3 (2013) role as Harley Keener ; Sympkins

5372-427: The "last piece of unfinished emotional business" in his life. Downey improvised the line of Stark calling Rogers a liar in their first face to face meeting after he and Nebula are brought back to Earth by Danvers. According to Anthony Russo, Downey put a lot of energy into the scene as a whole, which made the Russos not want to do many takes of the scene because he was expending himself so much. The five-year time jump

5530-484: The 19th and 22nd films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Both films were directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from screenplays by the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely . They feature an ensemble cast composed of many previous MCU actors , headlined by Robert Downey Jr. , Chris Hemsworth , Mark Ruffalo , Chris Evans , Scarlett Johansson , Don Cheadle , Karen Gillan , Bradley Cooper , Gwyneth Paltrow , and Josh Brolin . In Infinity War ,

5688-632: The Avengers Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine , Paul Bettany as Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, and Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon. Infinity War also sees the Avengers unite with the Guardians of

5846-459: The Avengers could defeat Thanos, eventually realizing the importance of Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), despite the film not having a script when they began writing Infinity War and Endgame , due to Lang ending the film trapped in the Quantum Realm, with McFeely calling it a "big aha moment". The duo also had to close the 11 year story for Tony Stark , calling Stark reconciling with his father

6004-480: The Black Order, was not included because "consolidation seemed like a smart thing ... they were starting to overlap each other". The Black Order in the film have altered powers which the Russos "felt were in better service of our storytelling". Emma Fuhrmann was cast as an older Cassie Lang , replacing her Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp actress Abby Ryder Fortson , in Endgame . Fuhrmann auditioned for

6162-471: The Blip, but ultimately sacrificed herself in order to get the Soul Stone. Joe Russo adds that in Infinity War , the Avengers say that they do not trade lives, with the desire to protect people, while in Endgame "there’s now a desire to sacrifice in order to accomplish the goal". Russo added that both Romanoff and Barton had the same mission in the moment, but Romanoff's focus was on Barton not sacrificing himself in

6320-427: The Galaxy , Age of Ultron , and Doctor Strange , but found the increase in scale with Infinity War and Endgame to be a particular challenge. He felt that revisiting the sets of Doctor Strange in Infinity War was particularly helped by his experience on the original film, allowing for continuity between the two films. For the nation of Wakanda from Black Panther , that film was being produced in Atlanta at

6478-1043: The Galaxy, including Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord, Pom Klementieff as Mantis , Karen Gillan as Nebula , Dave Bautista as Drax , Zoe Saldaña as Gamora, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, and Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket. Sean Gunn served as the on-set stand-in actor for Rocket on both films. Additional actors reprising their roles in Infinity War from the various MCU franchises include Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange from Doctor Strange , with Benedict Wong as Wong; Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man from Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), with Jacob Batalon as Ned , Isabella Amara as Sally, Tiffany Espensen as Cindy, and Ethan Dizon as Tiny; and Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther from Black Panther , with Danai Gurira as Okoye , Letitia Wright as Shuri , Winston Duke as M'Baku , and Florence Kasumba as Ayo . Sebastian Stan also appears as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier from

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6636-410: The Guardians and also chose " The Rubberband Man " by The Spinners as their opening song in Infinity War . Gunn provided insight to a choice made by Markus and McFeely for Peter Quill / Star-Lord that both Gunn and actor Chris Pratt felt was not true to the character. His suggestion did not alter the overall story, and McFeely felt it was a good example of how working with the other MCU filmmakers

6794-704: The Infinity Gauntlet, a glove designed to house the Stones. A different Infinity Gauntlet was previously shown in Odin 's vault on Asgard in Thor (2011), but following the Age of Ultron scene this first Gauntlet was revealed to be a fake in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige explained that the first Gauntlet was included as a small Easter egg in Thor before an adaptation of The Infinity Gauntlet

6952-533: The Infinity Stones are separate objects in the comic books). Before that decision was made, the Orb was intended to be presented as having red energy in the first Guardians film and had to be changed to purple in post-production to give each of the Infinity Stones its own color, since the Aether was also red. Gunn did not know the importance of the Stones to the wider MCU when he created their backstory, without much thinking, for

7110-406: The MCU. In April 2016, Jon Favreau said he would executive produce the films after doing the same for the previous Avengers films and also directing the first two Iron Man films. Gunn also served as executive producer on the films, working with the Russos, Marvel, and Feige to ensure the Guardians of the Galaxy characters were "well taken care of" in the films. In March 2018, Disney moved

7268-631: The Mark V, dubbed the "cosmic War Machine armor", for space use. Ultimately, the Mark III armor and underwater sequence were cut, and Rhodes uses the Mark VI on Morag during the attack on Avengers HQ and the Mark VII "Iron Patriot" suit for the final battle. The films were originally scheduled to be shot concurrently, with the Russos suggesting that "some days we'll be shooting the first movie and some days we'll be shooting

7426-505: The Marvel Studios Special Presentations a "new format" for the studio, with each special meant to be a short look at "either a different story or a different area of the universe", such as introducing new characters or concepts to the MCU, and teasing how they could further integrate into the MCU with future appearances. Michael Giacchino , the director of Werewolf by Night , said Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige

7584-441: The Marvel films and view them through a different lens. But I can't think of any comics in particular that would have value" to give a basis for the film's story. Joe Russo also described the second film as "more of an epic adventure in the classic sense, with huge emotional stakes". While Infinity War features one post-credits scene , as with previous MCU films, the Russos considered not including one. Anthony noted that part of

7742-952: The Mind Stone inside Loki 's scepter in The Avengers (2012); the Reality Stone as the Aether in Thor: The Dark World (2013); the Power Stone within the Orb in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014); and the Time Stone within the Eye of Agamotto in Doctor Strange (2016). According to James Gunn , writer and director of the Guardians of the Galaxy films , Marvel decided that the Aether and previous MacGuffins would be used as Infinity Stones during production on The Dark World (these MacGuffins and

7900-444: The Russo brothers indicating that it was being withheld to avoid giving away plot details for the films. In April 2018, Feige said Marvel chose to withhold the second film's title for so long because they did not want to take the focus away from Infinity War , which had happened to Age of Ultron when the next two films were announced before that one had been released. Feige now felt this approach had backfired due to speculation about

8058-421: The Russos decided that his inclusion did not fit the film. Green was unaware of Howard's appearance in Endgame until he saw the film. Avengers co-creator Stan Lee makes cameo appearances in both films. Starlin indicated he was interested in making cameo appearance in the films, appearing in Endgame as a grieving man. Production designer Charles Wood previously worked on The Dark World , Guardians of

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8216-455: The Russos stated that filming would take place in Atlanta, Georgia, beginning in November 2016 and lasting until June 2017. In October, Feige stated that filming would begin in January 2017. Renner, Olsen, and Bautista noted that the actors appearing in the films had not received scripts before the start of shooting, with Bautista specifically stating on January 22, 2017, that he had not received

8374-473: The Snowman (1969); those specials were usually 30 minutes to an hour, which was the length Marvel Studios was envisioning for their specials. In December 2020, Marvel Studios announced The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for Disney+, to be released in late 2022, during the holiday season . The Holiday Special was the first piece of content Marvel Studios planned to create for Disney+. By August 2021,

8532-546: The Special Presentations to be as well. The intro was designed by Perception . Jamie Lovett at ComicBook.com called the Marvel Studios Special Presentation intro "more colorful" and its fanfare "more playful" than the normal Marvel Studios intro , while Rachel Paige from Marvel.com called the fanfare "an absolute bop , and one sure to elicit that same level of excitement" when heard as

8690-561: The Tesseract from the Stark Tower . In late June 2017, filming occurred in Downtown Atlanta , as well as Atlanta's Central Park in early July, before moving to Queens, New York in the middle of the month. Marquand shot both his Infinity War and Endgame scenes as Red Skull in just one day within eight hours, during which the writers informed him about who the characters with codenames actually were. For Infinity War 's final scene,

8848-482: The agreements allow for comic creators to be paid higher amounts, but this only happens when those creators make public complaints. For Steve to become his best self he needs to get a life, and for Tony to become his best self he needs to lose his. —Co-writer Stephen McFeely describing the overall trajectory of the characters Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, whose arcs are completed with Avengers: Endgame While working on Civil War , Markus and McFeely realized that

9006-601: The audience would not be confused when Infinity War cuts between both locations. The process for Titan started by designing what it looked like in Thanos's youth, with structures inspired by windmills forming the basic shapes of the planet's buildings. The team then designed the post-apocalyptic version of Titan that is seen in the film. An early idea was to film these scenes on location in the Atacama Desert in Chile, and though this idea

9164-460: The audiences. The brothers later said that "the briefest consideration" to including television characters was made, but it was "practically impossible". Joe added, "Our job is to focus on the Marvel film world and offer a satisfying climax". Marvel Studios' executive Brad Winderbaum acknowledged that while Marvel Studios and Marvel Television were in communication with each other and Marvel Television series included easily integrated references to

9322-490: The background as well as the actor's signature. Featuring the signatures was an idea from Feige to create "a more personal and intimate connection". Perception again created the main title sequences for the films as well. Originally, three separate War Machine suits would appear in Endgame : the repaired Mark III from Civil War , the Mark IV used throughout Morag before dissolving in acidic water in an underwater sequence, and

9480-454: The bad guy being one step ahead of the heroes", with Thanos "on a smash-and-grab" to acquire all of the Infinity Stones. The films 2 Days in the Valley (1996) and Out of Sight (1998) served as inspiration for the brothers. Beyond the script used in the final film, two different drafts of Infinity War were also created. One of these drafts featured Thanos as the film's narrator, utilized

9638-438: The battle field. However, they found that it did not work for the pacing of the film because it forcibly changed the tone during the film's climax. The Russo brothers suggested putting the scene at the start of Endgame , and the writers felt this was a good move because it reinforces the feelings that the audience had at the end of Infinity War before continuing the story. Markus and McFeely spent weeks trying to figure out how

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9796-427: The broadcast networks' special presentations did. Comic Book Resources 's Joshua M. Patton believed this intro would "have a similar effect on new generations of kids" as the older broadcast networks' introductions did, since it "evoke[s] the memory of its CBS counterpart" and signaled to viewers they were "about to see something exciting and new". All specials are being released on Disney+ and exist alongside

9954-487: The character would "sound a little different" from the last time he was seen, recommending Marquand add "this kind of ethereal almost ghost-like quality to his voice", as well as adding a wise-like tone like that of Yoda of the Star Wars franchise that would give the impression the character had been there for thousands of years like " Atlas holding the sky". Taking this direction, it took Marquand around 10 days to perfect

10112-451: The character. Whedon enjoyed the approach the writers and Russos took in Infinity War , giving Thanos "an actual perspective and [making] him feel righteous to himself", since the Death storyline was "not a concept that will necessarily translate". In June 2013, Robert Downey Jr. signed on to return as Tony Stark / Iron Man for a third Avengers film, and Josh Brolin signed a multi-film deal

10270-493: The concept of the then upcoming Disney+ series WandaVision (2021). They were joined by Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, Favreau as Happy Hogan, Rudd as Scott Lang, Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne , Michael Douglas as Hank Pym , Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One , and Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones . Grillo initially turned down

10428-512: The draft used in the final film, the plot had been "simplified, made more linear, and allowed more of the character moments [to] come through" as the start of filming approached, giving the Russos "a very tight script" to work with. Unlike Infinity War , Endgame features mainly an original story that does not draw inspiration from any existing comics. Joe Russo explained, "I think we're in pretty fresh territory with [the film]. If anything, I think it's interesting after to go back and look at some of

10586-461: The earlier versions of the script featured Thor fighting against himself on Asgard. The Russos felt this scenario became too complicated and preferred to keep Captain America fighting himself. They wanted to make sure that any story they included "had enough time to impact the audience" although they pointed out the Thor showdown would have shown his growth over the previous decade. They ultimately deferred to

10744-555: The editing team in an effort to make any rewrites as fast as possible based on footage that the editors received. This was done with the hope of being able to reshoot scenes while the actors were available and the sets still existed, where possible. The duo had not finished writing the final script for Endgame by the time Infinity War had been released and had continued editing the script for minor things, which Markus described as being "connective tissue where this scene makes sense, and this makes sense, but not together". The last writing

10902-475: The emotional level of a first date while taking characters that had been together before and putting them "in a much more dire situation" allowed them to "really get down into the meat of their relationship". Actor Robert Downey Jr. said in Stark's grouping there was a desire "to keep a little bit of the Science Bros [Stark/Banner relationship] alive" and to expand on the positive Stark/Parker relationship from

11060-464: The end of Infinity War upon realizing Gamora's fate as a choice he would not have made. Some of the biggest rewrites to the script involved Thor , since Markus and McFeely originally intended him to be the "straight man" to the Guardians. His scenes had to be revamped after star Chris Hemsworth explained the more comedic direction the character was taken in Ragnarok . That film's director Taika Waititi

11218-421: The end of the sequence instead of the start. Perception used abstract light rays that became more distinct as the sequence progressed. For the cast credits, footage from past films was used for each actor, "specifically selected not just for the way it interacted with the light but also for its iconic power". Finally, the hero section featured an image of the actor in the foreground with footage of their character in

11376-450: The era before cable and home video, television audiences often had to wait an entire year or more to see a special program or film that had a great impact on first viewing. Today, streaming media such as video on demand and streaming television , often makes it possible for viewers to watch a television special again almost immediately after it is aired, and home video—which has largely given way to digital downloads —makes it possible for

11534-525: The essence of what it means to be a hero". Feige said the films would explore whether the visions the Avengers had in Age of Ultron were predictions of the future or just projections of their fears. Anthony said the films melded the tones of the individual MCU franchises, and would be tonally different from each other. The Marvel universe unites to battle the greatest threat to the world and universe that you've ever seen. —Co-director Joe Russo's description of Avengers: Infinity War Infinity War

11692-430: The events of Ragnarok and the changes that film made to Thor's character, it seemed natural to the writers for him to become depressed after Infinity War as he tries to deal with all he has lost. The writers felt that the version of Thor seen in Endgame fit the comedic tone established in Ragnarok while also revealing the deeper pain of the character in a dramatic way. Romanoff helped to hold survivors together after

11850-566: The film as a specimen in the Collector's collection, played by an uncredited extra. Yvette Nicole Brown and Ken Jeong , who played Shirley Bennett and Ben Chang , respectively in Community , appeared in Endgame as a Camp Lehigh agent and a security guard. Jeong was also at one point going to voice Howard the Duck , replacing his Guardians of the Galaxy actor Seth Green , in Infinity War before

12008-421: The film's time heist information screens, which was ultimately cut. The imagery would have also featured the likenesses of previous MCU actors such as Erich Redman as Schneider, Anatole Taubman as Roeder, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola , Thomas Kretschmann as Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and Claudia Kim as Helen Cho . The Russos hoped to have another actor from their TV series Community (2009–2015) make

12166-410: The film, focusing "on the mechanics of how it might work, what it might look like, and how you would explain it". The team at Perception explored "ideas surrounding scientific considerations, technology-based concepts, and potential narrative influences". Perception also worked on the closing credits for Endgame , opting to create "something that felt personal [and] sentimental", that would also remind

12324-485: The filming of Civil War in 2015, they started reading comic books and writing down ideas for what could happen in the films. They ended up with 60 pages worth of unrelated ideas which Marvel went through and either highlighted or flagged as not possible. Additionally, they created a master document in which they explored numerous possibilities for the direction of the story, comparing it to the What If comic book series. For

12482-469: The filmmakers did not wish to spend money on the scene's special effects nor to make the film as long as Endgame . Filming of Infinity War concluded on July 14, 2017. The actors whose characters perished from Thanos's snap were shown previsualization of the scene on the day it was being filmed, which was the first time they had been aware of their characters' fates. Filming for Endgame began on August 10, 2017, also at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, under

12640-621: The filmmakers partnered with Indochina Productions , a studio based in Thailand , to acquire footage of the Banaue Rice Terraces at Ifugao, Philippines . According to Starlin, a 45-minute prologue depicting Thanos stealing the Power Stone from Xandar was originally shot to open the film instead of with the Children of Thanos' attack on the Statesman , but the Russos had the sequence cut because

12798-594: The films and television series of their respective phase. In March 2023, Jeff Sneider of Above the Line reported that a special centered on Mephisto was being filmed on the set of the Disney+ series Agatha All Along (2024), at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia . Sacha Baron Cohen was expected to reprise the role, after previously being rumored to appear as the character in the series Ironheart (2025). An additional special

12956-407: The films' departments also started providing more input to screenplay revisions. On set, the writers attended rehearsals with the actors each day so they could respond to any issues with the scenes straight away, and also to provide alternative jokes for the actors to say during filming. Once filming began, they would return to revising the scenes that had not yet been filmed. They also coordinated with

13114-399: The films, Markus and McFeely were told by Feige and Marvel to make two separate films rather than a two-part story. They were also asked to use Thanos and the Infinity Stones, which suggested to Markus that the Guardians of the Galaxy should likely be included in the films. They were allowed to use any characters from throughout the MCU, and could kill-off characters if they wanted to. During

13272-485: The films, trying to include references to the television series in Infinity War and Endgame "was just too much for us to wrap our minds around at the time". After Starlin expressed dissatisfaction with his pay from Disney for the use of Thanos , Gamora , and Drax —all characters that Starlin created for the comics—in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, he was able to negotiate higher payments for Thanos's appearances in Infinity War and Endgame . Starlin noted that

13430-456: The films. The writers began to pick potential groupings of characters, and gave these to Marvel along with their pages of ideas. McFeely referred to this stage of the process as research and development, with the pair attempting to figure out what elements Marvel and the Russos wanted to include in the films. As they came up with ideas for moments or scenes, such as when Thanos uses all of the Infinity Stones, these were written on cards and placed on

13588-544: The first film's United States release to April 27, 2018, so it would be released on the same weekend in the U.S. as in several international markets. That December, the release of the second film was changed to April 26, 2019. After announcing the films as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 and Part 2 , Feige said these were titled as two parts of a single film because of the shared elements between them, but he felt they would be "two distinct" projects, not one story split across two films . Anthony Russo reiterated this, saying

13746-409: The first time a character introduced in an MCU television series appears in an MCU film. Reed Diamond , who appeared as Hydra member Werner Reinhardt / Daniel Whitehall in the series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–2020), had been approached by Marvel Studios regarding his availability for Endgame , with visual effects company Cantina Creative eventually using a photo of Whitehall in imagery for

13904-409: The first two Avengers films, explained that the character would not be the primary antagonist until a later film because he is "so powerful, he is not someone you can just try to out punch. Like in the comics, you want him to be threading through the universe and to save the big finale for the big finale". Thanos appears at the end of Age of Ultron in another brief appearance, this time shown to have

14062-416: The following May, to play Thanos. In July 2014, Feige stated that actors from previous MCU films were under contract to return to for a third Avengers film, with Jeremy Renner stating that September he was signed on to reprise the role of Barton. After the announcement of Infinity War and Endgame , many established MCU actors were confirmed to be joining Downey and Brolin, including previous members of

14220-423: The format was "[the] MCU's most exciting prospect", stating that it was "a good idea [to] reduce the number of series, if not movies, and rethink them as Special Presentations, rather than six-to-nine-week commitments... [to] free up audiences and renew their investment in the universe, and allow filmmakers to stretch themselves creatively." A documentary special for Werewolf by Night , titled Director by Night ,

14378-526: The franchise after The Dark World , Natalie Portman reprised her role as Jane Foster from the Thor films for the 2013 sequence; Portman's reprisal was achieved through archive footage from The Dark World to physically represent the character while Portman recorded a single line of dialogue new for the film. For the 1970 sequence, John Slattery returned as Howard Stark alongside James D'Arcy who reprised his role as Edwin Jarvis from Agent Carter , marking

14536-520: The general public to own copies of television specials and films. Perception (visual effects company) Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are American superhero films based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers , produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures . They are the sequels to The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and respectively serve as

14694-453: The headpiece depicting Thanos's head on cardboard to motion capture him. Throughout the shooting, some actors were kept in the dark about the film's plot; Champion recalled that when he and Rudd filmed their scene together, the missing posters seen in the finished film were absent from the pole, making his confused reaction to Scott Lang's question genuine. To maintain the film's secrecy, at least Holland and Stan were told that they were filming

14852-418: The hopes that the Blip could be reverse to allow Barton to reunite with his family, while he had mixed agendas which took the edge off of his focus in a way that did not happen for Romanoff. Markus described writing Thanos as "delightful" and a "breath of fresh air", with McFeely explaining that Thanos always controls the scenes he is in, so when they put him in a situation where he is out of control it created

15010-399: The last four months of the year, the pair spent most of their time in a conference room with executive producer Trinh Tran—the representative from the "Marvel Studios Parliament" for the Avengers films—as well as Feige and the Russo brothers whenever they were free. Marvel gave them baseball cards of all the MCU characters so far, and each noted whether the respective actor was available for

15168-712: The main writer and he felt Marvel knew that any contribution from him would not be able to happen soon. Whedon later cited the series' "increasingly enormous" scale as the reason he chose not to return, explaining that he would not be able to give Infinity War "what I would need to". Anthony and Joe Russo reached a deal by April 2015 to direct both parts of Avengers: Infinity War , after directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016) for Marvel. A month later, Markus and McFeely had signed on to also return from

15326-688: The most expensive films ever made. Evans and Hemsworth earned $ 15 million each for both films. Additional filming occurred in Scotland, including in Edinburgh , Glasgow , and the Scottish Highlands , with studio work taking place at Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld . Filming in Scotland began on February 28, 2017. From March 18 through April 21, 2017, filming occurred in Old Town, Edinburgh on and around

15484-405: The musical score. Visual effects companies that worked on both films include Industrial Light & Magic , Framestore , Weta Digital , DNEG , Cinesite , Digital Domain , Rise , Lola VFX , and Perception. Prominent visual effects include the digital characters Thanos and Hulk with new performance capture technology as well as multiple digital de-aging sequences. Avengers: Infinity War

15642-609: The network. The spectaculars aired on three nights every fourth week - a major gamble because it controversially broke up viewer routines and risked stable weekly sponsorship deals. To address this, Weaver used his "magazine" style which involved selling segments of each show to a different sponsor, a practice which would evolve into the modern " commercial ". The three initial spectacular blocks were Hallmark Hall of Fame (Sundays, produced by Albert McCleery ), Producer's Showcase (Mondays, produced by Fred Coe ), Max Liebman Presents (Saturdays, produced by Max Liebman ). In time,

15800-418: The number of characters in the films, saying that "like 67 characters" who were previously introduced in the MCU had been placed out on a board for consideration. Because of the number of characters, McFeely called writing Civil War "a walk in the park" compared to these films. Joe explained that they intended to focus on a "handful" of characters and build the story around their emotional arcs, with many of

15958-499: The offer to return, as he had grown dissatisfied with how his character had been handled in the MCU in spite of his initial seven-picture deal, even hanging up on the Russos when they called him to ask if he could come for a week to the Avengers set without specifying to him what he would do. He ultimately agreed to return at the insistence of his son, who reminded him how good he had felt on the sets of The Winter Soldier and Civil War in addition to assuring him that Endgame would be

16116-479: The original Avengers as the intention of Endgame was to farewell those characters. Likewise with Infinity War , McFeely said Black Panther was not a main character in the film despite fan expectations following the success of his own film earlier in 2018. After announcing the films, Feige said there was a possibility that characters from Marvel Television 's MCU series could appear in the team up, and actors such as Krysten Ritter , who played Jessica Jones in

16274-537: The other characters having ancillary roles. He also said that the number of characters in Civil War prepared the brothers to "deal with probably triple the amount of characters in Infinity War ", and that the characters given main focus would shift between the two films. Gunn said the Guardians of the Galaxy's roles in the films would not be the biggest part of the film, but would be integral due to their connection to Thanos. Acknowledging that there are 23 characters on

16432-528: The pair continued to write new drafts, and were working on the third draft of Infinity War and the second of Endgame by July. Though they were working on both films at the same time, they only worked on one film each day. In October, Ragnarok screenwriter Eric Pearson was flown from Ragnarok 's set in Australia to Atlanta where the Avengers films were being prepped so he could assist Markus and McFeely, who were "just so crammed for time". Pearson said

16590-423: The pair did for Endgame was for additional photography that took place in January 2019. Feige said all non- Avengers films in the MCU were setting-up for this storyline, with Black Panther (2018) and Ragnarok being particularly important links. The Russos wanted "a strong through line" from The Winter Soldier to Civil War and into the two Avengers films, saying, "We look at [ Civil War ] as setting

16748-545: The pair were comfortable allowing him to work on one film while they focused on the other due to his previous Marvel writing credits , including working with them on the MCU television series Agent Carter (2015–2016). Markus and McFeely later estimated that they had written at least five or six drafts of each film by the end of 2016. During that year, they received notes on the drafts and came up with new ideas themselves which Markus described as "winnowing down and really focusing on what these movies are about". The Russos and

16906-550: The plot forward. The Russos also revealed that, despite not appearing in Infinity War , the events of the film killed Betty Ross and Sif , previously portrayed in the MCU by Liv Tyler and Jaimie Alexander , respectively. Gunn was informed in advance about the decision to kill Gamora off in Infinity War ; he had considered killing her off in Vol. 2 before discussing it with Marvel and agreeing that she should die in Infinity War instead. Markus and McFeely made use of time travel as

17064-433: The previous films. McFeely explained that the pairing of Strange and Stark came together because of the similarities between the characters being "guys with a vision but also an ego". To differentiate between the two, Markus and McFeely contrasted Stark's established story arc and drive to confront Thanos with Strange's more reluctant stance. They added that Quill provided "color" due to his arrogance. A Sherlock Holmes joke

17222-558: The price. We wanted to be able to focus and shoot one movie and then focus and shoot another movie". As this decision was made a few months before the start of filming, some of the pre-production work was negatively affected. Some scenes from both films did ultimately get shot on the same day, mainly to accommodate actor availability. Principal photography for Infinity War began on January 23, 2017, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia . The working title Mary Lou

17380-731: The project in early 2015. In July 2016, the first part of the film was shortened as Avengers: Infinity War , while the second became Avengers: Endgame in December 2018. The films were renamed because they were intended to tell two different stories. They were designed to conclude the " Infinity Saga " storyline that had been told throughout all MCU films up to that point, including ending the character arcs of Stark and Evans's Steve Rogers / Captain America . Both films were shot back-to-back at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia . Production on Infinity War took place from January 23 to July 14, 2017, with additional filming in Scotland,

17538-441: The reason for considering this "was because we knew the ending was a complicated ending, a difficult ending, and we wanted that ending to be very definitive. We didn't want to complicate it with other ideas". He felt the tag used, which shows Nick Fury signaling for Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel before dusting away, put "a small button [on the ending] but that's it". Regarding the ending of Infinity War with Thanos wiping out half

17696-441: The role for Mark Dacascos , so he saw his casting as Akihiko as a "consolation prize". A year later, Katherine Langford was revealed to have been cast in Endgame . Langford was to play the older version of Morgan Stark , who Stark sees in a vision after his snap, but the Russos cut her scene as they felt that it would be too confusing. Newcomer Jack Champion was cast as the kid whom Scott Lang comes across upon his return from

17854-438: The role in June 2017, though she at first believed that she was auditioning to play a younger Black Widow as the film was still untitled by that point; even Marvel making her audition with a fake scene as a fake character. Upon being informed of her role upon her casting, Fuhrmann sought Cassie Lang 's Misplaced Pages page, watched all Marvel films in order, and once on the set read a few comic books. Ross Marquand voices Red Skull,

18012-410: The role when he and his agent found it impossible to negotiate with the studio. Marquand, who is known for his celebrity impressions , said that Marvel was looking to "come as close to the iconic role that Hugo Weaving portrayed seven years ago and pay homage to it while also giving it a new flavor", and after Marquand attempted to "do a straight voice match to Hugo's performance", the Russo noted that

18170-498: The same time as Infinity War so Wood and his team worked with the Black Panther production team to ensure a unified presentation of the country. In January 2017, Wood stated that the two films would be introducing "many, many, many new worlds" outside of Earth and others previously established in prior films. When designing Thanos's homeworld Titan , Wood intentionally wanted it to be as different from Wakanda as possible so

18328-439: The second movie. Just jumping back and forth". Anthony Russo felt it made more sense to shoot the films simultaneously, due to financial and logistical reasons, considering the large number of cast members, even though each part is its own distinct film. At the end of April 2015, Evans revealed that filming was scheduled to start in late 2016 and take place over nine months, lasting until August or September 2017. In January 2016,

18486-537: The specials "should become a regular occurrence" if they could be as good as Werewolf by Night was. Rupesh Nair at IGN India compared the special format to one-shot comics and to DC Comics 's Elseworlds publications, stating the Special Presentations have "elevated" the MCU and could be the franchise's "critical darings". He hoped future specials would be able to introduce unknown characters to audiences through stories that "allows directors and cast members to shine". Richard Newby of The Hollywood Reporter felt

18644-492: The stage for Infinity War , how it starts and what condition everybody's in". The brothers wanted to approach the cosmic elements of Infinity War with the same fervor that they gave to the more grounded films Winter Soldier and Civil War . Though they were unable to depict the films with naturalism given their science fiction content, they did want their films to have a psychological realism . Anthony added that Infinity War would deal with "themes of fate and destiny and

18802-534: The story as it had been set out. Avoiding the Death storyline moved away from the tease Whedon used in The Avengers with the character, where Thanos felt that by challenging the Avengers, he was courting death. Though the tease was purposely ambiguous, Whedon felt when he featured Thanos he did not know what to do with him and "kind of hung [Thanos] out to dry". Whedon admitted that while he enjoyed Thanos' character and his "love affair with death", he did not understand

18960-869: The story. Anthony Russo compared Infinity War 's character groupings to " Nashville (1975) for super heroes. It's storytelling that is vignetted storytelling." The groupings included: Tony Stark / Iron Man, Dr. Stephen Strange, Peter Quill / Star-Lord, Peter Parker / Spider-Man , and initially Bruce Banner / Hulk , and Wong ; Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy, with Thor, Rocket , and Groot ultimately splitting off on their own; Wanda Maximoff and Vision ; Thanos and Gamora ; and Steve Rogers / Captain America , Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow , Sam Wilson / Falcon , Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier , Banner, and T'Challa / Black Panther . Markus said many discussions on character pairings were about whether to pursue and further develop pre-existing relationships or to introduce new ones, with him feeling that new pairings had

19118-466: The storyline with his mother as it "was more part of Thor's journey and repair than confronting his former self". For the time travel scenes, theoretical physicist Clifford Johnson was consulted, although he was not allowed to see the script. He gave the Russo brothers knowledge of various time travel scenarios and then sat back to let them decide which worked best for the story they were telling. The Russos felt that recreating sequences from other films

19276-434: The technology related to Ant-Man, Iron Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Because of how busy the costume team was during production, the time travel suits were never actually made for the film. Instead, after the design was finalized, the suits were created digitally. Wood designed the time-travel devices worn on the heroes' wrists. The company Perception helped the production team visualize their concept of time travel in

19434-677: The term "spectacular" was seen as hyperbolic , and so led to the more modern and modest term, "special". Weaver's strategy was not as successful as CBS's predictably scheduled and prefilmed programs, and he was fired in 1956. In the 1960s, multi-part specials, which aired over several days in a week or on the same day for several weeks, evolved from this format, though these were more commonly called miniseries . The term "TV special" formerly applied more to dramas or musicals presented live or on videotape (such as Peter Pan ) than to filmed presentations especially made for television, which were (and still are) referred to as made-for-TV movies . In

19592-504: The theatrical cut of the film. Michael Rooker , who played Yondu Udonta in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, visited the Georgia filming set for some days while wearing an Infinity War production cap, but it later turned out that he was merely present there to throw off spoilers that Udonta would die in Vol. 2 as rumors prior to that film's release as part of a publicity strategy to distract fans. In early January 2017, Peter Dinklage

19750-427: The trajectory of the main character arcs was leading to Rogers eventually retiring from being a hero, and Stark eventually sacrificing his life to save the world. Since around October 2015, the pair knew that Endgame would therefore end with the death of Stark. The filmmakers aimed to give an "incredible, iconic and amazing" sendoff to Stark in the same vein of Hugh Jackman 's James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine from

19908-561: The two films were "very very different from one another. It's not a part one and part two scenario, necessarily. They're just two different expressions. I think it creates a misconception that we're shooting them at the same time". The Russos decided in May 2016 to retitle the two films to remove this misconception; That July, Marvel shortened the first to Avengers: Infinity War and left the second as untitled. Anthony Russo said second title would not be revealed "for quite some time", with Feige and

20066-415: The universe, Markus stated that stopping before he snapped his fingers or without all of the Stones would have been like hitting a pause button, and the pair wanted to create a more definitive break between the two films. The scene where Hawkeye's family disappears following Thanos's "snap" was originally written for the end of Infinity War as a way to show that Thanos's actions were affecting more than just

20224-442: The untitled film's title getting "entirely out of hand" and generating high expectations which the actual title would not be able to live up to. That December, with the release of the untitled film's first trailer, the title was revealed to be Avengers: Endgame . The film was previously referred to internally as Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet , which star Zoe Saldaña had accidentally revealed in 2017. When they were hired to write

20382-422: The viewer of "the last ten years" of the MCU and was "a love letter to the fans". The credits were broken down into three sections–the crew, the cast, and then the "hero 6" which featured the original six Avengers from the first film–and featured over 60 unique title cards. Unlike traditional credit order, Marvel Studios wanted the credits to build to the original Avengers, which meant putting the top billed actors at

20540-510: The villain Red Skull in The First Avenger but changed this ending to the character vanishing to an unknown location after holding the Tesseract. Due to the character's history with the Infinity Stones, they decided that he could be the voice of expertise when Thanos and Gamora arrive on Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone. The writers felt this reveal would surprise the audience while pushing

20698-410: The voice of Iron Man's A.I. assistant F.R.I.D.A.Y. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders make uncredited cameos in the post-credits scene as Nick Fury and Maria Hill , who they respectively portrayed in several previous films. Jon Favreau was to reprise his role as Harold "Happy" Hogan , while co-director Joe Russo had a cameo appearance as a paparazzi photographer, but this scene did not make

20856-649: The voice, which he felt melded Weaving's " iconic performance in The Matrix (1999) with the German accent he used for the Red Skull. Red Skull was created through CGI and portrayed with stand-ins on set. By October 2017, Hiroyuki Sanada had been cast as Akihiko for Endgame . Sanada had originally been offered to play Zero in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), but an Achilles tendon injury forced him to leave

21014-615: The working title Mary Lou 2 ; the second film had an estimated budget of $ 356–400 million. In August, filming occurred in the Gulch area of Downtown Atlanta, near the Five Points MARTA station, as well as in Piedmont Park . For Nebula's scenes with Thanos in this film, Joe Russo served as a stand-in for the character due to Brolin's unavailability at the time, so Gillan filmed her scenes with Russo, who merely wore his usual clothes and

21172-404: The world and sit on a throne". The Russos felt that the necessary time to introduce Death would be better spent on Thanos and the film's already large cast, with Anthony Russo expressing his conviction that adding a character whom the audience did not know about and having to explain her backstory with Thanos so the audience would care about her and find her interesting did not help to carry forward

21330-568: The writers worked with all of the other Phase Three filmmakers to keep continuity , talking "on an almost weekly basis". Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson was "kept in the loop" on how Stephen Strange was being used through his close relationships with Feige and Joe Russo. Derrickson also gave general advice on the plot of both Avengers films to Joe. Gunn wanted to ensure that the Guardians were "as funny as they should be and as honest and truthful as they should be". According to Markus, Gunn came up with at least one "hysterical" joke for

21488-410: Was a "fashionable practice Gauntlet". In July 2014, Feige said there were "some notions" to where Marvel would want to take a third Avengers film and the studio was aiming for three years between Age of Ultron in 2015 and a sequel. In October 2014, Marvel announced a two-part sequel to Age of Ultron titled Avengers: Infinity War . Part 1 was scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018, and Part 2

21646-460: Was a bonus for these films. Gunn also suggested they include a kiss between Star-Lord and Gamora; he cut one from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) because it would have happened at a "weird time" in that film but he still wanted to cement the pair as a couple. The Russos did make some decisions that Gunn felt were disconnected from how he wrote the Guardians in his films, and he particularly dismissed Star-Lord's vengeful rage towards Thanos at

21804-515: Was abandoned, the look of the planet was still inspired by that location. The production design team also looked at icebergs in Antarctica while trying to depict the structures on Titan falling apart in low gravity. Sand dunes in the Atacama Desert were also used as inspiration for the planet of Vormir, though the focus of the design of that planet was making the clouds look unnatural to give the sky

21962-415: Was able to participate in all three, specifically enjoying interacting with the Black Panther actors after not getting the part of M'Baku. Joe Russo explained that the Black Order was included in the film so that there were characters that the heroes "have to go through to get to" Thanos rather than have them challenge him "every step of the way". He added that Supergiant , a member of the comics version of

22120-461: Was announced in September 2022, with Anthony Giacchino serving as writer and director. Director by Night was released on Disney+ on November 4, 2022, marketed with the "Marvel Studios Special Presentation" branding. Television special The types of shows described as television specials include: The production of early television shows was very expensive, with few guarantees of public success, and ongoing (weekly) shows typically required

22278-435: Was avoided when Strange first meets Stark, as the Russos felt it was a "meta joke that requires you to be a fan of other movies"; Downey portrayed Holmes in the films Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) while Cumberbatch portrayed the character in the television series Sherlock (2010–2017). McFeely described Thor's teaming with Rocket and Groot as "delightful". Markus added that Rocket

22436-417: Was brought in to consult with Markus and McFeely on the new tone of Thor's character, while Pearson's involvement aided in keeping this continuity. After the beginning of principal photography on Infinity War in January 2017, the writing process became what Markus described as "particle-ized", with multiple drafts of a single scene being written at one time between the writers and directors. Members of all

22594-494: Was called by his manager, who told him that Marvel Studios was considering to bring him back, which Marvel confirmed to him in a later call, though Simpkins chose not to tell his family at first as he was not sure he would be appearing in the film. Stellan Skarsgård , who portrays Erik Selvig in the MCU, said he believed he would appear in one of the films as he had one more film left on his contract, and would not be appearing in Ragnarok . Despite having declared to be "done" with

22752-486: Was considered for many other pairs, but ultimately landed with Thor because they felt the group dynamic "brings out new things in Rocket that you wouldn't have expected" as they felt people might have initially perceived Rocket as not being capable to help Thor with much. Rogers's group continues from the events of Civil War , showing he, Romanoff, and Wilson have been on the run, in part by their different appearances (Rogers with

22910-446: Was developing several limited series for Disney 's new streaming service Disney+ , to be centered on "second tier" characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films who had not and were unlikely to star in their own films. Developing content for Disney+ allowed Marvel Studios to be flexible with formats, such as emulating one-off or annual holiday-themed television specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and Frosty

23068-561: Was hopeful that Werewolf by Night would be "the first of a few one-and-done stories". By the release of Werewolf by Night , Marvel Studios had not determined any set release plan for potential future specials. By March 2023, a special centered on Mephisto was reportedly in production. Feige said in July 2024 that an additional special was in development that was planned to be released after 2025, and Winderbaum confirmed in September that more specials would be developed. Special Presentations feature

23226-503: Was in active development, and once Marvel had begun planning that storyline they realized that it would not make sense for the Asgardians to have the Gauntlet. Marvel's internal explanation was that the first Gauntlet was a fake, and Ragnarok was able to address this onscreen. The Age of Ultron Gauntlet is also considered fake, with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely saying it

23384-476: Was in development by July 2024 that was planned to be released after 2025. Following the release of Werewolf by Night , Tyler Llewyn Taing of /Film said the Special Presentations could "lead to more exciting genre and stylistic experiments in the MCU down the line" as Werewolf by Night was, and likened the hour-long television special format to Marvel Studios' One-Shot short films. As part of his Werewolf by Night review, Chris E. Hayner at GameSpot said

23542-540: Was in negotiations to appear in the films, and was eventually cast in the role of Eitri . At D23 Expo 2017 , Marvel announced the inclusion of the "Children of Thanos", Thanos's henchmen in the film. Known collectively in the comics as the Black Order , the actors playing the characters were soon revealed to be Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw , Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian , Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight , and Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive . Midnight

23700-682: Was inspired by the What If comics. The idea of what ifs inspired the storylines of each of the original Avengers, including Stark getting married and settling down, Banner and Hulk merging, and Thor becoming a fat drunk. However, McFeely points out "[t]hat was the idea to do that, but not as What If – keep the stakes. That all happened, it's all part of canon ." Markus and McFeely also felt that Stark had to die because it legitimizes everything, saying that people will think less of everything that came before because "if you just keep going until it peters out or you lose interest, it kind of decays backwards". One of

23858-399: Was labelled "The Wedding" for production to avoid spoilers . Because they felt that a somber funeral did not suit the character of Stark, the writers decided to have him give his own eulogy as a way to include the character's voice and humor in the ending. This was set up by showing Stark recording a message at the start of Endgame when he first thinks that he is going to die. In response to

24016-544: Was later included when the film was re-released in theaters with bonus content. Actors who returned for Endgame include: Downey, Hemsworth, Ruffalo, Evans, Johansson, Cumberbatch, Cheadle, Holland, Boseman, Olsen, Mackie, Stan, Hiddleston, Wong, Klementieff, Gillan, Bautista, Saldana, Cooper, Paltrow, Brolin, Pratt, and Wright. Olsen was not contractually obliged to return due to Infinity War fulfilling her original three-film contract with Marvel, but Feige persuaded her to return in Endgame by pitching her

24174-541: Was portrayed on-set by the stuntwoman Monique Ganderton while Coon recorded her dialogue and performed motion capture for her facial expressions during post-production due to her pregnancy at the time. James Shaw had previously auditioned for M'Baku in Black Panther and was invited by Marvel to audition for Glaive in Infinity War while working on a workshop of a play by David Byrne from Talking Heads ; Shaw initially declined due to his busy schedule with other two projects, but by January 2017, his schedule cleared up and

24332-629: Was released on April 27, 2018, and Avengers: Endgame was released on April 26, 2019, both part of Phase Three of the MCU. Throughout their early films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Marvel Studios began preparing for an adaptation of Jim Starlin 's 1991 " The Infinity Gauntlet " comic by introducing the Infinity Stones as MacGuffins : the Space Stone as the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011);

24490-444: Was scheduled for May 3, 2019. Marvel's plan was to film both parts of Infinity War back-to-back . In January 2015, Whedon said it was "very doubtful" that he would be involved with the two films, and rumors spread that the making of Age of Ultron had been difficult for Whedon. Marvel did approach him about writing the next films, and Whedon did not rule out contributing to the screenplays in some way, but he declined to sign on as

24648-404: Was the biggest challenge of the time travel scenes including Quill dancing on Morag, which was a mix of footage from Guardians of the Galaxy and freshly shot footage. They learned around three years before the release of Endgame that Downey and Evans would be done with their respective roles after Endgame . With that information, when it was time to come up with the story of the film, the ending

24806-429: Was used as a reference to gymnast Mary Lou Retton , because the production wanted to "stick the landing" with the two films as an ending for the MCU's Infinity Saga. Pinewood Atlanta co-owner Dan T. Cathy described the films as " the largest film production ever with a [combined] $ 1 billion budget", which Feige stated was false; the first film had an estimated budget of $ 325–400 million, still making it one of

24964-437: Was worked on first as they felt that they had to know where the film was going in order to tell the best story because "It’s how you maximize the drama and character architecture" according to Joe Russo. The writers did not initially worry about actor availability and just used the characters how they wanted. They adjusted the scripts later based on scheduling constraints. Joe Russo felt the audience would not be disappointed in

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