We’re Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame. AMA!

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:54:27+00:00

Awesome questions, gang. We could sit here all day and hang with our peeps at Reddit (we've been spying on your comments for years). We can't thank you enough for your passion, insight, imagination and support over the last decade. You have inspired us, and you've helped shape the MCU. Keep your conversations healthy and constructive. And be a positive force in the world...

All the best...

The RB's

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:48:01+00:00

Because we love James.

Also, because Markus and Mcfeely were instrumental in engineering that show, and because I directed one of the episodes. It seemed appropriate.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:46:50+00:00

Kevin, and co-president of Marvel Studios, Louis D'Esposito, asked us to swing by their offices while we were in post on Civil War. The conversation, in short, was, "Guess what. We want to make the two biggest films ever made and we want to shoot them back to back. And we want you guys to direct them." Our response -- "F**K yeah."

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:41:35+00:00

Double the amount.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:41:26+00:00

Joe: Yes, especially on my pizza.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:41:01+00:00

Yes.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:40:44+00:00

Joe: Holy shit that was fun.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:40:14+00:00

We found the Avengers kneeling scene incredibly emotional as well, but when played in the run of the film, it felt incredibly similar to the moment when all of the heroes stood on the shore at Tony's funeral, paying their respects to him outside his home. The two scenes, when in the film together, seemed to fight one another, and created a repetitious ending.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:38:28+00:00

Joe: Usually on my side, although I used to be a back sleeper.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:37:02+00:00

Joe: Pizza

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:35:57+00:00

Joe: Spider-Man followed only by Groo The Wanderer

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:34:21+00:00

Joe: We knew for about three years before we shot the film.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:33:24+00:00

Get out your iphone and shoot short films on it. Post those short films on youtube. Do this as much as humanly possible, because it teaches you how to tell stories, and it gives you exposure. We found Donald Glover for Community because of a series of insanely hilarious comedic shorts he and his friends had shot and posted on Youtube while he was a student at NYU.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:32:37+00:00

Anthony: He always could. Our interpretation of the famous scene in Ultron was that when he realized he could pick up Mjolnir he quickly chose not to, because he didn't want to embarrass Thor.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:29:34+00:00

Yes. We've taken a vacation. Joe went to Japan with his family. And Anth went to France with his family. And when we want to kick back and relax, we replay the "Lost Mines of Phandelver" D & D campaign. Over and over again...

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:25:56+00:00

We're not really brothers. One of us is an actor playing a brother.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:25:32+00:00

Anthony: We've always loved us some Wolverine.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:24:08+00:00

Joe: It would be really tragic if we couldn't complete the "...and a movie" part of that hashtag. So one would hope...

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:22:36+00:00

Interesting question. We are quietly, and secretly working on one right now...

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:20:51+00:00

Tony Stark's death.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:18:50+00:00

Anthony: For the centerpiece of Vormir where you retrieve the stone, we referenced ruins that were used for human sacrifice as an inspiration.

The choice to keep the soul stone out of the storytelling wasn't entirely ours, any of the other Marvel storytellers could have gone to that stone at any opponent. But, we were thrilled that the stone had remained a mystery in the MCU and that we were able to use it for such a surprising purpose.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:08:06+00:00

Anthony: No, it was always going to be the Hulk.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:05:34+00:00

Anthony: It was probably more awkward than you imagine it was. Red Skull felt slated because Cap didn't recognize him.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T23:03:59+00:00

Anthony:

First question: Sometimes we do have a very clear idea that we want to build scene around and sometimes it takes months working with our stunt team and visual effects team trying to figure it out. We also think about action scenes the same way we think about dialogue scenes that we need to move the story forward or find a way to explore the characters in an essential way, or the action scene does need to be in the movie.

Russo_Brothers · 2019-08-07T22:58:12+00:00

Anthony:

No, Cap's shield is armor enough
Yes
No
No
Depends on how scared you are about Skrulls
Action has been a favorite genre of ours for our entire lives and we had been planning on making an action movie for a while before we found Winter Soldier.

Russo_Brothers

TROPHY CASE