Avengers: Infinity War Director Discusses Film’s Heart-Wrenching Losses

One of the directors of Marvels' 'Avengers: Infinity War' explains the reasoning behind emotional deaths that take place in the film.

Avengers Infinity War Marvel Studios

The dust has settled on Avengers: Infinity War and its tragic final moments. Fans are still somewhat traumatized by the events that left several of their favorite Marvel characters lost to oblivion.

These deaths had an emotional impact on fans who have had been following the Marvel’s films for almost a decade now. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a big part of the lives of its loyal fan base and with the snap of a finger saw their favorite heroes fade into dust. The emotional deaths weighed heavy on fans and at a recent Q&A, Infinity War co-director Joe Russo discussed the reasoning for these heart-wrenching losses.

“We made those deaths impactful- emotionally, because you have an emotional connection with those characters and it’s difficult taking someone like Peter Parker and putting him in that position. What 16 year old wouldn’t want not to go in such the way it’s shown so we set up that relationship between he and Tony Stark in separate movies to lead to that moment- it’s a father-son relationship. It’s painful to watch. Certainly the most painful to watch is the Gamorra sequence because Thanos is a horrible despicable creature- who believes that he sincerely loves her- which makes it a lot harder to watch. So we try to complicate things emotionally because our job as storytellers is to tell the best story we can and make your experience as many emotions as possible when you watch the film. Because ultimately it is a- you’re paying money to go see it and if we can make you laugh, cry, happy, sad and feel catharsis- you get a lot more for your money than just laughing or just crying.”

The director went on to explain how there was a great deal of thought on making sure each death had an impactful reaction from the audience:

“We just planted the emotion of it- we love the characters as much as anybody- we think very hard about how the audience feels- how we feel and what can make the scenes complicated as possible- to make it as painful as possible- again the job of the storyteller. And after 18 movies we’re really committed to making this cathartic and to tell a truthful story as possible. It’s not like we led you down the road in Winter Soldier took Bucky and turned him into a villain for most of the film. So we took a popular character and made him a killer. Kills a lot of people in that movie. Then in Civil War was- the Avengers getting divorced in a very messy divorce- we keep trying to have game changers at the end of each film but we are slowly moving towards deconstruction”

The final events of Infinity War will forver be remembered as the darkest day in Marvel Cinematic Universe history. But fans can rest easy knowing that this is the first of a 2-part film essentially, meaning the story for the third Avengers sequel is still not 100 percent complete. As shown in the post-credits scene, Captain Marvel will be a factor when we see how the surving members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes avenge their fallen comrades when Avengers 4 hits theaters next year.

Here is the synopsis for Avengers: Infinity War: 

As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Peter Dinklage, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Danai Gurira and Letitia Wright.

Source: The Little Hawk Student Newspaper