Infinity War Directors Considered Marvel TV Characters

Avengers: Infinity War's directors share that they thought about using Marvel TV characters in the film, and explain why they eventually decided against it.

Their third time helming a Marvel film and collaborating with Captain America trilogy scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Joe and Anthony Russo were tasked to oversee the MCU's most ambitious movie yet. The team pulled off the pressure-packed task, with the movie getting generally positive reviews, not to mention the enormous box office turn out. But even the Russos couldn't be the ones to finally introduce the MCU's small screen heroes onto the big screen.

Speaking with Variety on the heels of the release of Infinity War, the Russo brothers talked about the rigorous process of crafting the story for the film and then executing what they came up with. One of the most interesting takeaways from the interview was Joe actually admitting that they contemplated using the Marvel TV players for a time, but ultimately abandoned the idea:

“We made the briefest consideration of [including TV characters in ‘Infinity War’]. When we’re alone in a room with [screenwriters Christopher] Markus and [Stephen] McFeely, we consider every idea. We like thinking of everything. But it seemed like the story that had been told within the movies was so specific and elaborate already that once we started working through the story, we knew we had our hands full just with this set of characters and narratives.”

While it's a bit frustrating that up until now, Marvel's memorable TV characters have failed to pop up in any of Marvel Studios' films - despite taking place in the same universe - it's at least nice knowing that the MCU's creatives have been considering adding the small screen heroes to their big screen projects. Still, considering that Infinity War and its still-untitled sequel are being billed as the culmination of everything that has transpired in the franchise for the last 10 years, there really wouldn't have been a better opportunity to finally introduce the Netflix and/or Agents of SHIELD players into the mix. With so many things that the twin Avengers sequels have to accomplish though, the Russos' decision against it was probably for the best.

That said, as MCU's movie branch continues to neglect its small screen counterparts, the Marvel TV world will have to deal with the situation that Thanos' arrival resulted in. ABC's Agents of SHIELD is already tackling the premise of Avengers: Infinity War. As for the other street-level heroes over at Netflix, what they'll do remains to be seen. Next on the streaming service's docket is Luke Cage's second season which doesn't seem like it's going to address the situation. Daredevil season 3 doesn't seem poised to either, given that it'll adapt the Born Again storyline from the comics. While it's possible to view these with the assumption that they all take place prior to Thanos' arrival, at some point they'll have to show how the Defenders operate after the snap - assuming they survived it.