Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame Took A Physical Toll On Russo Brothers

Joe and Anthony Russo reveal how working on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame took a physical toll on them. It has been a few years since the culmination of the Infinity Saga, and the directing duo have moved on to other projects outside of the MCU through their own studio, AGBO Films. That being said, as arguably two of the most influential filmmakers on Marvel Studios, it’s safe to say that they will forever be associated with the franchise, especially after doing a great job with the last two Avengers flicks.

The Russos teamed up with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to work on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame after previously collaborating on Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. After Marvel Studios saw their brilliant handling of an ensemble cast in the 2016 Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. MCU film, it made sense to bring in the pair to work on the Infinity Saga-capper projects, which featured even more characters. But aside from their ability to tell a balanced story, not to mention their deep understanding of the MCU, it also helped that there were two of them sharing the directorial load on Infinity War and Endgame, as working on those movies back-to-back was so tedious. In fact, even the Russos admit that it was very taxing for them.

In a new interview with GQ where they break down their most iconic projects thus far, the Russos were asked about the difficulty of working on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame back-to-back. Anthony Russo candidly reveals that it was really difficult for everyone involved, considering how long the days were during that year-long shoot. While he says he would never want to do it again, he cites scheduling principal photography for the films like that helped them revise their creative approach. Check out his full comment below:

Well, it’s not good for your health. For sure. It was difficult. I remember all of us at the end said, ‘Oh, we’ll never shoot two movies like that, back-to-back, ever again.’ It’s really difficult and challenging. But look at the process that Joe was describing where we like to constantly be revising, it really did allow for a big interplay between what we are doing in the two movies and for us to be moving back and forth creatively. And I think that was a huge, very unique creative sort of opportunity that you don’t have often in storytelling.

It’s no secret that the Russos tend to move things around during their shoots, and since Infinity War and Endgame were tightly integrated (despite Marvel Studios’ stance on the matter), a change in one movie would have had ramifications on the other. In this case, the back-to-back filming worked in their favor. But it’s safe to say that if only one director handled both films, it would have been nearly impossible to do in the amount of time that they were given. During production, the Russos would switch roles throughout the weeks; if Joe was manning actual shoots, Anthony would be checking on the dailies and figuring out their rough cuts. Sometimes, they would supervise different filming units to speed up the process.

What’s curious now is that the Russos have expressed interest in doing a Secret Wars MCU movie. The filmmakers admit that, when the time comes that Marvel Studios finally adapts the storyline, it should be bigger than Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which means working on that potential project could be more physically taxing for them. Perhaps they’ll ask for a longer production time, or actually split the two-part Secret Wars film in terms of principal photography, with a filming break in the middle.