If the trailers for Avengers: Infinity War have made anything clear, it’s that this film is all about match-ups – putting characters together that have never met before and watching the sparks fly. The weirder or more combustible the combination, the better.
At the junket for Infinity War, we posed that question to the filmmakers. The fact that one of the pairs includes Tony Stark shouldn’t come as a surprise, but his counterpart might.
For Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, it’s primarily Tony Stark and Steven Strange. “Not dissimilar personalities. Both great powerful actors. We were really excited for the fun that would happen when those two met. And it’s amazing,” Feige told us.
Co-director Joe Russo agreed. “They’re such polar opposites,” Russo said. “They’re both narcissists. One’s a man of magic. One’s a man of science. Who’s the leader? Who’s got the right point of view? They both perceive the world very differently. [So] put the two of them together and it’s like two beta fish in a tank. [It’s] an explosive combination.”
His brother and co-director Anthony Russo went another route, though. “The other great relationship in the movie is Gamora and Thanos,” he said. “That is based on something we found very valuable in Winter Soldier, which is when you have a very intimate, complex relationship between a villain and a hero, that’s sort of the richest place to go, whether it be the Winter Soldier or Loki and Thor, etc. So the fact Gamora has such a personal and dense history with Thanos really led to a lot of really great character moments in this movie.”
And while those are the relationships that were cited first, both Feige and the Russos wouldn’t move on without mentioning Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy. “Thor and Star-Lord have a great first interaction with each other that takes the absurdism of both of those universes and combines them in a way,” Joe Russo said. “[Thor] has scenes with the Guardians, and Rocket in particular, that I think are among the best things in the movie.” Feige added.
Avengers: Infinity War is out now.