Hey remember when we all thought the The Avengers was the biggest movie undertaking of all time?
Well that’s going to look like a walk in the park next to Infinity War, which in 2018 will wrap up a story that’s been built over 10 years, 16 movies, seven TV shows, and nearly two dozen comic books and short films. That is an incredible volume of storytelling, and it’s going to take a huge amount of skill to balance it all over the course of Infinity War‘s two parts.
So who has Marvel hired for the job?
Joss Whedon is out it looks like, which is no surprise given he’s stated repeatedly that Age of Ultron will be his last Marvel directing gig, at least for a while.
Stepping in to fill those very big shoes will be none other than directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo, whose careers have absolutely exploded in recent years. After doing a phenomenal job on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Russo’s were hired to direct the next Cap movie, Civil War, and were tapped by Sony to oversee a new Ghostbusters film (along with rumors that they might be involved in the Spider-Man reboot as well).
According to Badass Digest, they’ll now be directing both halves of Infinity War, which will wrap up Marvel’s Phase Three in 2018 and 2019.
How will this effect their current schedule?
The biggest obstacle to this deal would likely be that Ghostbusters movie with Channing Tatum. Sony wants that to be released in 2017, which means it will likely begin production in 2016. That wouldn’t normally be a problem, but word is that Marvel wants to shoot Infinity War back to back in 2016 and 2017, to make sure it has plenty of time to cook before it’s released in 2018.
That could potentially put the projects a little bit too close together. It’s still likely that the Russo’s will tackle both, but there’s a chance that Sony could alter Ghostbusters‘ schedule a bit to accommodate the brothers’ new gig.
As for Captain America: Civil War, it’s going to keep the Russo’s busy, but they should still have about a year in between their Marvel projects, so I doubt it will be an issue.
When is Infinity War coming out?
Part one will be out on May 4, 2018 while part two will follow on May 3, 2019.
