Marvel Studios has dominated the movie industry for over a decade by delivering hit after hit. Between Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Ant-Man, general audiences are more than likely familiar with several of these titles.
Of course, one of the most successful franchises in the extensive Marvel Cinematic Universe is the Avengers, with Avengers, Age of Ultron, Infinity War, and Endgame bringing all of the characters together from different corners of their mega-franchise universe.
One person who has considered that formula during his projects is Marc Guggenheim, the creator of the Arrowverse. For example, when discussing his upcoming film Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans and how it assembles the characters from three Tales of Arcadia shows - Wizards, 3-Below, and Trollhunters - Marc wasn't shy about giving credit where it's due.
We got the chance to dive deeper into the creative process behind Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, and we learned a lot about the inner workings of Guggenheim's creative processes. You can hear the interview for yourself, scroll down to read the highlights of our conversation, or watch the entire video for full context.
Marc Guggenheim: It was a little bit of a fluid decision-making process. We knew we wanted to end the trilogy with some Avengers-like pooling together of all of our characters. We went back and forth about what format that should take. We had kicked around the idea of maybe doing an extended season of Wizards and continuing for like three or four episodes. But that felt a little anti-climactic to us.
But the decision to do a film brought with it its own challenges. If it's a continuation of Wizards, then all we really require from the audience is that they watch Wizards. With a feature film, you really have to make it as standalone as possible. So we went back and forth about whether that was really achievable. Can you really wrap up a trilogy without requiring the audience to be familiar with the trilogy? And reasonable minds will probably debate or disagree about how successful or unsuccessful we were in doing that.
Our intention really was to wrap up the trilogy and for this really to be the final chapter in the story. I've learned in a good way and a bad way never to say never and never rule out anything. Anything is always possible. Without getting into spoiler territory, while this story has a definitive ending, it also opens the door for a whole host of new storytelling possibilities. But I think it really was designed to be a cap, and I suspect it will remain that way for at least a little bit.
I always like to say Marvel gave us the answers to the test. If you look at their Avengers films as a pooling together of all these characters from disparate movies, you don't have to watch all of the other Marvel movies in order to enjoy an Avengers film. And that was the same approach we took to Rise of the Titans. And we also did write and animate a brand new opening sequence that's really designed to be a saga sell for anyone who hasn't seen any of those shows.
Watch the full video interview for yourself to hear us talk more about Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, Legends of Tomorrow, Green Lantern, and more.
Marc Guggenheim is back, this time to promote his upcoming film Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. The new movie is a culmination of three DreamWorks Netflix series, Wizards, Trollhunters, and 3-Below in an Avengers-style crossover event.
While chatting with Marc, we obviously had to dig into his Legends of Tomorrow work, and we learned a lot about how the show is structured, ideas that don't always make it in the show at first, and most importantly, the upcoming Beebo Christmas Special.
We also get the opportunity to talk about the new Green Lantern series on HBO Max that Marc is handling, and he explained how grateful he is to get another crack at the Emerald Knight after his film with Ryan Reynolds didn't end up how he planned.
What do you guys think about these comments? Can you see the Marvel and Avengers-style influence in Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans and the Arrowverse?
Be sure to tune into Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans when it releases this Wednesday, and if you haven't yet, check out a brand new clip from the new film below. Don't forget to share your thoughts in the usual spot!
Our heroes end up in a sticky situation as they race to take down the Fire Titan! But will the combination of magic and might be enough to save the world?
Join the adventure in Trollhunters: Rise Of The Titans, coming to Netflix on July 21st!