It's impossible to debate the success of The Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has managed to present long-form storytelling in a shared world at the highest level since 2008. There have been a few continuity issues over the years, but nothing too glaring, and it's always been generally assumed that Kevin Feige and co. have each phase mapped-out well ahead of time.
Of course, plans are constantly evolving, and Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo has now pulled back the curtain a little on how the studio tends to operate.
“There isn't really a plan. There’s an idea, but you can’t have a plan if the movie you’re making tanks," admitted the filmmaker during a sit-down at the Sands International Film Festival (via Deadline). "There’s no plan after that. Right? So, it’s really about, as the movie succeeded, there was sort of an enthusiasm about well, what else could we do? And then that’s when new ideas would come out, And there was hopes. Oh, we hope one day that we can get to the story, if we keep doing this right maybe we could all get there, you know, like Infinity War and Endgame. But a lot of the stuff was made up in between the movies. And some of the best call forwards or callbacks were thought of after the fact.”
Though this may come as a surprise to some, this is pretty standard for any ongoing interconnected universe across all mediums, and all it really means is that Marvel Studios is willing to go with the flow to an extent and make changes to suit the story when necessary.
Russo went on to lay out an example of "happenstance" coming in to play for a major plot point in Captain America: Civil War.
"Like we didn’t have Civil War [broken down] and we didn’t know that by showing you the scene with Zola as this old Hydra villain in Winter Soldier… [and he’s] telling him about the Winter Soldier and there’s an image of Stark’s parents, right? He had them killed… And it’s implied that it’s connected. That was happenstance. Then, after the movie came out, and we had to make Civil War, we’re like, ‘Hey, that’s a crazy idea… that’s how Tony could get so angry at Cap that he’d want to kill him, is if Cap’s buddy had killed his parents.’"
What do you guys make of Russo's comments? Be sure to share your thoughts in the usual place.