AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR - Every Major New Reveal About The Movie From Marvel Studios' Concept Artists
In the "Art of" book for Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel's talented team of concept artists dropped plenty of big reveals about the film and shed some light on what the Russo Brothers originally envisioned.
Avengers: Infinity War was arguably the biggest superhero movie of all-time and while it's been months since we saw most of our favourite heroes turn to dust, fans still can't get enough to the epic ensemble (especially with Avengers 4 obviously on the horizon).
We've recently been taking a look at concept art from the Marvel Studios movie but now we're delving into the "Art of" book to bring you all the biggest reveals from the people who worked on Avengers: Infinity War. As well as insight into how certain characters and costumes were created, we also have intel on what might have been in this adventure.
From alternate scenes to scrapped characters and more, we think you'll find plenty of new intel to delve into here, so be sure to click on the "View List" button below to check out this full breakdown.
How Thanos Managed To Survive Titan's Destruction
Thanos talks in the movie about the destruction of his home planet but never explains how he survived that beyond being shunned by his people. Well, according to this book, after suggesting that half the population of Titan be culled he was indeed exiled and simply not present when it was destroyed.
While we don't know when Titan fell, the fact the villain wasn't there may shed some light on his mission to obtain the Infinity Stones as it must have been very hard to watch that play out from afar.
War Machine Originally Had A Much Larger Role
"Originally, Rhodey was going to have two different armors in this movie," explains artist Phil Saunders. "And then this ultimately got narrowed down to one armor, so the best elements in both armors were combined into one."
Clearly, War Machine was going to have a bigger role and it seems as if the advanced suit we were originally going to see in this movie may have been saved for Avengers 4 instead. "We really wanted to give him a much more advanced look than what he had had in the previous movie to keep up a little bit with the leap from the Mark 47 to Mark 50 for Iron Man," Saunders adds.
"So I went with a much more sophisticated stealth geometry and breakup of the form language. I also gave him a far more extensive package of weaponry than he had ever previously had."
Why Thanos Didn't Just Kill The Avengers
Thanos squares off with both Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the Guardians of the Galaxy at various points throughout Avengers: Infinity War but never goes out of his way to kill them. Why?
"The plan of getting all the Infinity Stones is putting [Thanos] in the position of being so powerful that he is sort of calmer, more single-minded, and more reasonable," Ryan Meinerding reveals. "He is not necessarily worried about killing the heroes. As long as he ends up with the stones, he can accomplish what he wants to."
Captain America's Original Entrance Included...Santa Claus?!
Captain America's return in this movie is one of its coolest moments and storyboard artist Byran Andrews details one version of that which was ultimately cut. Believe it or not, it involved Santa Claus!
"There were a few versions of the Edinburgh sequence. At first, the Russos had it set during the winter festival. Large crowds, snow, and Cap and the gang were already on-site trying to find Vision and Wanda in a crowd of Santas when the Children of Thanos arrive. Lots of fun stuff, but it was too much. Sometimes less is definitely more."
That Device In The End Credits Scene Almost Looked Very Different
While Avengers: Infinity War ended with Nick Fury using a pager to contact Captain Marvel, it turns out that a palm pilot was almost used in its place! While that would have been cool and all, it wouldn't have had quite the same impact as a pager because those are so closely associated with that period and arguably far more recognisable even to those who weren't alive during that decade!
Spider-Man's Journey To Becoming An Avenger
In this movie, Tony Stark finally names Spider-Man an Avenger and that's a big step forward in the life of Peter Parker. According to Meinerding, the design of the suit was also meant to convey the fact that the wall-crawler is now more than just a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man!
"It was an interesting and fun design challenge, and I think he definitely feels like a different Spider-Man in this movie," he says. "It allows him to feel like he's moving away from being just a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man and actually becoming an Avenger--which is a huge story point and one that I was happy to help contribute to."
James Gunn Influenced Groot's Appearance
Sadly, James Gunn is no longer involved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe but he was still a big part of proceedings when Avengers: Infinity War was being made.
Joe and Anthony Russo may have been in charge of this story but it turns out that the future Suicide Squad 2 director had a major influence on Groot's appearance, in particular. "James Gunn also wanted to add a bit of an ungroomed attitude where he does not clean up after himself, like trimming his greenery in those awkward spaces and adding a little belly to show him not caring about his appearance," Anthony Francisco reveals, shedding some light on his updated appearance.
Iron Man's New Suit Is "Liquid Metal"
During the course of this adventure, Tony Stark confirms that nanotechnology is what powers his suit. Phil Saunders, however, talks more about that and describes it as being made of "liquid metal."
"This is liquid metal. And when you're dealing with liquid metal and nanotechnology, you're not going to use nanotech to form bolts and screws and rigid sheet metal panels and stuff like that," he explains. "It just doesn't make any sense. So the first thinking we were thinking about was 'Okay, how do we maintain something that's still grounded as an iron man suit, but it makes sense in that it's liquid metal?'"
"I spend a lot of time thinking about and illustrating how the suit would form--wanting to get a sense that even though it's liquid metal, it's not one large, cohesive liquid metal. It's actually forming all the anatomical hairs underneath. there's sort of a neurological layer and a circulatory-system layer that gets formed, and then a layer of musculature."
The Falcon Got An Upgrade That No One Noticed
Apart from the fact that it's a little more battered after spending a few years on the run with the Secret Avengers, Falcon's suit hasn't really changed when we catch up with him in Avengers: Infinity War.
Wrong!
As concept artist Josh Nizzi points out, he now has some thrusters in his boots. "I removed a large thruster from Falcon's backpack in order to make room for Redwing," Nizzi says. "The boot thrusters were to help make up for this. The idea was that since Tony would have helped upgrade Falcon's gear, he could have put additional boost in the legs similar to what is in the Iron Man suits."
Thor, Rocket, And Groot Nearly Battled The Midgard Serpent
In the book (which is now on sale), there's a larger version of the piece of artwork above showing Thor, Rocket, and Groot battling the Midgard Serpent. While it's not clear what role that would have played in proceedings, comic book fans will know that it has its roots in the "Ragnarok" prophecy.
There's no explanation for its presence here but the concept artists do explain a little earlier in the book that they originally envisioned a different story for Stormbreaker's creation with Thor travelling inside the body of this beast to find the weapon.
Marvel Was Worried The Outriders Would Look Too Much Like Venom
The Outriders weren't the MCU's most memorable villains but during the design process, Marvel ran into a big problem: they started looking too much like Venom! As a result, some big changes were made and their fangs were squared off to avoid any comparisons between the two (something which was key with a Venom movie also coming out in 2018).
"After looking at the source material, I wanted them to have a biomechanics quality to them," Jerad Marantz explains. "There was concern that the Outriders may look too much like a Venom symbiote, and the challenge was to ensure they had a unique look. To achieve that, I decided to go biomechanical with them and incorporate the same shapes that are used in Thanos’ armour."
There Was A Fake Script Where Loki Survived
Marvel went to extremes to ensure that Avengers: Infinity War's secrets were kept exactly that so crew members were given fake versions of the script, one of which included Loki escaping from Thanos' attack in an escape pod. Needless to say, a lot of people on set were very confused that day.
"We created a version of the script where Loki would get away in an escape pod at the beginning of the movie,"Meinerding confirms. "When we started shooting that particular sequence, we had crew members who were thoroughly confused. We had to let them know that those were fake versions of the script that they read."
Kevin Feige Wanted Cull Obsidian To Feel Like A Bounty Hunter
Many fans believe that one of the trophies around Cull Obsidian's waist belongs to Captain Marvel but all this book reveals is that he does indeed have trophies from past battles. Whether or not it becomes to the hero is something we'll presumably discover last March.
Kevin Feige, however, pushed for Cull to be given an appearance which made him look and feel like he could be an intergalactic bounty hunter. "With Cull Obsidian, in particular, his looks started off definitely more warrior-like," Meinerding says. "And Kevin Feige was interested in making him feel a little bit more nuanced than just another sort of shirtless guy with a huge hammer."
"They wanted to push him into something more like a bounty hunter or weapons expert, so he has changing weapons and things that make him feel more like an expert at fighting as opposed to just being a straight-up big dude with an axe."
Supergiant Was Supposed To Be Part Of The Black Order
Something fans immediately noticed when the Black Order was unveiled was that Supergiant was nowhere to be seen. The fifth member of this villainous group ended up being cut for reasons which have never been made clear beyond Marvel obviously realising that they didn't need yet another character in the movie.
Well, one piece of concent part in the book confirms that Supergiant - whose powers include telepathy and the ability to devour the intellect of others - was at one point going to be included here. She wasn't really missed but there were definitely a lot of fans who were disappointed to see that she ultimately failed to make the cut.
Proxima Midnight's Costume Had A Nod To Thanos
"I took a lot of Proxima's look from the comics," says artist Jerad Marantz. "It was an honour to be able to establish her design in the film. I played around with her black-and-white suit and broke up the panels. I reworked her armoured arm to expose more of her costume to show that it was clearly armour and not another Marvel mechanical arm."
Interestingly, he based her look on what Thanos was wearing during his first proper MCU appearance. "I designed the armour in ZBrush based on the armour Thanos was wearing in Guardians Of The Galaxy. I was able to get the design approved in the first pass. I also decided to incorporate armour on her opposite leg for balance."
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