Avengers: Infinity War is now available on Digital HD and it comes bundled with a huge number of special features. One of the most exciting is a director's roundtable featuring a number of Marvel Cinematic Universe filmmakers like Taika Waititi, Joss Whedon, James Gunn, Jon Favreau and more.
Regardless of whether you've had a chance to check this out or simply want to know what to expect, we've broken down all the biggest reveals from the roundtable and collected them for you here. From what it's like working with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige to a fascinating insight into movies like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Iron Man, this is well worth taking a look at.
To check these reveals out, all you guys have to do is click on the "View List" button down below.
Hiding Chris Evans' Beard In The Avengers
As you may already be aware, when Marvel decided to shoot The Avengers' after-credits scene, Chris Evans had grown a beard for his role in Snowpiercer. Hiding that required a lot of work and prosthetics were used to disguise it. Now, we have a little more insight on that from Joss Whedon along with a closer look at that (maybe Warner Bros. should have done this with Superman in Justice League).
"It was during... While we were doing press after the premiere at the hotel. There was a shawarma place, like, three blocks away. [Kevin Feige] got everybody in there. Evans had a beard. So they put, like... It looked like the Warren Beatty Dick Tracy, like, giant jaw on him, and he just sort of hid it like this [puts his right-hand over his jaw]." In fairness, it did work surprisingly well for the most part.
Only Kevin Feige Knows Where The MCU Is Going
While Jon Favreau pointed out that he believes Kevin Feige was plotting a Black Panther movie since he suggested including a Wakanda Easter Egg in Iron Man 2, James Gunn made the surprising reveal that the filmmakers who work for Marvel Studios are kept in the dark about where things will go next.
"There's a belief out there that somehow, over the past however many years, we sat in a room and we came up with this long big story that leads to this one thing, and it's just not the way it is."
Ditching Secret Identities Was Kevin Feige's Idea
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has never really embraced the idea of secret identities. While no one knows who Spider-Man is, not many of them hide behind a mask and everyone knows who Captain America and Iron Man are, for example. After James Gunn pointed out it started with Tony Stark saying "I am Iron Man," Jon Favreau went on to explain that was Kevin Feige's idea and he then ran with it.
"It's hard to keep it feeling real. A lot of that was Kevin to be honest with you," the director said regarding that final scene. "We came up and he was like 'Yes, we should.' He latched onto that."
James Gunn Had A Surprising Influence For Rocket
After Jon Favreau asked his fellow filmmakers if there's anything, in particular, which inspired their work, James Gunn made a surprising confession when he revealed what influenced Rocket Raccoon.
"For me, Rocket is Frankenstein's monster," he explained. "He is this little creature that was this innocent animal who was turned into something that isn't what he is supposed to be, and is completely alone and completely lost, and has no connection, has no tenderness from anyone. To me, that was the seed from which the entire story grew." It's a shame he can't now elaborate on that!
Why Jon Favreau Was Hired To Direct Iron Man
Before he took the helm of Iron Man in 2008, it was Elf that put Jon Favreau on the map as a director worth keeping an eye on. Now, the filmmaker has revealed that it was the comedy which won him the job. "What really hit was Elf. Because Elf made money and I was sort of on a list of directors that were hirable. They approached me about it, and there was not really a script or anything. They were working on a script, they had some story ideas. And I didn't know what I was going to do with it."
Favreau went on to say that Kevin Feige was actually pretty surprised by just how funny the Christmas movie was and the fact that the director came from a comedy background may have inspired Marvel's tendency to hire filmmakers with that sort of background even if they don't have action experience.
James Gunn Had Some Concerns About The Humour In GOTG
Marvel's movies have always featured their fair share of humour but it wasn't until The Avengers that started becoming what appeared to be a real priority for the studio. Despite that, James Gunn still had some reservations about just how funny he made Guardians of the Galaxy when he penned the script.
"I turned in my first draft of the screenplay, and I was really afraid because I felt good about it but I actually thought it was too funny. And the thing that [Joss] said to me, which I share all the time, was 'Just make it more James Gunn', and after hearing that...I went home and wrote the '12%' scene."
Wakanda Was Going To Debut In Age Of Ultron
During this conversation, Joss Whedon revealed that Wakanda was supposed to make a physical appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron before plans were changed at the last minute. "Wakanda was going to be in [Age of Ultron]. And then we kept like, 'Well, it's at the gates, it's by the...', and then we started referring to it as Wakanda. And then finally we were like, 'Let's just wait on this one.'"
How Transformers Set The Stage For The MCU
While Jon Favreau and Ryan Coogler stopped short of praising the Transformers movies, both directors explained that the fact those movies were groundbreaking in terms of CGI is what helped make the former confident in the chances of Iron Man's success and actually inspired the Black Panther director.
"At the time [production started on Iron Man] Transformers was being made, so I was confident that hard surfaces would look good in CG," Favreau explained. "I tended to not really always buy CGI at the time." As for Coogler - a film student at the time - he was just blown away by what VFX could do.
"I remember that like it was yesterday, the work ILM was doing, you know, like seeing the Transformers, seeing Optimus Prime's foot and all the gears spinning, and then seeing Iron Man."
Marvel Didn't Have Any Input On GOTG Vol. 2
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 sets the stage for Avengers: Infinity War in a lot of interesting ways but James Gunn reveals that he was never forced to change anything about the movie by Marvel Studios.
"I didn't ever have an ending for what Guardians 2 was supposed to be. I didn't have a single story point that was ever discussed with Marvel before I wrote the story. So, where that movie ends up, with Nebula going off and doing her thing, that's what I mean by people, we kind of do our own things. We write our own little story, and then it goes off to these guys, and I gave [the Russos] a script very, very early on, and they were like, 'That's perfect, because that works great for us with where Nebula is, what we want to do with the story', and it goes off. And I think that is the fluid nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's that moving from story to story and letting a Russo brothers movie be a Russo brothers movie."
What do you guys think of these reveals from the directors of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Will you be picking up Avengers: Infinity War on Blu-ray? As always, share your thoughts down below.
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