While Avengers: Doomsday's confirmed cast has been criticised by some fans for missing more than a few major players—we expect at least some of them to make "surprise" appearances—it's still a massive ensemble.
The Russo Brothers have been tasked with assembling Doctor Doom, the Avengers, the New Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Wakandans. That's no easy feat, though it's also not something they've ever really struggled with after helming MCU hits like Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame.
Still, Avengers: Doomsday feels bigger than all of them combined, and it's now down to the duo to make sure they do right by each character and satisfy fans.
In an interview with Soundsphere, Joe and Anthony Russo were asked how they navigate having 20 or 30 major stars in the same movie. The filmmakers then shared some fascinating insights into their creative process.
"We have a phrase that we call firm papa, firm mama. You gotta be firm, but gentle at the same time," Joe started. "You have to create an environment where there’s structure, but there’s a lot of movement in the structure. These movies have more movie stars than any movies in history. And movie stars, by their very nature, want to shine. That’s their job."
"It’s hard to shine when there are 19 other movie stars in a scene with you. So we have to work meticulously hard to make sure that everyone gets those moments, because each one of those actors is playing somebody’s favourite character. So, if you’re not going to service the character properly, then you’re going to disappoint somebody in that audience."
"A lot of that has to do with very subtle POV shifts throughout the story with one overarching POV, like Infinity War is all told from Thanos’ point of view. But if Thor, when he lands, if that axe cuts Thanos’ head off, it’s actually Thor’s movie. That’s how close those points of view are to each other, and that’s all very calibrated from a storytelling standpoint to create, to maximise impact, and to maximise the surprise for you."
"We have to work very hard to surprise you," Joe continued, "and to circumvent that instinct by giving you these subtle calibrations and points of view that keep you guessing while you’re watching the movie."
Anthony added to that by saying, "We do have a creative process that, even though we’re like a two-and-a-half-hour, three-act-structure film, is generally based around a single character arc overall. We do have a creative process where we really envision the movie and the narrative from each individual character’s point of view and paint the movie from that character’s point of view."
"Even if that character is just intersecting with a small part of the story, it’s creatively energising to filter the film through even a small character’s point of view occasionally," the filmmaker concluded.
In Avengers: Doomsday, the Russo Brothers will have to handle multiple superhero teams and wrap up the Multiverse Saga. That's been nothing if not chaotic, and there are an awful lot of dangling plot threads that need to be addressed and wrapped up by the time Secret Wars concludes.
Avengers: Doomsday stars Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Winston Duke, Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, and Robert Downey Jr. Wyatt Russell, Simu Liu, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Mabel Cadena, Florence Pugh, Danny Ramirez, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, India Rose Hemsworth, and Wesley Holloway all make their Avengers franchise debuts.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn join them, as do X-Men franchise stars Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, with Deadpool & Wolverine star Channing Tatum.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18.