Previous sequences had used doubles or cast members who were digitally added to scenes in post-production. On October 6, 2017, Marvel Studios gathered the key players of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a secret location in Georgia for a sequence that brought all of Marvel's superheroes together in a single scene for the first time. It's a wonder these films were actually made. Now imagine working like that every day for roughly an entire year. Then, at three o'clock, Tran and the Russos Would run across the street to postproduction and take a quick look at an Infinity War sequence that they had spent the entire previous night looking at." The second hour would be Endgame, with five units shooting across the Pinewood Atlanta Studios The Russos would be running around with two separate filming units, while as many as three second unit directors would be shooting scenes at the same time. Producer Trinh Tran described what a typical day was like while shooting both of these sequels at the same time: "The first hour would be Infinity War additional photography. The daily production rigmarole was something else entirely. That's just the scheduling for the stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What that meant was that the producers then had to create another layer of scheduling just for the actors' doubles, who had to complete scenes when the actor's actual presence wasn't required." Benedict Cumberbatch was the next that needed to be out early, and so on. Starting on Infinity War, Grillo had to make sure Chris Pratt shot all of his material early so he could leave for another film. At a glance, he could optimize any actor's window of time to when the Russos needed them. Coupled with his digital calendars that helped him track the whereabouts of any given actor down to the hour, no one could elude him. "Grillo's office featured dozens of ever-changing paper calendars featuring when major and minor set pieces were to shoot. That's actually why the working title for the "Avengers" sequels was "Mary Lou," a reference to gymnast Mary Lou Retton, who famously stuck her own landing to make Olympics history. As "The Story of Marvel Studios" says, "If a "finale" was a colossal failure, it would retroactively taint everything that came before it." It was monumentally important that "Avengers: Infinity War" act as a stirring, cliffhanger season finale of sorts, and "Avengers: Endgame" came in to stick the landing. It's not as if Marvel Studios didn't know how important these two films would be to the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe. Markus said, "It was amorphous to the point where we're like, 'We don't know if we can come up with a story.'" Meanwhle, Kevin Feige offered up the helpful advice of, "You know? Don't worry about it. And then there was 'Captain Marvel.' It had some treatments and early drafts, but the film was already planned to release between the two connected Avengers films."Ĭan you imagine trying to write two massive blockbusters intended to cap off 10 years of lead-up and over 20 films of interconnected stories without knowing where several of the film's primary characters would end up in their own franchises beforehand? Plus, let's not forget that this development started when Markus and McFeely were still working on "Captain America: Civil War" while it was in production.
2' didn't have a shooting script 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' didn't have a director, much less a lead actor to play Spider-Man 'Thor: Ragnarok' had some treatments creative conversations with Ryan Coogler about 'Black Panther' had barely begun. "'Doctor Strange' hadn't gone into production 'Guardians Vol.