'Avengers: Infinity War' Directors Joe And Anthony Russo Answer Your Burning Questions
Less than two weeks have passed since Avengers: Infinity War hit theaters, but it feels like we've been left with more questions than answers. We won't get most of those answers until the mysterious, elusive Avengers 4 opens in 2019, but directors Joe and Anthony Russo have embarked on a post-release tour of sorts to answer the burning Infinity War questions that won't spoil the upcoming Avengers sequel. Namely: what's up with Scarlet Witch's accent?
Major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War follow.
You probably have tons of questions about Infinity War. We've rounded out the questions that the Russo brothers have deigned to answer in interviews following the release of the third Avengers movie. But don't worry about being spoiled for Avengers 4 — if they won't even reveal the title, you can bet they won't spoil the movie.
Why Are Those Scenes from the Trailer Missing?
There are a couple major scenes from the Infinity War trailer that didn't appear in the movie at all. Some could be chalked up to classic movie marketing misdirection, or simply scenes that were cut from the film.
But there was one key scene that was spotlighted in nearly every trailer — Team Wakanda, including Captain America, Black Widow, Black Panther, Bucky Barnes, and the Hulk, running into battle — that disappeared from the film. The Russo brothers clarified on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast that this particular shot was never in the movie in the first place.
"That shot that you're referencing was never in the movie in the version that you saw. It was never even created for the movie in that version. It was literally created in that version for the trailer."
The Russo brothers further explained that they treat the final film and the movie trailers as different entities:
"We use all the material that we have at our disposal to create a trailer. We look at the trailer as a very different experience than the movie, and I think audiences are so predictive now that you have to be very smart about how you craft a trailer because an audience can watch a trailer and basically tell you what's gonna happen in the film. We consume too much content. So at our disposal are lots of different shots that aren't in the movie that we can manipulate through CG to tell a story that we want to tell specifically for the purpose of the trailer and not for the film."
Why Didn't We See Thanos Getting the Power Stone?
While speaking to the students at a Iowa City High School Q&A (where we also learned of the existence of Soulworld) Joe Russo revealed (via Reddit):
"Because we thought it'd be one too many- there's so many stones he has to collect and you get into a trap and we thought- we knew where it was in Guardians- so it was easy to deal with it off screen."
What Happened to Scarlet Witch's Accent?
Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, was introduced in Age of Ultron as a Sokovian orphan with a heavy Eastern European accent and even heavier eyeliner. Wanda has since lightened up on the eyeliner, and curiously, the accent as well. In the three years between Avengers: Infinity War and Age of Ultron, Wanda seems to have barely a hint of an accent — and even in Captain America: Civil War, her accent is a little weaker. Is this because of actress Elizabeth Olsen's dialect laziness or a story choice? Turns out it's the latter, the Russo brothers revealed on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast:
"We have intentionally tried to strip that accent away for a couple of reasons. One is you'll notice at the beginning of Civil War that Black Widow is training her to be a spy, and two is she's been on the run, and one of the most distinguishing characteristics that she has is her accent. So if you're gonna try to disguise yourself or hide yourself or not be caught, you're going to try to limit those trigger warnings that would make it easy for someone to identify you, which would be inclusive of her accent. Clearly Black Widow as a red head is an incredibly distinguishing characteristic for her, which is why she has blonde hair. Cap, we've seen Chris Evans walk around in public with a beard and no one recognizes him. There are simple things you can do to your appearance that take about 90% of your visibility away, and for us it was very intentional that we would just keep stripping that accent down to show her acclimating and hiding."
Okay, we'll buy it. Plus, Natasha is a Russian spy who has no trace of her original accent, so she would certainly be the best person to teach Wanda to phase out her accent. But I wouldn't be surprised if this choice was partly because of Olsen — those "r's" are hard to roll all the time.
Avengers: Infinity War is currently playing in theaters.