Avengers: Infinity War Co-Director on Defenders Crossover
Could The Avengers and their TV equivalent The Defenders ever unite on the big screen? Avengers: Infinity War co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo unsurprisingly say ‘it’s complicated’.
The pair are certainly being kept busy; first there’s the small matter of Captain America: Civil War to finish, then both parts of the Infinity War’s saga but in a break from wrangling Avengers, Anthony Russo attended the Brazil Comic Con, where he was asked directly if there would be a crossover between with The Defenders.
For those not in the know, The Defenders feature the likes of Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and Daredevil, all of whom are - or will be - living their screen lives out on TV shows for Netflix. But will The Defenders ever meet up with The Avengers?
"It’s complicated", Russo said. "When we start to serialise the telling of stories it’s difficult. You have to have a lot of control and focus on the course of history".
"The films are controlled by a group led by Kevin Feige, so they function as a unit", he added. "Other products, even if they are from Marvel, are controlled by others. Then there is the possibility of a crossover, but it’s more complicated. It is a smaller scale version of the problem that exists when remembering that Fox holds the rights to some of Marvel’s most popular characters, as does Sony and others. As storytellers, we only have control over what happens in Marvel movies, but everything is possible, Spider-Man became possible!"
There’s also the small matter of a division within Marvel – call it a ‘civil war’ if you like – between Kevin Feige, who is in charge of the movie division and Ike Pulmutter who handles the TV division of Marvel’s output.
So don’t expect there to be any love lost between those two.