Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was one of the several producers invited to speak at the 10th Annual Produced By conference. Held at Paramount Studios by the Producers Guild of America, the event was packed with discussions about the filmmaking process, especially on the production side of things. Feige contributed several bits to the discussion himself, including the revelation of their plan for the controversial ending of Avengers: Infinity War.
Now at this point, it should be safe to assume that everyone has seen Infinity War. In the off-chance that there’s someone left, this article will spoil it massively so turn back (or scroll down).
Feige revealed that the studio wanted to do an ending where its main heroes lose as early as 2014. The foundation then, of an Avengers movie ending with our heroes losing to the antagonist was laid four years back. Feige also revealed that Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War were shot at around the same time, a marked difference from their original plan which involved shooting Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 concurrently.
Kevin Feige of @MarvelStudios says he felt confident in the ending to #AvengersInfinintyWar until the last few days before it was released. Then he started to worry the audience might rebel #ProducedBy2018
— Lisa Richwine (@LARichwine) June 9, 2018
Furthermore, Feige stated that while they were initially confident of pulling off the ending with Thanos’ snap that lead to half the beings in the universe becoming non-existent, they developed cold feet and began worrying about it a few days before release. They started believing that the audience would rebel and not take too well to the ending. It’s hard to fault Feige’s concern here since plenty of audience members have in fact called Marvel out the ending, seeing as they’re already aware of future Marvel Studios productions featuring many of the “deceased” characters.
Personally, I loved the way it ended which gave Thanos victory over the Avengers and made Infinity War truly his own personal story. However, it remains to be seen how exactly the leftover heroes get their comrades back when Avengers 4 hits theaters next year on May 3.
