How the Russo Brothers Saved Captain America
Updated | If Captain America saves the world from apocalypse in Avengers: Infinity War, you can thank Joe and Anthony Russo: Four years ago, they saved Marvel from the apocalyptic ire of its fans.
The siblings are the directors of the film, which opens April 27, and they joined Disney-owned Marvel four years ago, on the heels of Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World—blockbusters at the box office but bummers for ultra-picky comic book geeks. Both films traded the punchy, bright-colored fun of the best Marvel movies for a muddy, tortured moodiness. Fans didn’t want to see Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder; they wanted the joyous blend of humor and heroism that Joss Whedon brought to The Avengers in 2012, which has grossed $1.5 billion in the U.S. alone.
Enter the Russos with 2014’s , a witty, meticulously plotted political thriller. The duo had never made, and two of the smartest sitcoms on TV, and . But what seemed like an odd fit proved just right, not only in terms of well-aimed quips (the brothers wisely gave a lot of comedic space to Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury) but also in creating a movie that has heart, not just the usual kapow, blam, boom. And because they were new to the genre, they also managed to make the story coherent to die-hards and neophytes.
