Superheroes out, politics in for Avengers: Endgame directors – ‘we choose to look out for the community’
- First up for the Russo brothers’ post-Marvel mission is a true story about an Iraqi Swat team fighting to recapture their city from Isis, filmed in Arabic
- Then there’s Dhaka, about the kidnapping of a Bangladeshi businessman shot mainly in India, and a film on the opioid epidemic in Ohio
When you have just directed the biggest blockbuster movie of all time, you earn the clout to dictate terms with even the highest executives in Hollywood.
But for the Russo brothers, it also raised a question that would be familiar to the superheroes of Avengers: Endgame – what to do next with all that power?
In an interview at the Toronto film festival, the Russos admitted the influence that comes with such uncharted global box office success is “an exceedingly powerful tool, more powerful than we understand”.
“It can be used for positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement,” says Joe Russo, who at 48 is marginally the younger of the affable duo from Cleveland, in the US state of Ohio.
The brothers did not spend their many Marvel promotional world tours just taking endless selfies with hysterical comic-book fans, but searching for new avenues to explore, they say.