Superheroes out, politics in for Avengers: Endgame directors – ‘we choose to look out for the community’

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.

The result is a notably international and political slate of projects for their new studio AGBO – and barely a spandex-clad superhero in sight.

First up is Mosul, which dramatises the true story of the Iraqi police’s Nineveh Swat team fighting to recapture their home city from the Islamic State group (Isis) in 2017.

The action thriller, inspired by a New Yorker article, is told entirely from Iraqis’ perspective and shot in Arabic – radical ground for Hollywood.

“It felt criminally overdue,” says Anthony Russo, 49. “That’s why we knew this movie had to get made – because this movie has never been made.”

Also in the works are Dhaka, a film about the kidnapping of a Bangladeshi businessman shot mainly in India, and Japanese anime adaptation Battle of the Planets.

But politics is a common thread to the brothers’ next projects, which include a film about the opioid epidemic in their home state of Ohio.

“We’re living in a time where there’s a lot of division – division is being promoted,” Joe Russo says. “You’re either looking out for yourself right now, or you’re looking out for the community. And we choose to look out for the community.”

Without naming any politicians directly, they say it would “be great” if the current White House watched Mosul.

“Clearly there is an incredible culpability on the part of the US in creating the problem in Iraq, and Isis is a direct result of the war there,” Joe Russo says.

It is all a marked departure from the Russos’ previous projects.

The brothers first gained broad recognition for their work on cult hit TV shows such as Arrested Development and Community.

But after successfully directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014, they quickly rose to the top of the lucrative Marvel Studios filmmakers’ stable.

The brothers are not committed to any future Marvel films, but their desire to import new perspectives to Hollywood filmmaking is already apparent in the Disney-owned franchise’s next projects.

Ms Marvel will soon become Marvel’s first on-screen Muslim superhero, with a TV series on the Disney+ streaming service about a Pakistani-origin teenage girl living in New Jersey.

Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu will become Marvel’s first leading Asian superhero in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

According to Joe, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is “expending a lot of energy to diversify the Marvel Universe because everyone has the right to see their stories on screen”.

Of course, the profit motive is unavoidable – Endgame made more at Asian box offices than the whopping US$860 million it managed at home.

“Joe and I love big global storytelling,” says Anthony Russo. “Our Marvel movies are among our favourite work that we’ve ever done.

“Cinema is uniquely positioned to help open up people to new experiences and new ideas.”

Does that mean a return to the world of superheroes one day?

“Perhaps more Marvel movies. We’re not talking about anything right now.”