Do you of us keep in mind, not that way back, throughout Star Wars Celebration, when Kathleen Kennedy instructed the press that Kevin Feige was by no means actually hooked up to a “Star Wars” movie and it was simply the fandom that made all of it up? She really mentioned, “We never discussed an idea,” and mainly, gaslit everybody into pondering it was all a rumor. Of course, we all know that’s not true as a result of Feige talked about it, Michael Waldron talked about being employed to jot down a script, and now, we have now the Russo Brothers, who not solely verify that Feige was engaged on a “Star Wars” movie with Lucasfilm however that they had been discussing presumably signing on to direct.
The latter bit was mentioned in a current episode of the SmartLess podcast, hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. In the episode, the hosts talked to Joe and Anthony Russo about all of the points of their careers, together with the potential of directing a “Star Wars” movie, because the administrators are big followers of the galaxy far, far-off. Well, not solely are they , however the Russos mentioned that there have been some early discussions with Kevin Feige about it.
“We love ‘Star Wars,’” Joe Russo mentioned. “There were early conversations, there were some early conversations with us. Kevin Feige is a huge ‘Star Wars’ fan, and there were some early conversations about maybe teaming up with Kevin to do ‘Star Wars.’”
Unfortunately, the Russo didn’t get an opportunity to elaborate because the SmartLess guys simply mainly talked throughout them after which segued quick to their ABGO movies. However, elsewhere within the podcast, the Russos did discuss their work with Marvel Studios, notably “Captain America: Civil War.”
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The duo talked about how they needed to get the story—Captain America vs. Iron Man, who could be extra of the dangerous man—authorized by Marvel and its powers that be. While it was pretty simple to persuade Feige and the remainder of the Marvel Studios execs, it was tougher to truly get Robert Downey, Jr. to log out on the concept.
The dialog really began when Jason Bateman revealed that Downey had referred to as him, asking what he considered the Russos—the Russos directed the “Arrested Development” pilot and practically 15 episodes of the present, so he knew them properly.
“I remember Downey calling me about you guys, ‘So what do you think of these Russo dudes?’” Bateman recalled. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Holy shit, the Russos are gonna do a Marvel movie?’ I remember saying that quietly to myself cause I didn’t want to say it to Downey. I didn’t want him to hear the surprise in my voice. But I got immediately excited about you guys and his humor and sensibilities… I couldn’t say enough about how much of a great match that would be.”
“Downey was never supposed to be in that movie, he wasn’t contracted to be in it,” Anthony Russo added. “But we had designed a story where it was built as a two-hander between Captain America and Iron Man. So we finally got the approval from Marvel, Kevin Feige said, ‘Ok, let’s do this. You got the approval from Marvel publishing in New York, we’re going to do it, but, OK, now you guys gotta go get Downey.’ He just tossed it to us.”
So, the brothers then turned their consideration to Downey, Jr. And the remaining is historical past.
“Hey Robert, we know you’ve revitalized your career playing a superhero, now we want you to be the villain, that was literally the pitch to him,” Joe Russo defined. “We had to explain to him how his character wasn’t going to be exclusively a villain in it, but.., so it was a big swing for him because this is going to be our second movie with Chris Evans and he’s coming into Evans’ franchise, it was a big swing and I’m still stunned he said yes.”
Of course, ‘Civil War’ was finally launched in 2016 and was an enormous hit for Marvel Studios (and the Russos), incomes greater than $1 billion. Not solely that, it additionally paved the best way for Feige to rent the administrators to helm the subsequent two ‘Avengers’ movies, ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame,’ which might each do greater than $2 billion every. To say that getting Downey, Jr. to log out on ‘Civil War’ was a monumental second in Marvel Studios’ historical past is an understatement.
You can hear the complete dialogue under: