FIVE THINGS WE FOUND OUT FROM THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR SINGAPORE JUNKET

It is without a doubt that Avengers: Infinity War will be a huge box office hit. But how impressive will its opening weekend be? Will it beat 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which currently boasts the biggest opening weekend haul with $248 million?

The 2012 Avengers movie opened with $207 million, while the culturally significant Black Panther scored a $202 million opening. With the Avengers teaming up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to deter the evil Thanos from destroying the world, will this 19th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) be Disney-owned Marvel Studios’ most impressive report card?

On 15 April, Singapore was fortunate to play host to three of the highly-anticipated blockbuster’s stars - Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), and Karen Gillan (Nebula). Also in attendance at the 30-minute press conference held at Marina Bay Sands were director Joe Russo and executive producer Trinh Tran.

Here are five things we found out about Avengers: Infinity War, a culmination of Marvel's past 10 years on the big screen.

MOST COMPLICATED MOVIE IN HISTORY TO PUT TOGETHER

“Logistically, without question, I think, the most complicated movie in history to put together,” said Russo.

The 47-year-old director joked that to make the blockbuster, Hollywood was shut down for a year because “we had every actor working in the business scheduled somewhere in the movie”. He also shared that if Marvel had been writing a book for the last 10 years, Infinity War would be the last chapter before a starting a new volume. Aww.

WHERE ARE YOU, HAWKEYE?

“There are so many characters we’re dealing with, and we were literally halfway through when Robert said: ‘Hey, where’s Renner?’” joked Russo.

The super-archer played by Jeremy Renner has been noticeably missing from the publicity materials and fans are concerned. While Russo did not leak any spoilers whether Hawkeye would appear in the new movie, he said: “We have a really interesting story cooked up for Hawkeye, so I would say, patience is a virtue. We did not forget Hawkeye." While we are still at it, where's Ant-Man

DON’T EXPECT SOMETHING BIGGER THAN THE AIRPORT FIGHT SCENE

“One thing that the creatives don’t want to do, is do a bigger repeat of something that’s already worked well,” said Downey Jr.

If you loved the showdown between Team Captain America and Team Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War, don’t expect to see a rehash in Infinity War. The 53-year-old actor explained that the challenge was to top something without repeating what had been done before, and called it an “anti-process”. We can’t wait.

GIRL POWER!

“Shave my head for Marvel? Yeah!” exclaimed Gillan.

The 30-year-old actress recalled her response when she was approached to play Nebula in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. She is also honoured to be a villain who survived more than one movie, and it is the “weirdest sensation in the world”.

Other female characters and fan-favourites you can expect include Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Okoye (Danai Gurira).

“With the large amount of cast that we have, some of which are very strong female characters, I think it’s important to let female voices to shine in this area”, said Tran, who herself is an inspiring role model who started as an assistant with Marvel Studios 10 years ago. You go, girl!

DOCTOR STRANGE VERSUS IRON MAN?

“We have a bit of a clash, and that’s not a bad thing,” said Cumberbatch.

After a tiff with Captain America, will Iron Man disagree with Doctor Strange’s way of doing things? Downey Jr explained that after the two cross paths, there is recognition that there is a “spiritual answer” to things. Hmm, how mythical.

Text by John Li and Photos by The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia)

Our review of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR right here

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