Avengers: Endgame brings to a close a 22-movie story, but Marvel isn’t going away any time soon

In one of the boldest and most successful experiments in film history, the Marvel 22-movie arc comes to a close in Avengers: Endgame. But does that really signal the end for the superhero franchise?

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo are happy to admit that this time last year, they were among the most hated people in the world.

Partly inspired by The Empire Strikes Back, the brothers had conceived and executed one of the most shocking and controversial endings in movie history for the all-star Marvel superhero team-up, Avengers: Infinity War.

In it, after acquiring six all-powerful gems called Infinity Stones, Josh Brolin’s villainous, purple-skinned Thanos snapped his fingers and obliterated half of all life in the universe. Among those turned to ash were many of the beloved superheroes that the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe had spent more than a decade building up, including Spider-man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and most of the Guardians Of the Galaxy.

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Ahead of the release of the highly anticipated, secrecy-shrouded sequel, Avengers: Endgame, Joe Russo recalls a Q&A after one of the Infinity War premieres, during which a teary-eyed 10-year-old asked him why they had killed off his favourite superhero, and delights in relating a story in which a terrified Mark Ruffalo, who plays the Hulk, went to a screening in disguise with his son.

“ (Ruffalo) said that when the movie ended he was scared for his life because everyone stayed in the theatre and one guy got so upset he ripped his shirt off and started prancing around the aisles screaming ‘why, why — would they do this?’,” says Russo. “He was so upset. And Ruffalo said he snuck out too because he was scared.”

Director Anthony Russo, left, and Joe Russo pose during an Asia Press Conference to promote their latest film Avengers Endgame in Seoul, South Korea. Picture: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

It’s not often that any movie elicits such a raw, emotional response, let alone a huge Hollywood blockbuster, but the MCU is not just any movie franchise.

Since it kicked off in 2008 with Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, the 21 films featuring 11 interconnected franchises, have dovetailed together to become one of cinema’s most extraordinary achievements.

Not only have they made $26.4 billion combined at the box office (not one has lost money), but under the guidance of Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, the MCU has woven together a group of superheroes as disparate as a God of Thunder, a teenager bitten by a radioactive spider, a master of the mystic arts and an African king given special powers by a magic potion.

Superhero movies are nothing new — Christopher Reeves’ Superman was a huge hit in 1978, as was Michael Keaton’s take on Batman a decade later — but the MCU has sparked a renewed interest in the genre that shows no signs of abating any time soon. Rival comic book company DC has also tried its hand at a shared universe, which has in many ways been a pale imitation of the MCU, but has had high points with Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the recent Shazam! And with 12 movies set in the X-Men world since 2000, with two more to come this year, demand is higher than ever.

Self-confessed fanboy Feige says he’s been asked about so-called superhero film fatigue for years and his answer is always the same: as long as they are good people will keep going to see them.

Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige — the driving force of the MCU — says people will keep coming to see superhero movie as long as they keep making good ones. Picture: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images for Disney

Part of the continuing success of the superhero phenomenon is that they appeal to a broad spectrum, from the freewheeling, foul-mouthed, R-rated Deadpool and the dark, dystopian Logan, to the more PG-friendly adventures of Shazam! and Spider-man.

Within the MCU itself, directors are encouraged to bring their own distinct tone: Captain America: the Winter Soldier played out like a paranoid political thriller, Ant-Man was basically a heist movie, Thor: Ragnarok bordered on out-and-out comedy and Black Panther had echoes of James Bond’s globetrotting thrills.

But beyond that, Joe Russo believe there is a shared experience that has only become stronger as the MCU has progressed and is reaching a fever pitch ahead of the release of Endgame, which is being billed as the culmination of the 21 films released so far.

“I think a lot of people have invested a lot of heart and soul into the characters,” he says. “When we take these movies around the world, it’s really heartwarming to see people come up to you and say ‘I started watching this with my classmates when I was ten years old. Now we’re all 21 and we’re all going to go see this together’. Or ‘my parents have taken me to every movie or my grandfather has taken me to every film’. It’s a real sense of community and sharing in these stories and believing in them. And I think with Endgame, we get the opportunity to finish off one of the grandest experiments in movie history and bring it to an epic conclusion.”

Avengers: Endgame is widely tipped to be Robert Downey Jr’s swan song as Iron Man.

While the mysterious Endgame — widely tipped to be the swan song for key Marvel players such as Downey Jr and Chris Evans’ Captain America — is an ending of sorts of the MCU, it’s by no means the end.

Despite being killed off in “the Snap”, Spider-man has a stand-alone film released in July, and sequels for supposedly dead characters Doctor Strange and the Guardians Of the Galaxy are in various stages of production. And it seems inconceivable that Black Panther, whose stand-alone film grossed $1.7 billion and became the first superhero film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, will remain a pile of ash.

Although Marvel is staying coy on details until the release next week of Endgame, the universe seems to be expanding at an ever-increasing rate.

Thanks to parent company Disney buying out rival studio 20th Century Fox, the MCU will now be able to welcome comic book favourites such as the X-Men, Deadpool and the Fantastic Four into the fold.

And with Disney launching a streaming service to take on Netflix in November, interconnected TV shows featuring characters including Loki, Falcon, Vision and Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye are also on the cards.

Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel was the first MCU film to be solo-headlined by a woman.

The key to staying relevant and successful is diversity and an ability to evolve and reflect the times. Black Panther, the first superhero film with an African-American lead, and Captain Marvel, the first with a solo female lead, both cracked the US$1 billion dollar mark and proved conclusively that being a white man was not the only way to succeed. Future projects include Asian superhero Shang-Chi, believed to be headed to Sydney’s Fox Studios, and Marvel producer Victoria Alonso says that a gay superhero is “at the forefront of what I would like to accomplish”.

Her colleague, Marvel Studios co-president and executive producer Louis D’Esposito, says it is also smart business to have characters that reflect the reality of the world around them.

“If we can tell interesting stories with women, men, people of colour, all races, all creeds and religions, we’re going to,” he says. “The world is diverse, and we strive to make films that portray society as it is in real life. People enjoy coming to movies like that. We proved that with Black Panther.

“It gives us great satisfaction to break through those barriers, and there’s no more ceiling above us. We have shattered through it, and we’re excited to explore superheroes from all different backgrounds in the future. With Infinity War and Endgame, you really get to see what a diverse and broad swath of characters populates the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There is something for everyone, and it’s all connected together in a way that feels authentic and real.”

Avengers: Endgame opens on Wednesday.