Russo Brothers reveal how Star Wars franchise influenced Endgame

The Russo Brothers discuss how Star Wars influenced them when they went on to direct Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

When you come across a filmmaking duo like Anthony and Joe Russo, the first thing you probably think about is the game-changing Marvel Cinematic Universe films Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

The Russo Brothers were interviewed by ComingSoon.net about the importance of narrative and what influence George Lucas’ Star Wars films had on their Avengers blockbusters.

The pair initially discussed another filmmaking duo – the Coen Brothers (who are known for their eclectic body of work) – before moving on to discuss Star Wars – at which point they were asked whether they would make the same creative choices that were made in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. Joe Russo then replied:

"“I mean I think being such Star Wars fanatics we would’ve probably focused on the Luke Skywalker story… I think you know, the fact that Star Wars is so important to us growing up, we got to make our Star Wars empire in Infinity War and Endgame. That was really our expression of what those commercial films meant to us as children and what we took away from them and the patterns of narrative structure that were so profound to us. We were able to replicate those patterns in those movie.”"

ComingSoon subsequently made comparisons to the original trilogy and the choices Luke and Rey made in the latest collection of Star Wars films in which it was more consigned to damnation rather than a more crippling and conflicting choice Anakin Skywalker had to make during the prequels. Anthony replied:

"“That’s a really good point in a sense that you don’t really think – they don’t seem very likely to make that choice, but it just reminds me of how similar our enjoyment of these movies is to something like opera in the sense that there can be these crude sort of narrative beats that maybe don’t play in a very subtle or sophisticated way, but there’s something about their resonance and there’s something about the way the rest of the cinema surrounds that moment and then the music and the iconography and the drama of it all that somehow creates emotion and sort of excitement and thrill and danger and peril.”"

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, of course, was a strong influence on Infinity War as both films had comparable dark endings with the heroes forced to concede in defeat with a formidable Big Bad. The former not only has a significant impact in filmmaking and in popular culture but also boasted one of the greatest plot twists in cinematic history.

Though to a lesser extent, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi could arguably be cited as one of the sources of inspiration for Endgame: A film which not only dealt with the fallout of Thanos’ actions which the heroes must resolve but acted as part of the culmination of a 22 film story within the MCU.

Russo Brothers reveal how Star Wars franchise influenced the Avengers movies

By Andre Farquharson | Jul 12, 2020

The Russo Brothers discuss how Star Wars influenced them when they went on to direct Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.