Avengers: Infinity War Directors Reveal Their Favorite Superhero Pairing

So the meeting between Doctor Strange and Iron Man in Avengers: Infinity War may not have yielded any Sherlock jokes, but the two goateed heroes still gave us a pretty compelling ride that progresses from comedy to tragedy across the film’s two-and-a-half hours.

Out of all the crossover pairings from the new movie, it was this character combination that directors Anthony and Joe Russo recently singled out as the one that excited them the most, characterizing the team-up as “narcissist vs. narcissist, magic vs. science” in a clip shared by the filmmakers during Vudu’s live Infinity War viewing party last night.

Naturally, when two egos this big cross paths, it’s inevitable that some bickering will ensue. In mapping out the chemistry between these two rather similar personalities, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have claimed to have taken inspiration from the TV sitcom Frasier.

The beloved show’s lead consistently meets his match in his even pettier younger brother Crane, a character whom Markus noted to be “even more like Frasier than Frasier” when he spoke to Yahoo back in May. He went on to explain how this dynamic could be applied to Stark and Strange, too, saying:

“And to take Tony and Dr. Strange who are quite similar — they both have goatees, they’re both arrogant — the impulse might be, ‘well, let’s keep them separate, because they occupy the same space and everyone will get their own arrogant goatee man,’” Markus explained. “But to put them together, one, is funny, and their powers are totally different. But also it helps, again, it helps Tony go, ‘Arrogant people are really annoying. I’m arrogant, huh.’ This is how we become better people in life.”

While a kinship gradually develops between Iron Man and the Sorcerer Supreme, the two are ultimately separated by tragedy, with the latter turning to dust at the end of the film, though not before possibly laying the groundwork for the eventual downfall of their mutual enemy Thanos.

With any luck, Strange’s plan will come into fruition when Avengers 4 releases on May 3rd, 2019. In the meantime, you can always revisit the first encounter between the two superpowered Sherlocks, with Avengers: Infinity War out now on Digital HD and coming to 4K Ultra HD, Blu-Ray and DVD on August 14th.