Avengers 4 helmsmen Anthony and Joe Russo have their hands pretty full right now working on what could well be the biggest blockbuster release of 2019, but once the pair have finished their run in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the two of them will presumably be looking for job opportunities elsewhere, and it seems they may already have their sights set on the Star Wars galaxy.
A few days ago, Collider held a Q&A where the brothers talked all things Avengers: Infinity War and then some, and when the topic of Lucasfilm’s ongoing space saga came up, Joe Russo took an interest.
“We grew up on Star Wars like everyone else did. I went to the theater when I was 11 years old to see [Star Wars: The] Empire Strikes Back and sat in the theater from 11:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night and watched it back to back to back. So it was a huge influence on us growing up,” Russo said. “Of course we’d love to work, at some point, in the Star Wars universe, but right now our heads are in the middle of another movie.”
If the Russo Brothers ever did make the jump from Marvel to Lucasfilm, they’d hardly be the first MCU directors to do so. In fact, Iron Man helmsman Jon Favreau is working right now on the first live-action Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian, with Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi directing one of the episodes.
The Russo Brothers and Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed recently paid a visit to the show’s set, and as well taking the opportunity to pose for an MCU reunion photo, Joe Russo apparently saw some things that left him very excited for Favreau’s project.
“It’s amazing. We went down there to say hi to Jon [Favreau]. Taika [Waititi] was directing an episode, so we went to hang out with them,” Russo recalled. “Jon is always at the forefront of cutting edge tech, and he is shooting this in a way that no one has ever shot anything ever before. It’s pretty astounding.”
Of course, the Infinity War director is never one to drop spoilers, leaving us to wonder what stunning technical work The Mandalorian will display when it comes to Disney Plus next year.
In any case, between the first wave of live-action shows and the release of Star Wars: Episode IX, 2019 is set to be a huge year for the Star Wars franchise, but before any of these projects make their way to screens big or small, the Russo Brothers have some daunting expectations to live up to with the release of Avengers 4 on May 3rd.
