Though 2008’s Iron Man famously ended with Nick Fury informing Tony Stark that he’d become part of a bigger universe, the truth is that this universe still wasn’t all that big at the time, with the MCU benefiting from exactly one movie’s worth of development. Of course, in the decade since, Marvel Studios has put a staggering amount of time and money into fleshing out this cinematic world, laying the foundations for the interplanetary ensemble actioner that is Avengers: Infinity War.
Sure enough, the franchise has come a long way since those early days of transforming Robert Downey Jr. into a bankable blockbuster lead, and producer Trinh Tran has been there for much of the journey, working on both Iron Man and Infinity War, along with several other superhero projects in between.
Speaking to ComicBook.com, Tran reminisced about those first few years, and clarified one of the main ways in which the behind the scenes atmosphere of Stark’s first film had a rather different vibe from her time working on the latest Avengers flick.
“From a behind-the-scenes standpoint, it’s seeing the characters from the other 20 or so interconnected movies laughing it up on set during our 10-year anniversary photoshoot,” Tran said. “A pretty spectacular moment. Out of this world.”
Tran’s choice of words is strangely appropriate, seeing how Infinity War is very much part of a world that’s all Marvel’s own – one that the studio worked hard to build up without really knowing how sustainable the model would be.
“I think [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige always had the idea of an interconnected Marvel Universe,” Tran said. “This has been many years in the making. We didn’t know where we were exactly going to be 10 years later – but Avengers: Infinity War is really the culmination of a vision he had in the early years.”
All that being said, while it wouldn’t be inaccurate to label Infinity War the culmination point for the MCU thus far, this description probably applies even better to next year’s Avengers 4, which promises to go even bigger when it hits cinemas on May 3rd, 2019.
