Being involved in a spoiler-sensitive production like Avengers: Infinity War requires a certain degree of discipline and trust.
For directors Joe and Anthony Russo, it necessitated the use of trailer misdirects and even fake scripts so that audiences (and cast members!) remained in the dark right up until the moment when Infinity War debuted in theaters. While most, if not all of the sequel’s major stars were bound to non-disclosure agreements to mitigate the chances of precious story details being leaked ahead of schedule.
Caught up amongst all this was Vision actor Paul Bettany, who’s gone on record before about his experience with Avengers: Infinity War and its numerous fake scripts. But while in attendance at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, the British star elaborated on what it was like to receive the same fake script… twice.
Here’s my experience. I read the script and then the Russo Brothers rung me up and said, ‘what’d you think?’ I said, ‘oh it’s great’ and they went ‘that’s not the script’ and I went ‘what?’ They went ‘oh it’s got lots of different, it’s got a different ending, it’s got different turns in it, certain people die that don’t die.’ … and they said, ‘but we want you to read the real script.’
The actor then went on to remind fans how his dyslexia affected and indeed prolonged the script process – Bettany admits it took him a full five hours to read the Infinity War screenplay from front to back – but he did reflect on that moment when the Powers That Be accidentally delivered the same script, triggering a ‘code red.’
Now, I’m dyslexic so it takes me like five hours to read this and then they lock me in a room to read the real script and it’s the same script, so I rung them up and I said ‘um’ and they said, ‘what happened’ I went, and I read “Code Red” or whatever they called it and he said, ‘yeah what do you think.’ I said, ‘I went it was the same script’ and he asked me some questions and then he went ‘aw man they gave you the wrong script again’.
So, after ten hours given over to reading scripts that I was never going to make I decided not to. I said, ‘what happens at the end of this one?’ and Joe just said, ‘I think me, and Anthony are going to have to leave town.’ So that’s what, we knew it was bad.
Unlike many of his on-screen allies, Paul Bettany’s Vision was killed just before the Snap of Doom, as his head-mounted Mind Stone soon became the last piece of the puzzle. That tells us he’ll likely have a small role to play in Avengers 4, as the remaining members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes journey back to stop Thanos in his tracks. Stay tuned for more on that one.