Directors Anthony & Joe Russo Talk Developing CAPTAIN AMERICA 3, Working For Marvel and How it's Similar to TV



At the end of December 2013, The Daily SuperHero was the first to report how internal screenings at Marvel were testing very well for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This was then confirmed by Variety.com nearly a full month later. The point of bringing this is is that by the end of January, Marvel Studios knew they had something special when they decided to hire the former Arrested Development and Community television director brothers, Anthony and Joe Russo, to helm the Cap sequel.

When Captain America: The Winter Soldier released in theaters to big box office numbers and critical acclaim, Marvel jumped at the opportunity to lock the Russo brothers in to return and helm Captain America 3. Meanwhile, months prior to the release of the Captain America sequel, the Russo's were already beginning early development ideas for Captain America 3. The directors confirmed this to IGN in a new interview.

"From a narrative or tonal standpoint, we don't want to keep delivering the same movie. I know, as a fan, when I go to a film, I prefer to be surprised. So we're exploring what those shifts will be and how dramatic they can be. We started working on Cap 3 probably back in February. That's been a lot of the process up to this point, divining what elements of the tone are going to carry over, what elements of the narrative will carry over, and how do we do something that in effect will blow people's minds."

The directors then touched upon how they approach story telling for Captain America 3 since Avengers: Age of Ultron happens between their Cap films. Having to incorporate story events from Joss Whedon's Avengers sequel is similarly compared to working for an ongoing TV series. 

"After those years of producing our own television shows, you really develop a unique muscle where you track characters over multiple seasons. Sometimes you end up calling back to moments from several seasons earlier that were somehow formative or pivotal for a character. It's a unique way of thinking about narrative and storytelling and character. After 10 years in TV, we have that pattern in our brains as well."

Captain America 3 releases in theaters on May 6, 2016.