We have some more from The Beat’s Hannah Lodge,who had embedded herself in the Hall H for “A Conversation with the Russo Brothers” and has provided a slew of information provided by Joe and Anthony Russo, as they answered questions from “fans.” (It was actually various members of Avengers: Endgame reading pre-written questions, so that the Russos aren’t put on the defensive by having to answer REAL fan questions about their movies.)

There are some very minor Avengers: Endgame SPOILERS in there…

After Chris Hemsworth was shamed for making a statement rather than asking a question – which is de rigueur in those Hall H QnAs, to be honest – Robert Downey Jr. asked a question about differentiating his “I am Iron Man” statement in Avengers: Endgame to the one he said at the end of Iron Man.

“Now that’s a question,” Anthony joked, possibly setting up the basis for  a future Thor-Iron Man battle, but then taking a more serious stance in answering the question. “You can look at it in a lot of different ways, but we’ve talked about the arc that Tony Stark went through, beginning as this very ego-centric person and finally getting to a place of truly putting others in front of himself and sacrificing in that way. I just think a really important point on that arc is that at the end there, Tony had become a father, and speaking as a father, there’s something that happens to you when you reach that point in life where you are suddenly aware that your job in the universe is to truly serve others in a way that just reaches to the core of your being. I think that’s the biggest change. Him having had a daughter and having gone through the entirety of his arc, he was in a different place when he said ‘I am Iron Man’ at the end

Next up was Paul Rudd, who at first asked who the “best or sexiest Chris is in the Marvel Universe” but more importantly “who is the best Paul?” presuming that Vision portrayer Paul Bettany was #2. But his “real” question was, ”If you had to rank ‘Best America’s Ass,’ which Chris would it be? Who would you choose?” Wisely, the Russos turned that one over to the Hall H crowd, but Evans still won.

After that, Chris Evans himself came onto the screen, he asked what the next thing Captain America did after returning the Infinity Stones and also asked which of the four Marvel films they directed was the most stressful and which was the most relaxed.

“Well, that fan snuck two questions in,” Anthony joked… another regular occurrence in Hall H. “After Steve got his long-awaited dance with Peggy, it’s a good question. Perhaps, he and Peggy tried to make a baby? I don’t know.”

“I think he went to the bathroom,” Joe chimed in, “taking the piss,” so to speak, “Because I think it took a long time to return those Stones. He was holding it for a while.”

Fortunately, Anthony did give a more serious answer: “If you think about it in terms of the alternate reality question, I know there’s many different theories about how this stacks up, and I know Chris and Steve were just talking about some of them. Depending on where you go with the alternate reality, Steve can do a lot of things, like he can go rescue Bucky from Hydra. He can route Hydra out of SHIELD. He can go find himself in the ice and figure out a rotation where the two Steves can take turns, and he can spend more time at home with Peggy. Lots of stories…”

Last up was Mark Ruffalo, and like the others, he asked a question about his own character. Unlike Evans and Downey, his Banner/Hulk is one we are likely to see again in a Marvel movie. “I want to know. Since Hulk and Banner have finally come to terms with each other, does that make Hulk the new Hulk, the ‘Professor,’ the smartest AND the strongest?” They turned that into an audience poll asking if they thought whether Banner or Stark was the smartest Avengers? But others thought the Black Panther’s sister Shuri is the smartest Avenger.  (Listen. This panel was always meant as something for the fans as well as a victory lap for the directors, so they weren’t going to get all serious with the questions they answered seriously.

The Russo’s next movie will be a crime-thriller called Cherry, based on the Nico Walker novel “Exit West,” which will reunite them with Tom Holland, playing an Army medic back from Iraq who robs banks to help pay for his opioid addiction.  So yeah, that’s very different from the four back-to-back Marvel Studios movies they’ve been making over the past six years.

First Comics

Want to know what else the Russos are working on? How about producing a movie based on Grimjack, the John Ostrander-Tim Truman comic from the ‘80s that was mostly published by the long-defunct First Comics? The creators were able to recover the property to release a prequel mini-series through IDW Comics called Grimjack: Killer Instinct.

Even cooler is the fact that they’re looking into revitalizing the beloved cartoon series Battle of the Planets aka G-Force, which itself was based on the Japanese anime Gatchaman. They even suggested that they would direct it if they ended up going the live-action route as opposed to a CG-animated movie ala Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Anthony Russos said that Battle of the Planets was their favorite cartoon growing up. “We love this show, and I used to race home from school every day to watch this at 4:00. I think maybe you can tell that we’re slowly hunting down all of our favorite IP from our childhood and we’re going to convert them into stories that we’re excited about.”

So the Russos have a lot on their plate before they even start thinking about Secret Wars.

Let us know in the comments what you think of the various “revelations” that came from the two panels with the Avengers: Endgame creative teams and which questions you wish were asked and answered.

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