And with such astronomical success comes the opportunity to take risks, not just in storytelling but in showcasing characters that maybe don’t normally get a chance to shine in films as big as these. One major question that has been posed to the folks at Marvel Studios in recent years has been if or when we’ll see an LGBT character in one of their films, and when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub sat down with Civil War directors Joe and Anthony Russo recently—who are also helming Marvel’s massive two-part Avengers: Infinity War saga—they had a very promising answer. Joe Russo went so far as to say the onus is on them, as filmmakers making movies for a wide audience, to accurately reflect the world we live in:
“I think the chances are strong. I mean, it’s incumbent upon us as storytellers who are making mass-appeal movies to make mass-appeal movies, and to diversify as much as possible. It’s sad in the way that Hollywood lags behind other industries so significantly, one because you think that it would be a progressive industry, and two it’s such a visible industry. So I think it’s important that on all fronts we keep pushing for diversification because then the storytelling becomes more interesting, more rich, and more truthful.”
And while some may argue that it’s simply too risky to put LGBT characters into films that are meant to reap huge box office receipts in places like China and Russia, where LGBT people face both personal and legal discrimination as well as violence, Anthony Russo asserts that the massive success of Marvel makes it easier to take these kinds of risks:
“I think this is a philosophy of Marvel, in success it becomes easier to take risks. There’s a lot of unconventional ideas in Civil War in terms of what people’s expectations of a superhero movie are, but I think we were able to do that because Winter Soldier worked and Marvel’s been working in general, so there’s more of a boldness in terms of what you can try and where you can go. So I think that’s very hopeful for all of us moving forward that bolder and bolder choices can be made.”
“I think the chances are strong. I mean, it’s incumbent upon us as storytellers who are making mass-appeal movies to make mass-appeal movies, and to diversify as much as possible. It’s sad in the way that Hollywood lags behind other industries so significantly, one because you think that it would be a progressive industry, and two it’s such a visible industry. So I think it’s important that on all fronts we keep pushing for diversification because then the storytelling becomes more interesting, more rich, and more truthful.”
And while some may argue that it’s simply too risky to put LGBT characters into films that are meant to reap huge box office receipts in places like China and Russia, where LGBT people face both personal and legal discrimination as well as violence, Anthony Russo asserts that the massive success of Marvel makes it easier to take these kinds of risks:
“I think this is a philosophy of Marvel, in success it becomes easier to take risks. There’s a lot of unconventional ideas in Civil War in terms of what people’s expectations of a superhero movie are, but I think we were able to do that because Winter Soldier worked and Marvel’s been working in general, so there’s more of a boldness in terms of what you can try and where you can go. So I think that’s very hopeful for all of us moving forward that bolder and bolder choices can be made.”
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