Avengers: Infinity War and its now untitled sequel are set to mark the culmination of everything the Marvel Cinematic Universe has built since its inception in 2008 with Iron Man. But what is meant to be an ending to over a decade of films will also be a fresh start for the MCU, according to the directors of the upcoming Avengers films.

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Joe and Anthony Russo, speaking with IGN ahead of the home release of Captain America: Civil War, spoke to the ability of the MCU to simultaneously pay off storylines that run for years while setting up the universe's future. The two directors had the chance to do just that with Civil War, introducing both Spider-Man and Black Panther, both of whom will be getting their own solo films, into the MCU — and, according to them, the next two Avengers films will offer a similar opportunity."I can't get into too much detail about who we're introducing, but these two movies are intended to be the culmination of everything that has happened in the MCU since the very first Iron Man movie," Anthony Russo said. "In being a culmination, these movies are in some ways going to be an end to certain things, and in some ways, they're going to be the beginning of certain things."The Russos declined to comment further on what "certain things" will begin with the next Avengers films, including what new characters might appear. They did, however, address the process of nailing down which characters to actually choose for the films and whether personal preference or story demands rule those decisions."It's a little bit of both, because you always have to make sure that your choices feel organic to the storytelling, and really, you have to sort of structure them in the way that they need to be there," Anthony Russo said. "You have to have them, or they shouldn't be in the movie. It's a little bit of a dance between the two, where you have big eyes, and you want everybody included in the movie, but you have to go through the process of... what's the best story that you can tell."Though originally branded as Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2, the first film was recently retitled to just Avengers: Infinity War, while the sequel is a currently untitled Avengers sequel. Infinity War is still set to release on May 4, 2018, while the sequel will debut on May 3, 2019.The Infinity War writers Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely, who also scripted Captain America: Civil War, offered an update on the progress of the two films' scripts Captain America: Civil War will arrive on on Digital HD, Digital 3D and Disney Movies Anywhere on September 2 and on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD and On-Demand on September 13.Stay tuned to IGN for more from the Russos and on the MCU.

Additional reporting by IGN Entertainment Editor Terri Schwartz.Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush