Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame is finally here, and fans can barely contain themselves. In fact, theaters across the country are selling out so fast some have even added around-the-clock showings for a film whose runtime is north of three hours — and those are near capacity, too. Endgame marks the culmination of almost 11 years of storytelling for one of the most lucrative franchises in the world and it's predicted to dominate the weekend box office with a staggering $800+ million global opening .

As fans crowd into theaters many are trying to figure out what Endgame will ultimately mean for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With both new characters being introduced over the past few years and the franchise taking a more diverse approach to storytelling, fans are looking to Kevin Feige, the studio's president, for hints about where it's going next. But he isn't the only one who has input as to where the MCU is heading.

Executive producer Trinh Tran has been part of Marvel Studios since Iron Man flew into theaters in 2008. Back then, she was an assistant to production manager Charlie Davis and finance executive Matt Finick, but in the decade since the MCU launched, Tran has ascended through multiple roles to become an associate producer on Captain America: Civil War and, then, an executive producer for Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.

No longer an assistant, Tran is part of the creative team that has a say in shaping the stories that will drive the MCU into the future. With that, Shondaland caught up with Tran ahead of the release of Avengers: Endgame to talk about the MCU's goal to tell more inclusive stories, and why it's so critical to have women's voices both on and off the screen.

YOLANDA MACHADO: I feel like I'm representing women of color fans being here, talking with you. You and Victoria Alonso (another executive producer at Marvel Studios) are unsung heroes to us. How much impact, particularly being a woman of color, does that have on the stories you want to see reflected in the MCU going forward?

TRINH TRAN: Well, I think it's very, very, very important. I want to stress that. It's like, we always want our female hero to shine, just as much as their male counterpart. So, to be able to look at Endgame and see all these women up there along with the men is pretty exciting compared to several years ago, when we had the Avengers and you only saw Black Widow. So I think the company definitely is heading towards a direction where we want to see more of that because the fan base is craving that.



It is very important that we get more women involved.

With the success of Captain Marvel and how everybody's embracing it, it makes me feel so happy and excited because that's just opening doors for us to say it's okay to continue having more female representation. And then with the cultural phenomenon of Black Panther, it's [brought] more diversity and minorities in our MCU. I think that's exciting, and we're always heading towards that direction. We have so many characters at Marvel and so much more to explore. I think it makes for better stories. It makes for a much more interesting story — for more relatable stories that everybody can connect with, because look at how diverse the world is! We should represent that on the screen.

"Captain Marvel" Marvel Studios/Disney Studios

YM: The audience makeup is so widespread across different cultures, ages, and countries. Do you take that into account when planning the next phase or the next films? Or even when you were planning on Endgame, was that something that you were thinking about?

TT: It's always in our mind, right? It's always in our mind to make sure that what we're telling — without getting into detail about what this movie is about or anything — [includes] a wide representation and age, because we're hearing what the audience wants. We're making the movies for the fans and the public, and as much as we're passionate about doing it, we want to represent what they want to see.

We want little girls of all ages — 12, or it could be 5, or it could be, you know, a 50-year-old woman — to enjoy this. Then we've got to show them; we've got to give them more of that. And the more we do it, the more diverse that is — in age, in color, and gender — I think that makes better for everything.

YM: Unfortunately, with so many studies about female representation, especially about women of color, it's barely getting noticed that, behind the scenes, representation is even lower than we see in front of the camera. As a producer, what are you doing to change that within Marvel Studios?

TT: I've actually been on Infinity War and Endgame for the last four years. So I haven't had much of an opportunity to go out in terms of looking for writers and directors because I've only worked with the Russo brothers for the last seven years, actually. But as we progress, it's very important that we get more women involved.

There are so many great directors and writers and crew members out there. For example, our stunt coordinator was [previously] one of our stunt doubles, but you hardly ever see women stunt coordinators. So, it's just seeing that and seeing the impact that it has for the other crew members to see that. There's a leader who is a woman in a field that is usually dominated by males — to be able to see her rise to the occasion, it's exciting! It gets everybody excited — especially the women in the industry — and shows that anything is possible. And we push each other to strive to get more women in that field.

YM: I am a critic as well as a journalist, so one of the things with Infinity War, though I really loved it, the arcs the female characters ended up taking were a little disappointing, which was a sentiment that was shared by many women that are fans of the franchise. Did you look at any of that feedback and put it into revising Endgame?

TT: That's a great question. I can't say much about Endgame, unfortunately. But I think once you see the movie you'll know. But, for example, in Infinity War, we're striving as hard as we can to make as much of these moments as possible. Like one of my favorite moments in Infinity War was when the women are fighting in the trench. It's stuff like that, that really empowers us, and we're always fighting to get more of that represented in each of our movies. So me personally, I'm always striving to see how much more we can do for our female heroes so that they stand in balance with their male counterparts and sort of showcase them as strong, heroic role models that we can all have little girls look up to.

"Black Panther" Marvel Studios/Disney Studios

YM: Which brings me to my last question. The conversation is shifting when talking about what female empowerment looks like today. Is that something you're taking into account — the change of what empowerment means to women?

TT: That's a great question. I don't even know how to answer that.

YM: Well, for instance, like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, she was a strong female in the '90s, because we didn't have that much representation in terms of what a strong woman was supposed to look like back then. Moving forward, we just got Wonder Woman a couple of years ago, and now Captain Marvel. But each of these women are different. Linda Hamilton's physicality made her empowered. For Wonder Woman, it was her kindness and her willingness to jump in and save humanity. Captain Marvel's brand of empowerment is more of the 'I don't care what you think of me, I'm going to do this' mentality. So these are different things that all showcase empowerment. So is this something you guys are looking forward to imparting into your female characters?

TT: Absolutely. I think with the amount of female characters that we have, they're all individual in a way, and they all exude a different type of heroism. Like you said, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel — they both represent something different. It is very important that we're always looking at these individual characters and how they can be portrayed to the audience, and listening to the feedback of how it's impacting the public out there — and making sure that we also stay true to their characters as well. For example, Okoye, who's a great leader of the Dora Milaje [in Black Panther], we make sure that she still represents that leadership, and carries that throughout her character arc. But it's that type of strong leadership in each and every one of [the female heroes], and they all actually carry a different trait that I hope everybody sees in Endgame.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.



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