‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Crossover With ‘Defenders’ Improbable

When it was announced that Marvel would be expanding the MCU on Netflix by airing four series based on heroes of New York City, it was hoped that such an expansion would mean that said heroes would appear in the final two Avengers films – soon to be retitled. But finding a way to fit 67 characters into the two films would be problematic and highly unlikely to happen.

But having all the characters from the films and television would be a true comic book movie event of epic proportions. Now that Captain America: Civil War has had its hugely successful opening weekend, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely recently talked about the possibility of the crossover happening in the two upcoming Avengers: Infinity War films once more. Check out what they had to say below.

In an interview with IGN, Markus and McFeely were open to the idea of having such a crossover, but admit that it is just out of their hands.

McFeely: We are open to any of it, although itâ€™s really not our call. Markus: A lot of it is a pace thing in that we have to have this thing done so much ahead of time, that they might get all the way through that Defenders show before we start shooting, certainly before anything comes out. So we donâ€™t know where theyâ€™re going to be. Itâ€™s very hard logistically to keep even the movie characters synced up. Itâ€™s nearly impossible given the speed that TV cranks out the changes.

There in lies the problem. Ever since Kevin Feige assumed power over Marvel Studios, Isaac â€œIkeâ€ Perlmutter lost his power but still holds control over Marvel Entertainment. Given how nasty that dissolution was, there was likely to be no communication between the two parties, as obviously noted by Feige’s disinterest in whatever is happening on the TV side of things. Marvel Television is simply moving too fast for Marvel Studios to keep up. Writing a film isn’t exactly the same as writing for television. Television progresses very quickly and takes significantly less time to write than it does a film script. Basically, in the time it takes to finish everything needed for a film, so much has already happened to the TV characters that the film’s screenplay already feels outdated.

This isn’t any different from what we have heard from a few months back when Anthony Russo said they were only in control of what happens in Marvel movies:

Itâ€™s complicated. When we start to serialize the telling of stories itâ€™s difficult. You have to have a lot of control and focus on the course of history. The films are controlled by a group led by Kevin Feige, so they function as a unit. Other products, even if they are from Marvel, are controlled by others. Then there is the possibility of a crossover, but itâ€™s more complicated. It is a smaller scale version of the problem that exists when remembering that Fox holds the rights to some of Marvelâ€™s most popular characters, as does Sony and others. As storytellers, we only have control over what happens in Marvel movies, but everything is possible, Spider-Man (whose rights were held by Sony) became possible!

Despite that tiny shred of optimism of any crossover happening, at all is what it really amounts to. A shred. For such a crossover to happen would take a miracle and for both parties to show a willingness to cooperate with each other.

We will stick with the current titles until the new ones are announced, but the release dates haven’t changed, so for now, Avengers: Infinity War Part I opens on May 4, 2018, with Avengers: Infinity War Part II opening in theaters on May 3, 2019.