“Avengers” Co-Writer Talks Not Returning

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame,” and the about to release “The Electric State” are all works by the same quartet of people – namely directors Joe and Anthony Russo and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

All four also have their hands in the production company AGBO which produces the “Extraction” franchise. Yet surprisingly one of those writers, Christopher Markus, is not involved in writing the next two “Avengers” films which are about to head into production.

At the time, no reason was given for why Markus was opting out and leaving all the duties to his former partner McFeely. The Playlist’s The Discourse podcast spoke to Markus during the promotion of “The Electric State” the other day and he says it all came down to a personal decision of his:

“Magic! It’s the simple fact of opportunity really. When we started AGBO, part of the imperative was let’s look for things to adapt, ideas of our own. And by luck or preference, I wound up with a whiteboard full of things – two series of books that we had optioned, a spec script. about three or four other ideas and a TV pilot that was there to be written. And this was prior to all that ‘Avenging’ coming on the horizon.

But it got to the point where it was like, ‘Look, I need to grow these plants or they’re going to die,’ And [Marvel] is very extremely full-time. And so, I just said, ‘Let’s just everybody be under the understanding that this is what I’m doing because [those movies] need a brain on them. They need a guide and I love them.’ So, when it came Avenging time – I mean, you don’t Avenge part-time, you don’t do anything Marvel part-time. That is a years-long commitment.”

Asked if he’s doing any minor or unofficial consulting on the films, he says he’s completely hands-off:

“I’m not doing anything [with Marvel] right now because, one, they know what they’re doing, and also, it was just like, ‘Well, these things will die and I’ve got a pilot at Netflix, a pilot at Amazon. I’ve got nine books that need to be turned into a masterpiece and you just make a choice at some point and say, ‘I’ve done that. I haven’t done that. I think right now I’m going to do the thing I haven’t done.’ Which is the thing that keeps you alive and sparking as a creator.”

He also spoke about how the MCU has changed since the team left, saying the films have become “more like the comics” and lacking the “straight-line narrative” they had.

“The Electric State” is slated to release on Netflix this coming week.

The post “Avengers” Co-Writer Talks Not Returning appeared first on Dark Horizons.