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The Russo Brothers on Their Personal Journey with Captain America

Within the Avengers, there are heroes you like and heroes you love. It’s hard to look at the MCU and see a character that you really have ill regard for. Except, of course, the actual villains, the stories brought to life are all there for a specific reason.

It’s not just fans that have their favorite heroes, either. Those on set and behind the scenes have their ‘favorites’. From the heroes they’ve always loved to the ones that surprised them and even heroes whose stories have changed in important ways – they all have a story to tell.

In terms of the Russo brothers, Captain America embodies one of those characters that they wanted to make an important change with. They went into The Winter Soldier knowing what they loved about Steve Rogers’ Captain America and what they saw room for improvement on.

The Russo’s knew that they’d never be able to please everyone. However, the overwhelmingly positive response that came with their vision of Cap helped them to know that they were doing the right thing. In an interview with The Telegraph India, they said this about their journey with Steve Rogers.

‘Yes, that was a revelation for us, to be honest with you, because we didn’t know going into Winter Soldier,” Anthony said. “We knew why we wanted to make the movie. We knew what we loved about the character. We knew where we wanted to take it and what we wanted to do with that movie. But we didn’t know how anybody else in the world would respond. So, having the movie received like that was a validation for Joe and me that we should just stick with our instincts and our passion for the material and run with that. And hopefully, that’s what’s going to translate to audiences.’

In being honest and acknowledging that Cap wasn’t always their favorite hero, they were able to rebuild him into a character that is more relatable. In addition, he’s also more of a hero. At least in the sense that he struggles and has doubts and worries but still follows his heart and fights for what’s right. It’s less ‘shiny’ patriotic and more real.

‘We have a history of cross-pollinating genres, and we like deconstruction. Arrested Development dabbles in deconstruction. Community is a show about deconstruction. And those were the kind of books that we loved growing up. Captain America, we’ve said this before, was not one of our favorite characters. We found him a little flat and a little square, so we wanted to dimensionalize him by sending him on this journey that you’ll see continues in Avengers: Infinity War, where he goes from the most patriotic character to an insurgent. In a lot of ways, it represents how it is that we feel about the world and our own growth and our own principles. So it’s been a very personal journey for us.’

So the Captain America we’ll see in Infinity War is probably the most real version of himself that fans have been given the pleasure of knowing. It’s also the one we’re most excited to see.

Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on April 27th.