The celebratory and sincere behind-the-scenes featurettes that have complimented the usual marketing blitz for Avengers: Infinity War continues to tug at even the most cynical heartstrings. Yes, there is a whole lot of back patting and pointing out that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the biggest deal in the movie world right now, topping even Star Wars it seems, but this is a real underdog tale, and this featurette exemplifies that well.
The real, shaky history behind the MCU is the first thing addressed in the video, where we see a younger Jon Favreau questioning whether Iron Man will even be successful. “I really don’t know how people are going to react to this thing. This could be anything from a flop to a moderate single or something that’s beyond what people’s expectations are. You never know. You never know,” he said.
It’s a reminder of how fragile this ecosystem of intertwined movies really was at the start. If Iron Man fails to make money or Hulk under-delivers, what then? A few movies each year? Is the grand superhero experiment over? There’s certainly no Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy or the ultra-successful and groundbreaking Black Panther.
As we know, it all worked out. Comic book fans finally got the characters and stories that they wanted in proper fashion, and it may have taken a few Spider-Man blockbusters from Sam Raimi to get there, but it all leads to what might be one of the biggest movies of all-time in Avengers: Infinity War. Who can fault the people who went all-in on this being nervous that it wouldn’t work out? They were hedging their bets on a playboy in an iron suit.