Video Q&A: Marvel Head Kevin Feige On How To Plan An Infinity War

Disney held an event at Hero Complex Gallery in Los Angeles on Tuesday night to celebrate the home video release of Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron (which hits stores and VOD on October 2nd 2015). They unveiled a new Tyler Stout print for the film, and Marvel head Kevin Feige and Avengers producer Jeremy Latchem were on hand for an extensive 26 minute question and answer session.

As with most of these Question and Answer sessions, the queries thrown at Feige began at the Avengers sequel but quickly diverted to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, The Avengers: Infinity War and Jon Watts' Spider-Man reboot. Its so much that we're going to divide this into two posts. This first post will focus on how Marvel plotted the Infinity stones in phase one and two and the upcoming phase three leading to The Avengers: Infinity War. Here is what is answered:

After the jump you can check out the Tyler Stout Avengers Age of Ultron poster that premiered at the event. You can also watch the entire question and answer session captured on video. I believe I was the only one in attendance who was recording video, so while you might read some choice quotes elsewhere — this is a bit of an exclusive.

Here is the Tyler Stout Avengers: Age of Ultron poster that made its premiere at the event. I've heard that the regular version of this print will go on sale at Hero Complex Gallery at some point today. I don't have further details.

Now here are the videos I recorded of Marvel head Kevin Feige and Avengers producer Jeremy Latchem talking about Avengers: Age of Ultron and the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe leading to Infinity War. I head to split this video in two due to Youtube restrictions:

Here are some of the interesting Infinity Stones and Avengers: Infinity War responses:

When will we see the other two Infinity Stones that have not yet shown up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?Kevin Feige: You will see the other two, sometime in phase three for sure. There's a gauntlet that needs to be filled.When did they know that they would start introducing the Infinity Gems? Was making the Tesseract an Infinity Stone planned after the fact?Kevin Feige: It was really sort of Iron Man 2 and building the architecture of the entire phase one is where that started to come about, and the notion that the tesseract being not only tying phase one together but also being part of all the other things that tie  phase two together. I won't say its all perfectly planned out in 2009, but that was the genesis of it. It goes back that far.Jeremy Latchem: I remember we were on set and we had the prop designer drawing the book that Tony Stark's flipping through when he's going through all of his father's stuff and I remember trying to explain to the prompter that 'no no, this cube you're drawing is very important, so it needs to be a certain way because thats going to matter later.Kevin Feige: What Howard Stark says on that film, everything you need to know is right in front of you, when we were on THAT page.Kevin Feige: [As to how it gets planned:] Some of it comes from the source material. The cosmic cube was alway important for Red Skull and Captain America. We always knew in this film (Avengers: Age of Ultron) that there was one in Loki's scepter and that was going to end up in Vision's forehead. And some of the other ones like the Orb (from Guardians of the Galaxy) comes out of structural plot needs for a macguffin. And sometimes a filmmaker will say, okay so theres this orb and we're like, okay lets put something inside that orb and have it tie into the large mythology.Is the Gauntlet that Thanos has in the scene at the end of Ant-Man the same one that was in Odin's vault in Thor?Kevin Feige: It's a great question. I may as well answer it because you asked it. Its not the same one.Jeremy Latchem: Which one do you think is the real one?

[Feige gives an angry look as if he wasn't supposed to suggest one of the gauntlets isn't real]

Has the entire story leading to the conclusion in The Avengers: Infinity War Part II been planned out already?Kevin Feige: Yes, in broad strokes. Sometimes in super specific things, but for the most part in broad strokes that are broad enough and loose enough that if through the development of four or five movies before we get to the culmination, as you say, we still have room to sway, and to go, and to surprise ourselves in places that we end up.  So all the movies ultimately when they are finished can feel like they were all interconnected and meant to be and planned far ahead, but can live and breath as individual movies that can be satisfying by themselves.How much are they viewing Avengers: Infinity War as an end of the story told thus far? Will it set-up  phase four?Jeremy Latchem: Well I think it definitely is an end to some version of the team that we've come to know as The Avengers. And I don't know exactly whats going to happen yet in that film, but I think we start to hint at it at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron that the team will be evolving. And one of the things we loved in the comics is the rosters always changing and you could pick up a new issue of the comics ten years later and you don't recognize the people on the cover. But the ideas and ideals that make The Avengers still exist, and I think thats part of what makes this culmination will be: we're seeing this version of the team doing this thing to save this universe, this galaxy, however you want to put it, and we'll see where this goes. So its not the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it will be the end of part of it for sure. We're still trying to sort out which parts. (laughs)Are the visions The Avengers get in Avengers: Age Of Ultron their worst fears or a prediction?Jeremy Latchem: The question I think going forward for Infinity War is: were those literal visions? Is that kind go like their worst fears being projected at you?Is that a prediction of the future of a vision of the impending doom that keeps you awake at night? I think this is something we will explore in Infinity War, how literal or not those are. I think its more, if I had to guess, just fear.