Only one Avengers actor has seen the entire Endgame script
The Russo brothers are so secretive that they only entrusted the full version to one of their many A-list stars
It's all but a foregone conclusion that Avengers: Endgame will be the biggest film of the year so far. With its A-list line-up and promise of a "surprising and emotionally powerful conclusion" to the superhero saga, the movie has already smashed pre-sale ticket records and is the subject of a marketing blitz in the days leading up to release.
Suffice to say, Marvel are being VERY secretive about just how the Avengers' showdown with Thanos plays out. And with fans poring over every snippet of footage – or cast interview – for a possible leak, we can see why. So, directors Joe and Anthony Russo have adopted an extreme approach during production, allowing just one of their actors to see a full version of the script.
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The chosen one? Robert Downey Jr who has played Iron Man since 2008 with three standalone films alongside his appearances in the Avengers movies and recent Spider-Man reboot.
Clearly it takes a decade in the MCU to muscle your way into the circle of trust...
"RDJ was probably the only one to actually read the entire script," Joe Russo told Rotten Tomatoes, adding: "I think Benedict [Cumberbatch] got the script that included his scenes only. Maybe [Chris] Evans might have read the script."
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His brother Anthony Russo, added: "Part of our motivation to do that is it just takes a lot of pressure off of people. It is hard to constantly censor yourself about what you’re saying, how you talk. These movies are your whole life, it’s everything you’re doing all day long. The inclination is to talk about it. So we take a lot of pressure off of people by just saying, OK, the less you know the less you have to mind yourself."
It's a sensible strategy, but that hasn't stopped Avengers actors letting slip the odd spoiler – most notably, Karen Gillan who plays blue-skinned Nebula and told an Avengers: Endgame press conference:
“It’s maybe safe to say [Nebula] suffers from some daddy issues because her dad is Thanos, so who wouldn’t?
“I’m excited for her to face the source of this abuse. She’s talked about how she wants to inflict revenge, so we all know about that. I’d like to see her try to face that.”
But the actress quickly backtracked, hastily adding: “I don’t know if she will. Maybe she won’t. I just got really nervous I gave something away, so I’m going to stop.”
Meanwhile, her co-star Paul Rudd was too anxious to say anything about his role as Ant-Man:
“I’m terrified to say anything. I did see the trailer, so I do know that I’m in it. As for how he fits in, that remains to be seen.”
And then there's Tom Holland who isn't even given a script after previously dropping spoiler bombs on journalists.
“Tom Holland gets his lines and that’s it," Joe Russo revealed at an Endgame event. "He doesn’t even know who he’s acting opposite of. We’ll just, we use like very vague terms to describe to him what is happening in the scene, because he has a very difficult time keeping his mouth shut.”
Avengers: Endgame is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 25th April
