When the chance to write the scripts for what would become two of the highest grossing films of all times comes about, you better have a large reservoir of ideas at the ready. That was the task for Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley when they were pegged to write the stories for Infinity War and End Game. Having written Captain America Civil War, they were somewhat familiar with having to deal with a large cast of characters. But this project was of another magnitude.
In preparation, the writers came up with a 60 page document that included about every story possibility imaginable. They then turned the document into Kevin Feige and asked him to circle which ideas he liked.
Among the things on their list were events from the Marvel Comic series The House of M. This was a 2005 limited edition tale that involved the Scarlet Witch. In the story, Wanda remade reality into one in which mutants controlled the world. In that story arc, the Avengers and X-Men must work to set reality back to the way it’s meant to be. Of course, this was well before the completed merger of Disney and Fox, so using the X-Men would not have been possible. But it showed the breadth of concepts they were considering.
Another of the ideas they considered involved the Nova Corps. In that scenario, Richard Rider (Nova) becomes the only one left in a confrontation with Thanos. In a sense, he would serve the same role as the Hulk did in Infinity War. As the Herald to announce the coming of Thanos. In the Infinity Gauntlet series of comics, it was the Silver Surfer who fulfilled that role. It is no coincidence that both the Surfer and Nova have been rumored to possibly be included in the MCU at some point.
One of the details the writers had to keep in mind was the availability of the actors involved. It wouldn’t have worked if you created a story arc for a character, and the actor was not available. For this purpose, they had a set of Marvel trading cards for each character that revealed the actors status of scheduling. The words they were looking for was “run of show.” This eliminated the juggling of schedules. If the contract for an actor had reached its conclusion, they resigned him or her as needed.
As for the original 60 page document, they believe that Kevin Feige still has a copy or they do on their laptop somewhere. In the meantime, the writers have moved on to other projects. However, in the future, there are other ideas they can see. They believe there is a Moon Knight Story in there somewhere. They would also consider developing a script on the House of M. As McFeely explained in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter where he discussed the original document:
I think House of M would be awesome. But you’ve got to earn it.
Considering that the pair may soon be the scriptwriters to the highest grossing film of all time, I think you could clearly say they “Earned it.” How would you like to see an adaptation to the House of M, now that the X-Men are available for Marvel to play with? Share your thought on that as well as everything Endgame with us at GVNation.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.