A hero’s journey

Avengers: Endgame writers CHRISTOPHER MARKUS and STEPHEN MCFEELY talk about guiding Steve Rogers through the Marvel Cinematic Universe

A COUPLE DANCE cheek to cheek in the front room of their house, to the strains of ‘It’s Been A Long, Long Time’ by Harry James & His Orchestra. As the music swells, they look at each other, share a kiss and we cut to black. This, rather than superheroes swooping, soaring or swinging through the skies, is the final image of Avengers: Endgame. The emphasis is on character, not spectacle, as at last, at long, long last, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, gets to dance with the love of his life, Peggy Carter.

It completes a journey for Rogers that began in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. Since then, Chris Evans’ super-soldier has, along with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark, become one of the pillars of the MCU, and with the exception of Evans himself, nobody has been closer to the character than Christopher Markus and Stephen Mcfeely, the writing duo who have guided Cap through each of his three solo movies and, latterly, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. We spoke to them, at their offices in Agbo Studios in LA, about taking a character that could have been corny, cheesy and horribly self-righteous, and making him the moral centre of the MCU. How did you get the gig on Captain America: The First Avenger? Stephen Mcfeely: We chased it over the course of the last six months of 2008. In the early summer, they had done Iron Man and Hulk was coming. Iron Man was so successful they were able to say, “We’re going to make Thor, we’re going to make Cap, we’re going to make Avengers.” The town knew that. Our agents said, “They’re going to make a period Captain America,” and we said, “That’s right up our alley.” Coincidentally, we’d been thinking, “Well, what if someone made a superhero movie at the time it was invented?” Not that anyone was offering it to us or anything. We thought it could be pulpy fun. Christopher Markus: I don’t think we had any one zinger pitch that won them over. We came in recognising that Cap had to be one of those rare characters that is cool and upstanding at the same time. Like an Eliot Ness. Not a stiff, but he does have certain beliefs and he’s not going to move. I remember saying that we’ll have failed if kids don’t think the shield is as cool as Indiana Jones’ whip when they come out of the movie.

What was your way into the character? Mcfeely: We knew you needed to fall in love with him before he got all super-soldiered. And we had to negotiate why a guy wanted to go to war so badly. It’s not necessarily your knee-jerk response now. A young audience might go, “Why the hell does he want to do that?” We had to create a world, with newspaper headlines and people in the movie theatre and guys in the enlistment office, where that was valued. Markus: The way into him is always that he’s this 90lb guy who isn’t given the opportunity to be who he knows who he can be. If you’re not holding that in your head when you’re watching Steve Rogers, you’re not going to get the whole thing. He is an underdog, no matter what.

Biggest movies of all time don’t come along that often. In Empire’s 30 years, in fact, it’s happened a handful of times. Jurassic Park in 1993; Titanic four years after that; Avatar just over a decade later. And then, ten years on from that, Avengers: Endgame. It’s a special moment, for a special film. And, because it’s a rare occurrence, we decided to dedicate most of this month’s Review to Joe and Anthony Russo’s gargantuan blockbuster, the film that put the cap — and Cap — on the MCU to date. So, over the next 13 pages, you’ll hear from the people who made Endgame a cultural event the likes of which we haven’t seen in years, to the tune of $2.8 billion and counting. Normal service will be resumed next month. See you all back here in a couple of years for Avatar 2? CHRIS HEWITT ASSOCIATE EDITOR (REVIEW)