Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe Page #3

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in future "Iron Man" films.

So to be a part of it, it's pretty exciting.

Final fitting.

Doesn't she look great?

What do you think?

Questions, comments, concerns?

- Compliments?

- She weighed 170 pounds

when I hired her,

and then she got into shape.

There was a lot of other things

to take into consideration.

There was Nick Fury's involvement,

because he became this

cross-pollinating element.

Contrary to your belief, you are

not the center of my universe!

- Yeah, I get it.

- I have bigger problems than you

in the Southwest region to deal with.

My purpose is to

come in and actually give,

more or less, a history

of who Tony Stark's dad was

and what his position in the

Marvel universe should be.

Clearly you know my Dad

better than I did.

As a matter of fact, I did.

He was one of the founding

members of S.H.I.E.L.D.

- What?

- Howard Stark is an integral

figure in the Marvel universe.

He's kind of the godfather

of the whole thing.

You know, he worked on Captain

America's super soldier program.

He was associates with Nick Fury.

He's an important figure.

You know, we had the idea of

reaching out to John Slattery,

and he only worked one

day on "Iron Man 2."

It's a pretty integral

day considering how much

he's gonna have to tie

this whole world together.

One day, you'll figure this out,

and when you do, you

will change the world.

The biggest challenge is

acknowledging prior events

in the Marvel universe

and how can we be smart

about planting seeds for future stories.

- I've been reassigned.

- Huh.

Director Fury wants me in New Mexico.

Fantastic. Land of enchantment.

- So I'm told.

- Secret stuff.

Something like that.

At the end of it, I

think I turned to Kevin Feige

or Louis d'Esposito and just said,

"what's in New Mexico?"

And they're like... "Oh, oh! Thor!

Thor. You're in Thor.

Did anyone tell you?

You're in Thor."

And that was how I found out.

The Marvel universe...

it's called a universe for

a reason... it's a big place.

So we wanted to go to a

cosmic level with Thor.

He's from a place called Asgard,

which is within the nine realms,

and he's the God of Thunder.

He has a weapon called

Mjolnir, which is a big hammer.

His father banishes Thor

out of Asgard down to Earth,

and he strips the hammer from him.

You can well

imagine that if a hammer,

apparently evidencing

extraordinary power

and unliftable, arrives on Earth,

then S.H.I.E.L.D. is

going to be interested.

Here I stand, in New Mexico,

where an anomaly has taken place.

Agent Coulson is summoned

to investigate and find out

if there's anybody

who's potentially worthy of recruiting.

I think the

humor in all the Marvel films

allows people to buy into

the fantastical kind of world.

Any chance you get to kind of laugh,

it takes the pressure off, you

know, of having to believe that

there's a guy with a big hammer and

a red cape flying around the place.

In "Thor," you are

introduced to the character

who you really won't

meet until "the Avengers,"

But we do tease Clint Barton, Hawkeye.

I had shot a scene speaking

to a then-uncast Clint Barton

in the crane, and to see

those scenes cut together

and suddenly I had a

scene with this actor

whose work I like so

much was a real thrill.

All right, show's over.

You know, in the first film,

as Thor grows to become the hero,

his brother Loki descended

to become the villain.

- Let me explain to father.

- Father is dead.

What?

The burden of the throne

has fallen to me now.

Loki is the one character

that everyone loves to

hate and they hate to love.

Loki is this lost, damaged prince

struggling to find a

place within the family,

struggling to find a

place within the universe.

What I did find exciting was

seeing the formative moments

in this origin story

of a Loki who could then

fire off into other Marvel

movies with the audience knowing

from whence the potential for evil came.

For people that are

familiar with the comics...

they know about some of the

macguffins that people are after.

So at the end of "Thor,"

we introduced the Tesseract.

Legend tells us one

thing, history another.

But every now and then, we find

something that belongs to both.

Well, I guess that's worth a look.

That is the Tesseract.

That is a source of a

kind of super-nuclear power

which will give the holder of that

power a kind of unlimited capability.

It fit perfectly into

sort of the structure

that we were working on across films.

We knew that it had cosmic origins,

and the only cosmic element

that we've introduced this far

into the Marvel cinematic

universe is Thor,

is Asgard, is the nine realms.

So we started saying, "what

if that's where it came from?"

In "Captain

America," the Red Skull tried

to become a kind of

superpower with this Tesseract.

The origin of Steve Rogers,

of Captain America,

is inherently in World War II.

I love the period... I love

the designs and the clothes

and the technology and everything.

And I wanted to prove that you

could make a period action film

and have it be as exciting

as a contemporary one.

So we decided we're gonna make a

1940s adventure superhero movie.

You know, in hindsight,

it was a great decision.

But at the time, it was

controversial internally.

But what was great about that is,

we got to spend the entire

first act with skinny Steve.

Steve Rogers

was a product of something

called Project Rebirth...

the search for the super soldier...

which was a secret

government research program

designed to unlock the

potential that we all have.

A lot of superheroes are

either born with their abilities

or they get them by accident.

This was a normal guy

who lived the majority of

his life as a normal guy,

and he's chosen because of

his values and his morals

and being noble and honorable.

Everything that the

military does in the Marvel universe

after that is an attempt to

re-create the super soldier.

We've already seen in

"the Incredible Hulk"

Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk,

Emil Blonsky turning

into the Abomination.

Those were all attempts

at replicating what Steve Rogers was.

Mr. Stark!

Dominic Cooper playing Howard Stark

was one of the most crucial

pieces of casting in the film.

It's difficult to precede Robert.

He's got such an amazing performance.

He enriches it and makes it

all sound extremely truthful.

Dominic did a great job of

just kind of feeling like,

"oh, that's... that seems like

the loins from which Tony sprung."

It just shows you a complex tapestry.

The structure offers our

fans an interconnected world

where continuity is important.

Cap, who's the leader of the Avengers,

working alongside of Tony Stark,

knew Tony Stark's father.

And his shield, his most

valuable possession as a weapon,

was given by Howard Stark.

That's what keeps us

going as filmmakers.

A noble act on Steve's

part causes him to be lost.

And we soon find him,

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