AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Press Conference Wrap-UpPosted by Blackfilm.com correspondent Corey Grant
April 23, 2018
On Sunday, April 22 I had the pleasure of attending the AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Press Conference hosted at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. If you’ve been living under a rock, you may not know that this movie has already racked up $50 million dollars in pre sales alone and the number is growing.
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR is projected to be the LARGEST North American Debut of ALL TIME. Now this may seem extreme to some, but when you think about it, what other franchise has had as many successful back to back hits, with the most recent being the record shattering BLACK PANTHER? I’ll tell you who: MARVEL.
To the fans delight, all of your favorite characters finally come together on one screen. The idea of that thought alone is likely what set ticket pre sales on fire.
From the moment I entered the press conference, excitement was in the air, and ran (literally assistants and publicists were running) through the halls.
Why all the excitement you may ask? This wasn’t any ordinary press conference. And this definitely wasn’t any ordinary cast.
The various individualized character posters, and personalized Avengers photo booth still didn’t give away the secret to what lied behind the curtain inside the Montage ballroom.
As reporters and bloggers anxiously scrambled for their seats, I was comfortably settled in near the front of the room, less interested in the complimentary sparkling water, coffee and juice that lured weaker minds to the back of the room. No, I was ready.
So when the dramatic theme music played and the lights lowered, our host of the hour made his way to the podium. We all blinked twice. It was the incomparable, actor extraordinaire, Jeff Goldblum. Yes, that Jeff Goldblum was the HOST for the event and the first thing he did when he took the mic was poise a question about how many Avengers were in the Marvel Universe.
After the audience yelled out a series of incorrect numbers, Mr. Goldbum preceded to add up sums of numbers by movie titles. I.E. “SEVEN,” by Brad Pitt plus “THE HATEFUL EIGHT” + “MILLION DOLLAR BABY’ and so on and so forth until everyone was thoroughly and delightfully confused before he revealed that he himself didn’t know the answer and was just riling us up.
And then, the curtains were drawn back and in one instant, we, the select members in this private audience were looking at close to the ENTIRE CAST of Marvel’s ‘’AVENGERS-INFINITY WAR.”
And by entire cast, I mean Robert Downey Junior (Tony Stark), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Chris Pratt (Star Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Sebastian Stan, (Buffalo), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Tom Holland (Peter Parker), Elizabeth Olson (Wanda Maximoff), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Dave Bautista (Drax), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Pom Klementieff (Mantis) and finally our FAVORITE new superheroes from Wakanda: Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Danai Gurira (Okoye), and breakout stars Letitia Wright (Shuri), and Winston Duke (M’Baku) who I had the pleasure of siting down with one on one, but more on that later.
While the audience was still momentarily in a paralyzed stupor, being faced with this many superheroes in one city, in one building, and on one stage, the real fun began.
Jeff Goldblum began reaching into a jar much like those used to draw lottery balls, and he explained that the press could direct a question to whoever’s name was on the ball. The first name pulled was Robert Downey Jr. (way to set the bar high, right?) Well, the questions started rolling in and the rest is history. One question directed at Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa) was, “How likely is it that INFINITY WAR would be Black Panther 1.5 or possibly 2.0?” Chadwick politely laughed and assured us all that INFINITY WARS is a totally separate story and stands its own ground. But after a slight pause, he offered that we don’t have to worry as Wakanda’s presence is DEFINITELY felt throughout the film. And that may have been the closest thing to a direct answer during the duration of the conference.
After realizing that this quick witted cast could have just as easily been cast in a hilarious SNL skit, the audience was grateful to pitch questions to the ensemble and watch them maneuver away from spoiler alerts by choosing to talk about things that they felt like talking about. For example, when Chris Pratt was asked a question about his reaction to potentially seeing humans on earth for the first time in years, his answer was about how much he really loved bass fishing, and he preceded to share nifty tricks about finding the best spots to fish.
Many members took that cue and found clever and hilarious ways to dip and dodge questions that they couldn’t answer. But what we all took away from this meeting with the cast is that they are just as excited to be a part of this unfolding universe as we are to watch them in it. Perhaps even more excited than us as they all anxiously await to see it for the first time on the big screen tomorrow.
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