The Russo Brothers Say They Had Early Conversations With Kevin Feige About His ‘Star Wars’ Film

Do you folks remember, not that long ago, during Star Wars Celebration, when Kathleen Kennedy told the press that Kevin Feige was never really attached to a “Star Wars” film and it was just the fandom that made it all up? She actually said, “We never discussed an idea,” and basically, gaslit everyone into thinking it was all a rumor. Of course, we know that’s not true because Feige talked about it, Michael Waldron talked about being hired to write a script, and now, we have the Russo Brothers, who not only confirm that Feige was working on a “Star Wars” film with Lucasfilm but that they were discussing possibly signing on to direct.

READ MORE: Kathleen Kennedy Says ‘Rogue Squadron’ Is Still “Definitely Something” & Says Lucasfilm “Never Discussed An Idea” With Kevin Feige

The latter bit was discussed in a recent episode of the SmartLess podcast, hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. In the episode, the hosts talked to Joe and Anthony Russo about all the aspects of their careers, including the possibility of directing a “Star Wars” film, since the directors are huge fans of the galaxy far, far away. Well, not only are they interested, but the Russos said that there were some early discussions with Kevin Feige about it.

“We love ‘Star Wars,'” Joe Russo said. “There were early conversations, there were some early conversations with us. Kevin Feige is a huge ‘Star Wars’ fan, and there were some early conversations about maybe teaming up with Kevin to do ‘Star Wars.'”

Unfortunately, the Russo didn’t get a chance to elaborate as the SmartLess guys just basically talked all over them and then segued fast to their ABGO films. However, elsewhere in the podcast, the Russos did talk about their work with Marvel Studios, particularly “Captain America: Civil War.”

READ MORE: Joe Russo Says An AI-Generated Film Will Be A Reality In Just 2 Years

The duo talked about how they had to get the story—Captain America vs. Iron Man, who would be more of the bad guy—approved by Marvel and its powers that be. While it was fairly easy to convince Feige and the rest of the Marvel Studios execs, it was more difficult to actually get Robert Downey, Jr. to sign off on the idea.

The conversation actually started when Jason Bateman revealed that Downey had called him, asking what he thought of the Russos—the Russos directed the “Arrested Development” pilot and nearly 15 episodes of the show, so he knew them well.

“I remember Downey calling me about you guys, ‘So what do you think of these Russo dudes?’” Bateman recalled. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Holy shit, the Russos are gonna do a Marvel movie?’ I remember saying that quietly to myself cause I didn’t want to say it to Downey. I didn’t want him to hear the surprise in my voice. But I got immediately excited about you guys and his humor and sensibilities… I couldn’t say enough about how much of a great match that would be.”

“Downey was never supposed to be in that movie, he wasn’t contracted to be in it,” Anthony Russo added. “But we had designed a story where it was built as a two-hander between Captain America and Iron Man. So we finally got the approval from Marvel, Kevin Feige said, ‘Ok, let’s do this. You got the approval from Marvel publishing in New York, we’re going to do it, but, OK, now you guys gotta go get Downey.’ He just tossed it to us.”

So, the brothers then turned their attention to Downey, Jr. And the rest is history.

“Hey Robert, we know you’ve revitalized your career playing a superhero, now we want you to be the villain, that was literally the pitch to him,” Joe Russo explained. “We had to explain to him how his character wasn’t going to be exclusively a villain in it, but.., so it was a big swing for him because this is going to be our second movie with Chris Evans and he’s coming into Evans’ franchise, it was a big swing and I’m still stunned he said yes.”

Of course, ‘Civil War’ was eventually released in 2016 and was a massive hit for Marvel Studios (and the Russos), earning more than $1 billion. Not only that, it also paved the way for Feige to hire the directors to helm the next two ‘Avengers’ films, ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame,’ which would both do more than $2 billion each. To say that getting Downey, Jr. to sign off on ‘Civil War’ was a monumental moment in Marvel Studios’ history is an understatement.

You can hear the full discussion below: