Avengers: Infinity War has already started filming, at least some preliminary test shots, but that doesn’t mean The Meetings have stopped. Bringing a multiple-volume comic arc this nuts to the big screen has got to be complicated, and with characters being added and replaced and showing up in the movie even if they weren’t in the comics, it’s going to take a lot of planning and redrafting to get the story down to two 2-hour (plus a little bit, probably) screenplays. This afternoon, Marvel co-president Louis D’Esposito posted a photo on Twitter today of one of the Infinity Gauntlet covers, hinting at some plot details for the upcoming movies.

This is a photo of the comic cover, which means he had it with him in the meeting. The Infinity Gauntlet plot is the precursor to Infinity War, and sets up the beginning of the conflict by having the big bad Thanos gather all the Infinity Gems together to form the titular glove. The Gems have already been introduced as a thing in the movies, ripe for the stealing, so it would make sense to start here.

Where it gets complicated is with the rest of it. After Thanos uses the Gauntlet to erase some heroes from existence and generally wreak all kind of havoc, Adam Warlock, who we haven’t seen in any of the movies and who is unlikely to show up right at the beginning of this one, gathers the Avengers together to fight this new threat. The Infinity War story picks up a little later, with Warlock taking the Gauntlet but causing even more trouble by separating the good and evil inside him to become a purely logical being — the evil forms together to create the villain Magus, a bunch of Earth’s heroes and Galactus make an alliance to revive Eternity, Doctor Doom and Kang the Conqueror show up to get in on the action, and — well, suffice it to say it’s very dense.

But starting with Infinity Gauntlet makes plenty of sense for the first movie. The concept has to be introduced in order for audiences who don’t know the comics, and some continuity has to be provided for those who do. Most importantly, the whole thing needs to be condensed. Directors and screenwriters and producers all need to come to an agreement about what bits of the story will fit into the movie, and what won’t, which is what these meetings are for. Which characters are going to be cut? Which will stay? Which will take the place of others that haven’t been in the movies at all? Speaking of which, who will take the place of Adam Warlock, if they choose to stick to that part of the story? A Sorcerer Supreme, perhaps?

Avengers: Infinity War opens in theaters May 4, 2018, with the second following a year later on May 3, 2019.

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