Chapter 805: Symbol of the American Spirit

Even though the script was finished, Duke continued making adjustments throughout pre-production. Under his influence, the entire Marvel Series had already shifted—most notably with Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow.

Natasha Romanoff's screen time and her significance to the Avengers organization had been heavily expanded. Accordingly, she would have one of the most prominent roles in the final cut of The Avengers.

However, Duke had capped the film's runtime at around 130 minutes. Scarlett's expanded screen time inherently meant less for everyone else.

Even though Duke's authority as director could minimize unnecessary disputes, screen time was a critical matter of personal interest. The actors and their agents were bound to fight for it with everything they had.

They were using reasonable and legitimate methods to secure the interests they deserved; even Duke couldn't fault them for that.

Robert Downey Jr. had even approached Duke in private.

"I have to be in the opening scene, Duke," he had said. "Shouldn't Tony kick things off?"

Though he didn't state it outright, Downey's implication was obvious: he wanted Duke to rewrite the script's opening sequence.

Duke refused without hesitation, though he did offer Downey some reassurance.

"Iron Man will always be 'Iron Man'," Duke told him. "He'll still be out there 'flirting' and causing all sorts of trouble. That isn't going to change."

As long as the actors sounded him out using methods he found acceptable, like Downey had, Duke didn't mind. He wasn't going to make any changes because of it, but he would maintain an agreeable attitude.

In Duke's plans, Iron Man was naturally the film's most prominent character, followed by Captain America and Black Widow. Thor and the Hulk were primarily used for the battle scenes, while Hawkeye was basically relegated to the background.

Iron Man's scenes were easy enough to handle. Even for the comedic lines Duke struggled with, there were dedicated screenwriters to write them.

His primary focus was figuring out how to highlight Captain America and Black Widow's importance to the Avengers on the foundation of the existing script.

The character of Black Widow had already undergone massive changes compared to the original films.

Unlike the previous Marvel Series, Marvel had detailed Black Widow's origins and background in the Captain America film.

Born in 1928, Natasha Romanoff lost her parents in a fire and was raised by a Soviet soldier.

By the age of two, Soviet intelligence had their eyes on her, and during World War II, she became part of the "Black Widow" initiative, a human modification program targeting female orphans with developmental potential. The selected orphans underwent combat training and genetic modification at a secret base, making them look much younger than their true age.

She used her identity as a ballerina to mask her true profession and even married under the Soviet government's arrangement. When her husband later faked his death, the grieving Natasha, kept completely in the dark, had no choice but to return to the organization for further training. Ultimately, she became the terrifying Black Widow.

To some extent, Duke was definitely playing favorites, but it was perfectly normal for him to lean toward Scarlett Johansson's character.

In Duke's revisions, the gender traits of the female superhero "Black Widow" would be heavily downplayed in the film.

While there would still be occasional scenes where she relied on her female identity to gain some work conveniences, her grit and performance as an inherent member of the "Avengers" would overcome gender itself, making it hard for people to realize that this figure working and fighting alongside a group of the "finest men on Earth" was of the opposite sex.

On some level, this could be seen as a standard value of gender equality. She was never someone's accessory, nor was she reduced to the status of a "girlfriend."

Even her rare moments of being rescued stemmed from mutual support among teammates, rather than acting as a plot device.

Captain America was undoubtedly the focal point of Marvel's next phase. In terms of sheer popularity, Steve Rogers was second only to Tony Stark among the six. He wasn't just a key figure in the Avengers' existence, but also the core that could unite the other members.

More importantly, his popularity in the North American market was unquestionable.

From the moment of his inception, Captain America was the well-deserved symbol of the American spirit—embodying a sense of justice, duty, and morality, along with firm values and an outlook on life.

But it was precisely this perfection that made Captain America incredibly lonely. The "divinity" in him was so strong that it nearly eclipsed the existence of his "humanity," and upon awakening after 70 years in the ice to face a world where everything is the same but the people have changed, that kind of loneliness and displacement was enough to shake almost anyone.

Becoming withdrawn and fearing communication with the crowd were the inevitable reactions after living in isolation, but Captain America would only struggle silently and quietly, searching for his responsibility and sense of belonging in a new world.

His pain was as silent as his loneliness. It was the existence of the "Avengers" team that gave him a new life. After his confusion and loneliness, Captain America would reposition his own value, completing the process of returning from the "superego" to the "ego." He didn't follow blindly, nor did he lose his trust in people; his leadership qualities would be fully reflected in Duke's settings.

Compared to Captain America, the Hulk was equally lonely, but his choice wasn't to integrate into the crowd, but to stay away from it. His loneliness stemmed from an overly inflated "id," while his own existing "superego" felt pain and struggled against the overwhelming dominance of the reckless "id." This formed an incredibly conflicted and destructive Hulk.

Although Bruce Banner usually appeared as a gentle and cultivated doctor, the furious Hulk was always roaring inside him. In the tug-of-war between reason and instinct, the Hulk remained in a constant state of anger and pain. This misunderstood loneliness made it difficult for him to truly view himself as a human. He constantly fluctuated in self-recognition, and this self-doubt and fragmentation made the Hulk even more dangerous.

However, Duke wouldn't waste too much ink on the Hulk; he would simply be the fist of the Avengers.

Time slowly pushed forward to September 2011. Shrouded in its Oscar halo, Duke's previous film, Gravity, finally ended its long theatrical run, withdrawing from both the North American market and all overseas film markets this month. Over its nearly ten-month run, the film had experienced a phase of soaring box office, as well as a later stage of being largely ignored.

But the film's final box office was still staggering.

Ultimately, Gravity concluded its theatrical journey with $371.26 million in North America and $868.94 million globally.

Although the combined investment of the production budget, marketing campaign, and Oscar public relations was so high that the box office could barely recover the costs, achieving large-scale profitability through merchandise and copyrights wouldn't be difficult.

Compared to Gravity, where the tight schedule had caused costs to surge, the total investment for The Avengers was considerably lower.

The film's total production budget was ultimately capped at $200 million. Aside from the terrifying expense of the actors' salaries, the largest investment was still special effects. Industrial Light and Magic, which had just become one of Duke's assets in the first half of the year, naturally took on the film's VFX production.

In addition to the several VFX teams at the San Francisco headquarters, Industrial Light and Magic's branch offices in India, London, and Singapore would also shoulder a lot of the film's rendering work.

While Duke was prepping the film, Industrial Light and Magic had already begun modeling for many of the CG shots where the settings were completely finalized.

For example, the fully CG environmental shots for the Helicarrier had been put on Industrial Light and Magic's agenda early on.

To build these complex CG effects shots, they created many large-scale green screen sequences, which would provide convenience and increase flexibility for the shots' rendering.

The Helicarrier's CG alone would use nearly 130 special effects shots.

These shots were divided into night and day effects. Duke demanded the finished footage present two different aesthetics. In one of the scenes, when the Helicarrier flew through the clouds, the rear of the Helicarrier could be seen on screen.

To process this shot, Industrial Light and Magic added an extension to the hull and created many visual effects, including cloud layers, the skyline, the exterior hull, and vestibules. These digital backgrounds were all rendered with dual-layer visibility.

This production was quite challenging. Industrial Light and Magic first built the massive Helicarrier according to Duke's specifications, ensuring that the Helicarrier looked completely different in the two environments of day and night...

In mid-September, Marvel Pictures CEO Kevin Feige sat down for an exclusive interview, revealing the latest updates on The Avengers crew to the public.

"Yes, The Avengers has officially begun filming!"

Then, he pointed to the massive poster of the Avengers hanging on his office wall and spoke to the reporter.

"And what I want to say again is, look at these actors, look at these leads. It's like a rock concert, it's simply unbelievable."

Kevin Feige was very excited.

"In San Diego, when they walked onto the stage together, when you saw these charming actors together on stage, if you didn't feel a chill down your spine, then you must not have a pulse. Basically speaking, you might as well send yourself into a coffin and go home."

"Now, Director Duke Rosenberg is commanding on set. I've read his script, and it's absolutely fantastic. I see the work that needs to be done next, I see all kinds of designs, and then they are completely out of this world. The Avengers will become the quintessential superhero movie. I'm hesitating on whether to say more, but we are very, very excited for it."

Just as Kevin Feige had said, inside a soundstage at Warner Studios, Duke had already raised the curtain on filming.