Updated June 23, 2023 5.0K votes 977 voters 133.9K views
Over 900 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Things You Didn't Know About The 'Avengers' Movies
The first Avengers movie was an experiment in the possible success of the MCU, and it paid off - big time. The Avengers slashed records and firmly established the MCU as a juggernaut. The subsequent three Avengers movies blew the box office records out of the water. By the time receipts had been counted up for Avengers: Endgame, the franchise's fourth film earned the title as the highest-grossing film of all time.
With so much success and cash going around, it's surprising there are still a number of things most people don't know about the series. A lot of work went into bringing these movies to life, and even the most devoted fans don't know everything about the film franchise revolving around Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Check out this list below, and if you find an Avengers movie fact you didn't already know, go ahead and give it an upvote to see which one rises to the top.
1
572 VOTES
That Famous 'I Am Iron Man' Line Almost Didn't Happen
After the massive battle comes to an end in Avengers: Endgame, Tony manages to get his hands on the Infinity Stones, and with the snap of a finger, he destroys Thanos and all of his forces. Right before he snaps, Thanos attempts to do the same without realizing that he doesn't have the Stones any longer. He says, "I am inevitable," to which Tony replies, "And I... am... Iron Man."
It's a beautiful tribute to the closing line of the movie that launched the MCU, but it wasn't in the script and nearly didn't happen. The Russo brothers said that Tony Stark originally said nothing. He simply smiled and snapped his fingers, but in post, the directors didn't think it worked. While editing, film editor Jeffrey Ford was the one who offered up the line, and when he did, the Russos went into action, making that line the very last thing they filmed for Avengers: Endgame.
While you'd think that someone appearing in a superhero movie would be concerned about adding any unnecessary calories, Robert Downey Jr. doesn't share those concerns. While filming The Avengers, he hid food all over the set - which, it turns out, is not uncommoon for RDJ. In a live interview with HuffPost for the movie The Judge, his castmates claim he continues the practice outside the MCU.
In the interview, Vincent D'Onofrio spoke about it, saying, "Downey does hide food all over set." He added, "I'm not going to tell you why. But he does. It makes perfect sense."
He's apparently well-known for doing this while he's working, and it's said that his directors don't mind because it often adds some comic relief to the long hours of filming. In some scenes in The Avengers when he's eating food, it's from his own stash. For example, in one scene he's eating blueberries, and even offers one to Cap. Those blueberries were from his stash, and the line wasn't in the script... it was just RDJ being RDJ.
475 votes
3
295 VOTES
Ultron's Eyes Were Hard To Focus On For Many Of The Actors
To bring Ultron to life, James Spader hopped into a mo-cap suit, which managed to capture the nuances of his performance and play them out through impressive VFX work. Of course, Spader's 5-foot-10 height created a bit of a problem, so a solution was crafted to make the actor appear taller, so the other actors could look him in the eyes.
Ultron stands over 8 feet tall, so Spader was outfitted with an antenna made of thick wire with three red lights attached at the top. The rig ran the length of his back and extended three feet above his head, so any actor talking to Ultron could look at the red balls instead of Spader. This presented a bit of a problem for some, including Elizabeth Olsen, who couldn't focus on the red balls due to Spader's intense performance.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson would yell, "Red balls! Look at his balls, Lizzie!" Hearing that, she would adjust her focus to the fake eyes instead of Spader's real ones.
295 votes
4
441 VOTES
Mark Ruffalo Was The First Actor To Play Banner And The Hulk
Before The Avengers, Bruce (as well as David) Banner and the Hulk were always played by two actors. In the 1978 TV show, Bill Bixby played Banner while Lou Ferrigno played the Hulk. In the 2003 Ang Lee film, Eric Bana played Banner while Lee himself did motion-capture. In the 2008 film, Ed Norton played Banner while multiple people did the Hulk mo-cap work.
For The Avengers, Mark Ruffalo played Bruce Banner, and he also provided the motion-capture for the Hulk. This makes him the first actor in the history of the character to play both. Ruffalo calls his mo-cap suit his "Man-Canceling" suit, and his costars made fun of him for it. Everyone would be wearing their superhero suits, and he was wearing a skin-tight "leotard."
441 votes
5
465 VOTES
Scarlett Johansson Worked With Three Stuntwomen To Hide Her Pregnancy
Scarlett Johansson was pregnant while filming Avengers: Age of Ultron, so the crew got to work making sure they could hide the pregnancy. Amazingly, they didn't need to trim any scenes, and that was largely due to the work of three stuntwomen who worked on the film. After all, pregnancies may be hidden easily enough on a sitcom, but this was an action movie.
Director Joss Whedon explained the situation in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: "She's not going to spend the whole movie carrying groceries. We didn't trim any scenes. We're like, 'We'll make it work.'"
The stuntwomen wore dotted maps on their faces so the VFX artists could digitally map Johansson's face onto theirs. It was all done in post-production, and nobody watching the movie could tell. Chris Evans joked about how much the women looked like the actress, saying, "It's always funny. You walk by, 'Hey, Scarlett - oh, weird. You're not Scarlett at all. Sorry.' A lot of fake Scarletts around."
Tony Stark's Hulkbuster armor made its cinematic debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and a lot of thought went into making the design look right. One of the biggest differences between the armor and the suit Tony wears underneath is the power required to make it work. If you look closely, you will see that the Hulkbuster armor has an Arc Reactor on the chest, one on each knee, and four on the back.
To get the suit to work, Tony has to wear his Iron Man armor with its Arc Reactor and marry its power up to a suit that has seven of its own, which means the gargantuan armored suit requires eight times the power a standard set of armor requires. In addition, it is believed that additional Arc Reactors are hidden within the suit for a grand total of 11.
Another interesting tidbit about the Hulkbuster is its name - or rather, the name of the satellite that deploys it. It's called "Veronica," which is a reference to the Archie comics. In those books, Archie dates two women, Betty and Veronica. Since Bruce Banner has a history with Elizabeth "Betty" Ross, her adversary would almost have to be named Veronica.
