This May represents the tenth anniversary of the release of Iron Man. Since then, Marvel Studios has built something of an entertainment empire, becoming as powerful in the world of cinema as it ever was in the world of comics (hell - if not more).
Ten years. It feels like...more.
Over that decade, the studio has accumulated an impressive array of talent to make its movies. Last October, during the production of Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel gathered together as many of those people as it could, for a celebratory tenth-anniversary photograph (and for bragging rights). They even produced a video of it, which you get the feeling needs to lead into some kind of "We Are The World" charity single:
And here's the photo (insanely high-res version here):
Woof. That's...a lot. Per Marvel, here's a complete list of participants:
Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pratt, Chadwick Boseman, Brie Larson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Holland, Sean Gunn, Hannah John-Kamen, Zoe Saldana, Angela Bassett, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kurt Russell, Danai Gurira, William Hurt, Karen Gillan, Emily VanCamp, Tessa Thompson, Don Cheadle, Dave Bautista, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Evangeline Lilly, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Frank Grillo, Letitia Wright, Laurence Fishburne, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Stan, Ty Simpkins, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Benedict Wong, Michael Rooker, Vin Diesel, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson and Jeff Goldblum.
Filmmakers: Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Stan Lee, Scott Derrickson, Trinh Tran, Alan Taylor, Brad Winderbaum, Louis Letterier, Jon Watts, Sarah Finn, James Gunn, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Joss Whedon, David Grant, Mitchell Bell, Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Jeffrey Ford, Peyton Reed, Jonathan Schwartz, Stephen Broussard, Ryan Coogler, Jeremy Latcham, Nate Moore, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Taika Waititi, Erik Carroll, Ryan Meinerding and Craig Kyle.
And that's not even everyone who's been involved in these movies. It's mostly limited to those with projects in the works at the time the photograph was taken, which if anything makes it more impressive. Would be nice to have more female names in the "filmmakers" section, though.
This is obviously a pretty transparent self-congratulatory PR exercise on the part of Marvel, but after releasing seventeen (mostly) critically and financially successful movies in ten years (with a further three due out this year, and at least four more in the pipeline), the studio deserves to pat itself on the back. Plus, they got these three dudes together:
I'll just leave you with that.