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I cannot tell you how many times I have Googled film locations while watching a movie.  As I sat in Disney Studios watching Avengers Endgame, I was instantly drawn into the film during the first scene.  I absolutely loved the scenery.  I sat through many scenes wondering where they were filmed.  I wanted to find Avengers Endgame facts.

Where was Avengers Endgame Filmed

While there were many practical locations in the production schedule, most of the film’s production was done at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, which also served as the film’s production base. “With the size and scope, having the entire production for both ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’ located on the same lot at Pinewood Atlanta Studios was a tremendous asset and gave us the ability to shoot one film while we were prepping the other,” says Joe Russo. “It created a fluidity for the crew and for us in respect to being able to move from stage to stage, pick up shots that
we missed, or shots that we discovered we needed or wanted refined as we were editing. Having stages, editing rooms and our production offices and all of our crew under one roof is really the only way to make two movies like this back-to-back. I can’t imagine doing it any other way. It is a great facility and great partner to have.”

The first scenes for “Avengers: Endgame” were actually shot overseas in the United Kingdom during the overseas “Avengers: Infinity War” production schedule. After the production schedule on “Avengers: Infinity War” wrapped its schedule in Edinburgh, the production headed south to shoot scenes for “Avengers: Endgame” at St. Abbs, on the southern coast of Scotland, and in Durham, England, at the Durham Cathedral. “The Durham Cathedral is one of the more spectacular cathedrals in Europe,” says Joe Russo. “It’s stunning. We’re really fortunate to be able to shoot here because it gives the scene such an incredible scale without much CGI, because most of which you see on the screen is the actual cathedral. So, when you’re actually able to walk into a location of this scale and really grasp how
you could execute and shoot it, as a director it’s invaluable because it really makes the job a lot more specific. It lends a realism to the performances because actors aren’t working against agreen screen. It’s tactile.”

Andrew Tremlett, Dean of Durham Cathedral, offers background on the cathedral. “It took about thirty or forty years to build, so these things didn’t happen overnight,” says Tremlett. “The remarkable thing about Durham is that the main body of the cathedral, which is in the film, actually has been changed very little since it was built, as all the enormous pillars that were crafted by hand are all original. The gothic style of architecture has this dark, brooding and very luminous quality about it. It really has a very powerful feel to it the way it was lit by the
production. Everyone who works here, and our children, thought it looked really cool.”

Enhancing the look of the cathedral was production designer Charles Wood, who built walls and structures within the cathedral to complete the look of the set. “It takes someone as talented as Charles Wood, who could look at a space like this and figure out what we can use and what we can’t,” says Anthony Russo. “He figured out what architectural details to cover up that sort of aren’t truthful to the mythology and what to put on top of the existing structure. It’s a very complex process.”

“Walking into the cathedral and trying to figure out how it would actually play for what we needed in the film was a bit daunting,” says Wood. “The thing about Durham, which is unusual as a cathedral, is that it has a more monastic feeling than it does an ecclesiastical feeling. So, what we tried to do is separate out the areas where we could do set extensions.”Wood continues, “The walls of the cathedral have very sophisticated finishes, and we spent a lot of time looking at it all and making sure that what we did was seamless, because in a space like this with this much history in it, if it doesn’t work, the enhancements would really look obvious. We simply just wanted to come up with an environment which was meaningful that had a palette that was very soft as well, and the colors chosen adhered to that. We were not trying to load and heighten this place up at all. In fact, we were trying to sort of calm it down a bit and give it a nice presence. I think it’s one of the finest cathedrals in the world, and it was a real privilege to be
able to work in a place like this.”Wood’s work on the set was so detailed that people associated with the cathedral could not tell what was real and original and what was not. Wood and his team took actual molds from the
surface stones, then they went to the local stonemason’s yard to see the technique the masons use to do necessary restorations. So, when they built the set there was a texture to the moldings that blended perfectly “Charles Wood, our production designer, has been more valuable on this production in terms of storytelling and scale than anyone else,” says Joe Russo. “He’s done a spectacular job of bringing many different locations, styles, tones, and universes together and blending them into a cohesive whole. I think creating a look that hasn’t been seen much on film before in terms of the sprawl and the amount of locations and the uniqueness of the locations. It’s fantastic. It’s really
brilliant.”

Another practical location production designer Charles Wood and his team would transform was turning a downtown street into Tokyo for the dramatic return of Hawkeye. “Hawkeye, in his Ronin disguise, is wreaking havoc in Japan under the guise of keeping order,” explains Stephen McFeely.

“It’s an aggressive sequence, which I like, because I think it’s going to grab the audience,” adds Joe Russo. “How intense it was wasn’t clear until we started shooting, and that really surprised me the most, but I think it really represents the pain that Clint feels.”

Avengers Characters

Adding to the intensity of the scene was Hawkeye’s new look, which enhanced his darker side. Costume designer Judianna Makovsky describes the look and evolution. “The Ronin costume is definitely out of the comics,” says Makovsky. “I worked very closely with Ryan Meinerding to keep that Ronin feeling. However, the Ronin costume originally was not user-friendly, so it went through many variations. But the concept of it never changed because it is such a specific image that we wanted to keep it.”

Makovsky adds, “Of all the characters in the film, Hawkeye has the biggest change in personality, and his costume reflects that. It becomes a whole new simpler costume underneath and has that sort of ninja feel. He comes out of
nowhere and fights, so it had to be very comfortable, which was not easy. The construction of the costume by my team was brilliant.

“I’m in awe of Judianna,” says Anthony Russo. “She is as talented and capable as anybody Joe and I have ever encountered in our entire careers. These costumes are extremely hard to design and construct. She finds ways to bring balance in terms of how fantastical the costumes feel and yet makes them feel like they actually could be in the real world.

That’s a balance that Joe and I really appreciate and strive for in these films. It’s an incredibly fun and energizing process that we go through leading to the design of the costumes.” Further adding to the energy of Ronin’s introduction is the look and feel of a post-apocalyptic Japan created by Charles Wood and his team. Director Joe Russo was in awe of it the first time he walked onto the set. “Charles Wood really outdid himself with the design of the set, which also amplified the intensity of the scene,” says Joe Russo. “It’s the level of detail. It’s not just
Tokyo. It’s Tokyo after a major cataclysm has happened on Earth. It’s a very unique expression of Tokyo. It’s grounded in reality but also goes off into the realm of fantasy as well, and Charles and his team just brought those elements together so well.”

Another element that heightened the sequence was the casting of Hiroyuki Sanada, who brought his years of martial-arts experience to the table. “It was so incredibly important to have someone in the sequence who was as accomplished with a sword as Hiro,” says Joe Russo. “You can’t tell the story in one single shot unless you have an actor of his acumen who can actually keep up with one of the best stunt players in the world take after take. We did ten takes with Hiro fighting in the street for well over a minute with a lot of choreography, in the rain in the middle of the night.

Avengers Endgame Action Scenes and Stunt Performers

“Joe and I are very performer-orientated,” says Anthony Russo. “So while we love action, and we spend a lot of time on our own conceiving and detailing the action and emotion, we also maximize the gifts that each specific performer has brought to the table. It’s our job to pull the best out of every actor, whether that be emotion or action. And when we hit the set, we look for how we can use those gifts to tell the story, to heighten the conflict and thrill audiences. That’s a big part of the process that you execute a scene in these films.”

Coordinating the riveting action and battles on “Avengers: Endgame” was no small task with the stakes as high as they are in the story. The responsibility fell into the capable hands of stunt coordinator Monique Ganderton, who was promoted from assistant stunt coordinator on “Avengers: Infinity War” when longtime MCU staple Sam Hargrave took on the challenge of directing the film’s second-unit action and fight sequences. For Ganderton, the reaction of her fellow crew members left her feeling inspired. “On set, both men and women would come up to me and express that they were happy to see a woman doing this job. It made me feel proud to be there and potentially pave the way for other women. It also was great when both women on the crew would say that they thought it was great and maybe one day their daughter will do that. But I don’t think about me being a woman stunt coordinator,
because I’m just doing my job.”

“Our relationship with Monique has developed over several movies,” says Anthony Russo. “This is how you really get to know and trust creative collaborators. Over time, you start to feel a symmetry in your sensibilities in terms of how you like to work and what you’re trying to achieve on a creative level. We had that depth of experience with Monique, and she is a very good stunt coordinator, which is a very difficult position because you have to balance a lot of different concerns.”

Elaborating, he adds, “You have to take what the director is looking for and figure out how you coordinate that with what stunt performers are capable of. That’s a very difficult balance, because sometimes we tend to dream up things that aren’t achievable in the way that we wanted to originally execute them. Monique has the great ability to be very calm and focused and figure out how to realize these ideas.”

Avengers Movie Trailer

Avengers Endgame provides some of the best scenery and not to mention costumes.  I was impressed by how they were made some of the characters look extremely young or either old.  Michael Douglas looked like young, handsome Michael Douglas.

I hope you enjoyed these Avengers Endgame fun facts!

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