Last summer, I was invited alongside a group of journalists to visit the Atlanta, Georgia set of Avengers: Infinity War. You can read a more in-depth account about my experience on the set here, but suffice it to say that it was indeed epic. The amount of star-power in this movie is mind-boggling, and over the next several weeks I’ll be publishing interviews with the cast and creatives behind it all. They couldn’t reveal much in the way of specifics, of course, but it was really fun to just see their banter and interactions — which is really the crux of what the Avengers movies are all about.

So much has happened in the MCU since we visited Pinewood studios, but our questions for Chris Evans (Captain America) and Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) were mostly focused on what their characters have been doing since Civil War:

QUESTION: Chris, last time we saw you, you were not an Avenger. And now it looks like from what we saw today, you are putting the team back together.

chris-evans-russo-brothers-the-gray-man-netflix
Image via Marvel Studios

CHRIS EVANS: I don’t know if I would necessarily say that this is the group of Avengers. Just circumstances have dictated that we come together.

Will we see more of a leadership role or less of a leadership role from Cap in this film?

EVANS: I think intrinsically, Cap is a leader, but since there is no technical Avengers structure […] I think he’s still a leader at heart. I just don’t know if he necessarily has the same chain of command that he had in prior films.

Has Black Widow been a part of this underground group, or between the events of Civil War and Infinity War, has she been on her own mission?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: Between the events of Civil War and now, Steve and Natasha have been together, that’s how we imagined it. And I think they’ve kind of been sort of flying under the radar but still taking care of business in the way that they know how to do. When we find them in this film, as it was explained to us by Joe and Anthony [Russo], they are just a fine, well-oiled machine. They sort of have a seamless communication between them. But they’re more hardened, I think, and when you are working underground for such a long time and you don’t have … not that they need to have any sort of back-patting or recognition exactly, but I think when you’re sort of fighting for something that you know is important but is not being really recognized or supported by a larger organization or even like, society as a whole, it takes a certain toll, and you can get feelings about it in a way. So that’s kind of where we find them.

Is their relationship still just platonic?

JOHANSSON: Yes.

avengers-infinity-war-chris-evans-scarlett-johansson-don-cheadle
Image via Marvel Studios

We know that Bruce having a pretty terrifying message for everybody about Thanos, how do your characters react to his message?

JOHANSSON: Our characters have had a little bit of a taste of what’s coming. So I think we have a different perspective, a little bit. I think one thing that [our characters] share in common is they don’t make decisions emotionally, especially Natasha. And so, like I said, they have a little taste of what is coming, and I think they’re wary of what they’re up against.

How do your characters personally feel about Thanos?

JOHANSSON: I don’t know that I have any particular emotional reaction to him. I mean, I think our characters — after encountering all that we have, whether it was Ultron or any other kind of psychopathic person or being — my character in particular is very strategic, and it’s not something that she can necessarily wrap her head around. We’re a little bit blind going into this. We are wary of what we’re up against, but I think it’s very abstract.

EVANS: I think in some degree, it’s probably worst fears come to reality. I think the first time the sky opens up and aliens pour into the city, you kind of realize, well that’s a possibility, and we handled it this time, but who knows how powerful these people can become? And I think this is kind of a worst case scenario where you find out all the potential of someone trying to destroy your planet can be.

With the return of Bruce to the group, I’m curious about Natasha’s reunion with him — What can you tell us about their relationship in this film?

avengers-infinity-war-image-bruce-banner-hulk
Image via Marvel

JOHANSSON: Well, I mean, it’s been a long period of time. Again, I think Natasha’s not necessarily the kind of … she’s not a particularly sentimental person, and I think she understands that it’s been a period of time and they both have been through …  they’ve both had their own experiences separate of one another, and will always have a shared experience with one another. But again, a lot of time has passed and I think they both kind of needed to see this sort of heroic decision the last time they saw one another, that they were going to sacrifice their own personal desire for the greater good. And that’s happened, and move on.

Chris, can you talk about Steve’s feud with Tony from Civil War, and how the film balances that? How does Steve balance that?

EVANS: I think Cap knows how to compartmentalize. I’m not gonna speak to what the film addresses, but in terms of my character, I think he is slowly … he’s becoming disillusioned as he gets older. Every single movie, he learns a little bit more that the world isn’t the way he kind of wants it to be, and I think that’s why there’s a connection between him and Black Widow. Black Widow has seen a lot more than he is, and is kind of a little more calloused, and I think in a lot of ways, he looks up to that and learns from that. First it was kind of the hierarchy of a government structure that fell apart, and then there was a friendship that kind of betrayed him, or abandoned him, I should say. I think when those things happen, it’s like a destruction of a belief system to some degree, and you can be a little cold as a result. And I think you lean on people that have walked familiar paths, and there’s no denying that Black Widow has certainly faced a lot of those challenges. I think, like I said, long-winded answer, I think he’s compartmentalized it enough to put it as a lower priority than what’s at hand, which is obviously Thanos.

What is the relationship like for both of you with Tony at this point?

EVANS: I don’t think either one of us are ones to hold grudges. I think we operate very binary, utilitarian approach to most things we do, and I don’t think we let emotion dictate our reality. It’s been a couple years, so I think we both, to some degree, not moved on, but maybe buried some things.

Scarlett, can you tell us the significance of changing Natasha’s hair from red to blonde?

exit-west-russo-brothers
Image via Marvel Studios

JOHANSSON: Joe and Anthony really wanted us to kind of feel like it had just been a period of time, and we were both sort of kind of under the radar, just different, [and] I think that red hair is a signature of Natasha. They just wanted us to look different, and so for me, I thought, alright, well maybe I’ll give it a little wink and nod to the other Widows’ story that has been burned out.

For Chris, what can you say about the wear and tear we’re seeing on your suit right now?

EVANS: I’ve dropped the shield essentially. I kind of went rogue a little bit. But again, I think it’s in his nature to be of service, and I think to some degree in order to maintain sanity, he had to kind of function within a system. That’s how his brain works, there has to be some kind of functioning factory that he can operate within. I think Black Widow kind of, to some degree probably has a similar output, and I think we leaned on each other, especially in the face of that kind of loss coming off of Civil War. And so he’s been running these missions, answering to nobody, really. I mean, it really is the sign of a broken person. But yeah, that’s the wear and tear.

The Russos mentioned that everyone goes through emotional times in this story. Can you talk about the emotional stakes in this story, especially with this being the third time we’re seeing the Avengers altogether?

JOHANSSON: I mean there’s a lot. This film is really plot-heavy. There’s just a lot of people coming together, a lot of universes coming together. I actually think that in some ways, there’s not a lot of time to have feelings about what’s going on, because we’re facing the greatest threat we ever have, and I mean that in itself is so much.

avengers-infinity-war-black-panther-captain-america
Image via Marvel Studios

EVANS: It’s very consuming. It’s like a big game of chess. This is just one move in a very long game. So it’s tough to kind of carve out individual, fleshed-out arcs that would be worth discussing beyond the individual actors’ process.

With all these characters coming together for the first time, from all these different universes, with their biggest threat ever coming here, what are you guys most excited for fans to see?

EVANS: I think just the nexus of all these different films. It was fun with Avengers, bringing all these characters to life, but they weren’t all separate threads of characters that’ve had their own separate adventures. I don’t think this has ever been done before, where you have so many different franchises coming together to kind of really try to make one stew. Like I said, Avengers was pretty ambitious, but this really blows that one out of the water.

Over the course of playing Captain America, we’ve seen a pretty interesting development in politics. I’m curious what it means to you now, Chris, to play Captain America in this environment?

EVANS: It’s certainly a tricky environment, we can all agree on that. Everyone’s very polarized and very divisive. So I guess it’s nice playing a character that does his best to not let his political bias dictate his choices, because I know I’m certainly guilty of doing that at times, I think we all are. It’s tough to know how to behave when it feels like the rules have just been blurred on both sides. Things that shouldn’t be effective are, and that can make everyone’s compass a little wonky. And it’s nice to play a character that has a very austere approach to reality. It’s comforting, I suppose.

[Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity]

Avengers: Infinity War premieres April 27th -- for more from the set, check out these stories:

avengers-infinity-war-image-tony-stark
Image via Marvel
vision-scarlet-witch-streaming-series
Image via Marvel
avengers-infinity-war-image-thanos
Image via Marvel Studios