'Avengers' director gets honest about Harvey Weinstein

Joe Russo, who directed Avengers: Endgame, has called out Harvey Weinstein for what he called starting a trend that he started which barred the blockbusters from the award seasons.

In a chat with The Sunday Times, Joe claimed, “He vilified mainstream movies to champion the art films he pushed for Oscar campaigns. Popular films were winning Oscars before the mid ’90s, then Weinstein started mudslinging campaigns."

"It affected how audiences view the Oscars because they’ve not seen most of the movies. We’re in a complicated place. Things we should all be enjoying collectively we instead punch each other in the face over," the director continued.

“Like this argument that Marvel movies were killing cinema. Well, Marvel movies seemed to be keeping cinemas open for quite a long time," Joe concluded.

In other news, Joe gushed about Robert Downey Jr.'s commitment to his upcoming Doctor Doom debut in the upcoming Avengers flick.

"It’s a very intense process developing the character. He’s so immersed in it. He is so dialed in. [Downey’s] writing backstory, costume ideas," he told ET.

"I think he just loves really rich, three-dimensional characters and I think he sees a real opportunity here with that character," Joe added.