Building Artistic Universes Without Borders

Anthony Russo, Joe Russo and Donald Mustard in conversation

Storytelling no longer sits on a single screen or inside one format. The projects that endure are built to move between film, television, gaming, and interactive, meeting audiences wherever they are and continuing to evolve once they get there. The real challenge is not just expanding across platforms but building something that sustains attention and meaning at a global scale.

Anthony and Joe Russo, directors of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, join Donald Mustard, former Chief Creative Officer of Epic Games and the creative force behind Fortnite, which has reached hundreds of millions of players and reshaped how interactive worlds operate at scale. Now a partner at AGBO — founded by the Russos — Mustard brings a perspective shaped by both cinematic storytelling and live, evolving digital worlds. Film and gaming treat participation, canon, and continuity very differently, and those differences do not resolve themselves when you try to bridge the two. That tension is what gives this conversation weight.

Their collaboration traces back to 2018, when the Russos and Mustard worked together to bring Thanos into Fortnite during the production of Infinity War, an early signal of how storytelling could move between film and interactive in real time. That intersection is now reflected in AGBO, the artist-first studio they've built together, grounded in the belief that creators should take risks and develop stories not bound to a single medium. Across film, television, and interactive, AGBO's projects reflect that philosophy in practice — from narrative features to series to experiences that don't fit neatly into either category.

The discussion will focus on how these worlds are actually built across film and gaming, what it takes to keep audiences invested over time, and how storytelling continues to shift as audiences move from watching to participating.