Wait a minute…
isn’t that Edinburgh?
by Deitric Murphy
Whisky, the Highland games, the Loch Ness Monster and lots and lots of history – that’s what Scotland is known for.
Now add this: The country is also the hiding place for a famous Marvel superhero couple, Wanda Maximoff and Vision, played by Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany.
In 2018, they stood foot on Cockburn Street in Edinburgh and even had a destructive battle around famous landmarks in the city.
Thirty minutes into Avengers: Infinity War, the audience finds out that the beloved couple has been spending time together in the city to try to keep a low-profile. While the scenes shot in Edinburgh were on screen for no more than 10 minutes, the legacy of the movie shoot will remain for much longer.
Local resident Darragh Billings remembers walking near Cockburn Street, when a producer stopped him and asked him to sign a waiver in case he was featured in the movie. Instead of using extras, he said the movie crew asked people who were walking down the street to give their permission to be used in the film.
Not only did the participation of local “extras” leave a mark on the city, but it left a mark on the shops on Cockburn Street.
Some of the shops and restaurants on the street are different from what appeared in the movie. For example, Miss Katie’s Cupcake was redesigned in the film into a kebab shop where Maximoff and Vision stopped to see a news broadcast.
Since 2020, the local spot has become a coffee shop.
In one scene from the film, shortly after the heroes notice the news broadcast, they are attacked by some of Thanos’ henchmen. Maximoff is thrownthrough a window in a restaurant across the street called Laila.
At one point, the restaurant even had a sticker on its window stating that an Avenger was thrown through the window. While the sticker is no longer up, the restaurant will still proudly point to the window that Maximoff was thrown through. Don’t worry…she survived the battle.
A few more iconic places appear in the film: City Chambers, St. Giles Cathedral and the Parliament Square sector of High Street. Maximoff runs away with Vision to City Chambers before being attacked again, causing a fight. The battle occurs on top of the Cathedral as well as on the streets before the scene shifts to Waverley Station for the final encounter after Maximoff and Vision try to run away.
The action in Waverley Station is one of the most memorable of the movie as it was the first scene in which Captain America, Black Widow and Falcon appear. It took place on Platform 2, and an entire set was built in that sector for the movie.
You could also catch a quick glimpse of the Edinburgh Castle as the Avengers were leaving Waverley Station on their jet.
Some have questioned why Edinburgh was the choice for their hideout, because as the capital ofScotland it is not too quiet of a place. The filmmakers wanted to shoot in a place that looks gothic and dramatic and also somewhere that hadn’t been used in blockbuster movies.
Some people have noted, however, that Edinburgh fits as a place to find love, which goes along with Maximoff and Vision’s theme.