It seemed…inevitable. Just hours after THR broke the news that directors Joe and Anthony Russo were in talks to return to Marvel Studios to helm Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars, rumors began to swirl that another pair of key contributors to the Infinity Saga may join them. According to multiple outlets, the Russos may be accompanied in their new venture by another creative tag team well-known to MCU fans: writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
According to both Daniel RPK and Jeff “The In” Sneider, Markus and McFeely–who teamed up to write the screenplays for a half dozen MCU films in Phases 1 through 3–are set to pen Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars. Interestingly enough, word of the duo’s return comes on the heels of unconfirmed reports that writer Michael Waldron had left Avengers 5.
While the Russos faces may have been more familiar to fans of the MCU, Markus and McFeely were every bit as much involved in the scaffolding of the Infinity Saga as the directing duo. In addition to writing the screenplays for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Markus and McFeely also penned Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War.
There are all sorts of characters that would be fun. Joe and Anthony keep saying Secret Wars and I keep going, “really, you want to take on another giant multi-character [crossover]?” I would personally be more drawn to setting up a single character again and taking them from the beginning.
-Christopher Markus, THR Interivew, 2019
While the Russos often shared their desire to adapt Marvel Comics Secret Wars for the MCU, Markus and McFeeley were less keen on the idea in a 2019 interview, suggesting they’d rather work with X-Men characters, with Cyclops at the top of their list. Should they start from scratch on Avengers 5, an adaptation of Marvel Comics 2012 crossover event, Avengers vs. X-Men, could scratch that particular itch and fit nicely into the ongoing Multiverse Saga plot, especially given where things left off in The Marvels.
With the creative team for the next Avengers films now seemingly complete (again), it’s reasonable to assume Marvel Studios will include the projects in their Hall H panel at SDCC ’24 on Saturday, July 27th.
Sources: The InSneider, THR
Leave a Reply