With the Multiverse Saga rapidly unraveling following the atypically poor quality of several projects in 2022 and 2023, Marvel Studios wisely pressed the pause button on the production of their future slate last year to analyze what went wrong and chart a new path forward. As part of that new path, the studio scrapped its plans for the fifth Avengers film and Kevin Feige reeled Robert Downey Jr. back into the fold to suit up as Marvel Comics’ greatest villain, Doctor Doom, in the new vision of the project, Avengers: Doomsday. Feige’s efforts to save the saga didn’t stop there, as he also convinced the studio’s most successful directing duo, Anthony and Joe Russo, to return to direct both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Unsurprisingly, the return of the brothers Russo was part of a package deal that helped assure Downey that the studio was doing everything possible to curate the stories of the next two Avengers films carefully. An additional layer of security for Downey and the Russos was also provided when Stephen McFeely, who co-wrote several MCU projects including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, joined the project. Since the big changes were announced at SDCC ’24, there hasn’t been much official buzz around the projects; however, Collider was recently able to catch up with the Russos at NYCC and the duo was willing to share some big updates on both where things stand with both Doomsday and Secret Wars.
“Stephen McFeely is writing the script,” said Joe Russo about Avengers: Doomsday while adding that “we are right in the middle of the writing process.” Fans will, of course, note that there’s no mention of Christopher Markus being involved in the process despite being a co-writer on all of the Russo’s MCU projects and many non-MCU projects as well. And while some have tried to raise alarms over the absence of Markus, it seems as though all is well and that the brothers have gotten into a familiar groove with McFeely. We’ve always worked very closely with Markus and McFeely through all the work that we’ve done together,” said Joe. “It’s a little bit like getting back on a bike. We have a really codified process that we all work together through… It’s very complicated to iron out a story of this scale.”
That scale of the story of Avengers: Doomsday, and of Avengers: Secret Wars, may end up being larger than anything the studio has produced to date. While fans will have to wait some time before the entire cast lists of either film will be revealed, both are expected to see the return of dozens upon dozens of characters from the heroes of previous Avengers films to the Fantastic Four to the Scarlet Witch to Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man and even Thanos. Though he didn’t give anything away, Joe Russo confirmed to Collider that fans should expect a lot of heroes, villains and stories all coming together over teh course of the two Avengers films. “These are gonna be very, very big movies with a lot of characters in them and a lot of story lines coalescing,’ said the co-director before providing some positive vibes about the scripts saying, “We’re really happy with how they’re coming together right now.“
With the scripting process well underway, the Russos confirmed that principal photography on Avengers: Doomsday will kick off in the UK in the spring while also addressing how long of a break they’ll take before cameras roll on Avengers: Secret Wars. “It’ll be similar [to the process of filming Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame], but we’ll have a larger break in between the two movies than we did,” said Joe Russo before asking his brother, Anthony for clarification “I think it was four weeks maybe? Was it four weeks between Infinity War and Endgame?“. Anthony then confirmed that they do not plan to film the two projects back-to-back, indicating that they may have “a year or so” of separation.
I think it was a couple of weeks. But no, these are not as separated as you would normally separate two films of this scale, but they’re more substantially separated [than Infinity War and Endgame] by a year or so.
-Anthony Russo
With the two films set to open up a year apart in May 2026 and May 2027, respectively, it sounds as though all things are in order to make those release dates and deliver two large scale stories that MCU fans have been craving.
Source: Collider
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