In April 2019, right around the release of Avengers: Endgame, Joe and Anthony Russo spoke with BroBible and jointly geeked out over the scale of Secret Wars.
“I read that when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together. It was one of the first major books to do that — that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest,” said Joe. Taking a step further, Anthony hinted at the brothers potentially having interest in bringing the comic event to the MCU saying, “It would be the biggest movie you could possibly imagine. So that’s what really excites us about the story – the ambition of it is even bigger than the ambition of the Infinity Saga.“
A few months later, while taking a victory lap at SDCC 2019, they were asked directly about their future. Even though they stressed they had “no official future plans” with Marvel at the time, they told the massive Hall H crowd that they would love to direct an adaptation of the Marvel comic Secret Wars. Seven years later, the directing duo is at it again.
While speaking recently at SXSW, the brothers–who are in post production on Avengers: Doomsday ahead of the start of principal photography on Avengers Secret Wars–teased a possible future with the studio extending beyond the Multiverse Saga.
“When we did Endgame, of course, we [thought] we’ve completed—it was our fourth Marvel film—we had completed a story arc that we began in The Winter Soldier, and for us, it was very much intended to be an ending,” said Anthony Russo. “And so, I will say this: the stories that we’re focused on now are complete. Doomsday and Secret Wars speak with one another as two films, and they form a complete expression.”
“Whether or not we all collaborate with Marvel beyond that is certainly a possibility. But right now, the vision, the narrative vision, is just through Secret Wars at this point.”
“We’re just going to wait and see what we look like in photos in 2028, and then we’ll let you know,” added Joe.
And as they did with Secret Wars, the brothers may have already tipped their hand as to which project it is that might entice them back again.
“Wolverine has always been such a special character for me. To realize him on screen, it’s very hard because Hugh Jackman’s performance is definitive… But I’d love to take a crack at Wolverine at some point,” Joe told the Barstool Podcast in 2021. “One of my prized possessions is Incredible Hulk #181, which was the first appearance of Wolverine… Wolverine being so essential to the X-Men, of course, that would be a fun project to work on and find a new way into it.”
While the studio has yet to reveal its plans for Wolverine and Hugh Jackman has recently indicated he has no interest in stepping away from the character, it’s easy to see how the Russos, who brilliantly adapted 14-issue Winter Soldier, could find a way to bring the brilliance of Chris Claremont or Larry Hama’s Wolverine runs to the MCU.
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