‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Director Clarifies Which ‘Secret Wars’ He Wants to See as a Film

The Russo Brothers have directed the biggest in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Avengers: Infinity War, but there’s another story that’s even more epic that they’ve previously said would be an interesting story to adapt to film.

The story was Secret Wars, but…which one? There have been events titled Secret Wars. One was published by Marvel Comics in 1984 and the other was published decades later in 2015.

In an interview with CBR, Joe Russo offered some clarification, returning again to the potential inherent in Marvel Studios gaining the rights to the Marvel Comics characters currently controlled by 20th Century Fox.

“Hopefully they’re about to get their hands on a few of them,” Russo said. “Listen, my second favorite character growing up, and one of my prized possessions in my comic book collection is Incredible Hulk #181, which of course is the first appearance of Wolverine. I feel like the mission of the Marvel Universe is to keep expanding and surprising people. Surprise them with casting choices, surprise them with story choices. If we’re moving into this world of crossover events, certainly that affords opportunity for other large-scale stories from the books like Secret Wars — which was another favorite comic of mine as a kid. There’s big potential moving forward if the Fox/Disney deal closes.”

The fact that Russo remembers the story so fondly from his childhood indicates that he must be talking about the original 1984 Secret Wars. That story saw the all-powerful being known as the Beyonder teleport several of the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroes and villains to Battleworld where they could decide once and for all whether good or evil was the greater force.

The more recent Secret Wars event created a new Battleworld out of the remnants of several alternate reality timelines in the Marvel Comics multiverse. Some fans believe this story presents the perfect opportunity to fold Fox’s X-Men cinematic universe, and perhaps the Fantastic Four, into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Avengers: Infinity War releases on April 27th. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.