The Russo Brothers Confirm They Had Plans for a Marvel Return Before Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars

Avengers filmmakers… assemble. Five years after directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo ended an era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige announced that the Russo brothers would be returning to helm the Multiverse Saga-ending Avengers: Doomsday (dated May 1, 2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (May 7, 2027). Not only are the Russos reuniting with screenwriter Stephen McFeely — co-writer with Christopher Markus of the Russo-directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame — but ex-Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. is donning the metal mask and armor of Doctor Doom.

While Endgame was the end of the line for the original lineup of Earth’s mightiest heroes — Downey’s Iron Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk — it was also supposed to be the final MCU movie from the four-time Marvel directors.

“Endgame was the end, and it took a little time for us to begin to think about it as something other than an end,” Anthony Russo told Empire Magazine in an interview pegged to their new Netflix movie The Electric State. “We’re very close with Kevin and Lou [D’Esposito, Marvel Studios’ Co-President] and the entire Marvel team and we’ve had conversations through the years. We’ve talked about a lot of ideas.”

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The Russos fielded questions about returning to the MCU while promoting non-Marvel movies like The Gray Man and Cherry, and in 2022, they said “never say never” when asked whether they could see themselves back behind the camera for another Avengers-sized epic. One idea that kept surfacing: Secret Wars.

“Really what happened was, we ended up stumbling upon an idea that activated all of us,” Anthony explained. “You couldn’t see it coming until it came, and once it came it was like, ‘Well, that’s a story we need to tell.’”

Added Joe, “There were ideas that we were trying to wrap our heads around that preceded this one, and we just never found the story.” Although the Russos didn’t disclose which projects might have helmed, none seemed right until McFeely figured out how to adapt Secret Wars for the MCU.

An expansive superhero epic with a roster of characters that spans multiverses, 2015’s Secret Wars was conceived by comic book writer Jonathan Hickman as a universe-colliding event which would dwarf 1984’s superhero crossover Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.

“I remember calling Steve [McFeely] and said, ‘Hey, crazy idea. What do you think if we all go back and do Secret Wars?’” Joe Russo said. “You were like, ‘F— no. Absolutely not.’ And then you hung up. And the next morning at 7.30 you called and were like, ‘Alright, I have an idea.’”

It seems that idea hinges on Downey’s Doctor Doom. The Oppenheimer Oscar winner is coming out of retirement as the MCU’s greatest hero to play Marvel’s greatest villain, an archnemesis of the Fantastic Four who, as it happens, is the central character of 2015’s Secret Wars. Feige brought the Russo brothers on stage to announce the news at last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con, revealing that Avengers 5 — originally titled The Kang Dynasty and centered on the since-fired Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror — had been renamed Doomsday, and that Downey would be the man behind Doom’s mask.

“That four-movie run was incredible, and it left us creatively spent with all our emotions on the floor,” Anthony Russo told the packed 6,500-seat Hall H. “In the time since, through a very special story, Joe and I have come to potentially see a road forward with you all.”

Plot details are being locked away on Battleworld, but Marvel also confirmed that this summer’s Fantastic Four: First Steps — which stars Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Susan Richards/Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/the Thing — will feed into Doomsday and Secret Wars, with Marvel’s first family joining Earth’s mightiest heroes in a crossover that is rumored to include everyone from Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.

Besides Downey, reported cast members include Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange. To paraphrase the master of the mystic arts: We’re really in the endgame now.

Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to open May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027, as the final film of The Multiverse Saga.