Avengers: Endgame Directors Say They Don’t Believe in Superhero Fatigue

This week marks the five-year anniversary of Avengers: Endgame, the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga. The film also served as the last MCU installment directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, who previously worked on the franchise on projects like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War. In the years since Endgame, the MCU has evolved on a major scale, with a number of changes going on in front of and behind the scenes. In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, the Russo Brothers addressed that evolution, with the pair arguing that there’s more going on than the age-old complaint of “superhero fatigue.” 

“I think it’s fatigue in general,” Anthony argued. “The superhero fatigue question was around long before the work we were doing. So, it’s sort of an eternal complaint, like we always used to cite this back in our early days with superhero work. People used to complain about westerns in the same way but they lasted for decades and decades and decades. They were continually reinvented and brought to new heights as they went on.”

“I think it’s a reflection of the current state of everything,” Joe said of Marvel’s recent updates. “It’s difficult right now, it’s an interesting time. I think we’re in a transitional period and people don’t know quite yet how they’re going to receive stories moving forward, or what kinds of stories they’re going to want. “There’s a big generational divide about how you consume media. There’s a generation that’s used to appointment viewing and going to a theater on a certain date to see something, but it’s ageing out. Meanwhile the new generation are ‘I want it now, I want to process it now’, then moving onto the next thing, which they process whilst doing two other things at the same time. You know, it’s a very different moment in time than it’s ever been. And so I think everyone, including Marvel, is experiencing the same thing, this transition. And I think that really is probably what’s at play more than anything else.”

Would the Russo Brothers Return to Marvel?

Since 2019’s Endgame, Joe and Anthony Russo have not returned to work on a Marvel Studios project in any capacity — but the duo has left the door open to do so, especially through their AGBO production company.

“We’ve talked to [Marvel chief creative officer] Kevin [Feige] and [Marvel Studios co-president] Lou [D’Esposito] all the time at Marvel,” Joe Russo told ComicBook.com in 2020. “[Marvel Studios executive Vice President of Production] Victoria [Alonso]. They’re all your friends of ours. Texting, seeing how everyone’s doing. We get together with Lou for regular dinners once a month and there’s always conversations going on. I think, you know, when we all land on with the right project is for us all to team back up on what, we’ll jump in feet first for sure.”