Russo Brothers Address Marvel's Secret Wars Rumors

By Cameron Bonomolo

The secret is out: the Russo Brothers say they're not in talks to direct the rumored Secret Wars movie for Marvel Studios. After making Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo doubled down on back-to-back Avengers movies with Infinity War and Endgame. The Russos have since stepped away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe — first directing Spider-Man star Tom Holland in Cherry and Captain America's Chris Evans in The Gray Man — saying in 2018 they would return to Marvel for the only epic that could raise the stakes even higher: Secret Wars. 

But in an interview with MTV's Josh Horowitz, the Russos confirmed they haven't had talks about directing Secret Wars for Kevin Feige's Marvel Studios. 

"It's so funny because, to be clear, there are no conversations," Joe Russo revealed. Asked if the brothers might step on stage at Hall H during Marvel's San Diego Comic-Con panel to announce they're directing Secret Wars, Anthony answered, "No. No, no. No." 

"No. We're not," Joe confirmed. "We haven't had conversations with those guys about anything that they're up to because we've been intensely busy with our own schedule."

He continued: "We just always answer truthfully when we're asked, 'Would you work with them?' 'Of course we would, we adore them.' 'What would you like to do?' 'Secret Wars, it was our favorite series growing up.' And then I think it always gets turned into a bigger story. But to be clear: there is no story." 

The Russos referenced Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, the classic 1984 comic book crossover pitting Earth's mightiest heroes against their deadliest villains on the far-away planet Battleworld. In 2015, writer Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars threatened the destruction of entire universes across the vast Marvel Multiverse, concepts that have appeared throughout the MCU's Phase 4. 

Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home opened the Multiverse with alternate versions of Earth-616 characters known as Variants, but Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was the first to name-drop incursions. Like in Hickman's Secret Wars, Reed Richards (John Krasinski) of the Fantastic Four explained an incursion happens when the boundary between two universes erodes and they collide — destroying one, or both, entirely. 

After the first three phases of the MCU spanned what is known as the Infinity Saga, Feige has hinted Secret Wars would be the endgame — so to speak — of Phase 4 and Phase 5. 

"As we're nearing the end of Phase 4, I think people will start to see where this next saga is going," the Marvel Studios president told Total Film in June. "I think there have been many clues already, that are at least apparent to me, of where this whole saga is going."

Feige continued, "We'll be a little more direct about that in the coming months, to set a plan, so audiences who want to see the bigger picture can see a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more of the roadmap."

Marvel Studios will host its Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 on Saturday, July 23. 

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