Joe AND Antonio Russo recently talked about returning to Marvel Studios as a director Avengers: Judgment Day AND Avengers: Secret Warssaying, “This is a story we need to tell.”
Last year at Comic-Con it was announced that they would be directing these films, and this was also announced Robert Downey Jr. he would play Doctor Doom. Since then, the internet has been flooded with rumors about the MCU films and characters that could appear in them.
Speaking to Empire about returning to Marvel, Anthony Russo said: “Endgame was the end, and it took a while to start thinking about it as anything other than an end.
“We are very close to Kevin and Lou [D’Esposito, Marvel Studios’ Co-President] and the entire Marvel team and we’ve had conversations over the years. We talked about many ideas.
“Really what happened was that we finally stumbled upon an idea that triggered all of us. You couldn’t predict it until it arrived, and once it arrived it was like, ‘Well, this is a story we need to tell.’”
He wasn’t always sure the Russos would return. Joe Russo explained: “There were ideas we were trying to come up with that preceded this one, and we never found the story.
“I remember calling Steve [McFeely] and said, “Hey, crazy idea.” What do you think if we all went back and did Secret Wars?’ You were like, ‘Fuck no. Absolutely not.” And then you hung up. And the next morning at 7:30 you called and said, ‘Okay, I have an idea.'”
Stephen McFeely is the screenwriter who was hired to write the films.
From what I understand, Deadpool and Wolverine director Shawn Levy was originally attached to direct at least one of the Avengers films, but when Robert Downey Jr. got involved, one of his return requests was that the Russos should return as well.
So, this definitely put pressure on Marvel to get filmmakers to return. You can also bet that another reason they’ll be back is because they’ll make a lot of money directing movies!
It was previously reported that Marvel would set aside $80 million for Anthony and Joe Russo to direct Avengers: Judgment Day AND Avengers: Secret Wars and “much more” for Downey as Doom in the two epic films.
The filmmakers had previously released a statement about their return to Marvel saying:
“You are the best fans in the world and we missed you.
“When we made Avengers: Endgame we really believed that this was the end of our journey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We had put all the passion, love and imagination we had into Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and then culminated it all with Endgame.
“All in the space of a few years. We had spent everything we had creatively and left all our emotions on the floor. But since then, we started to feel like maybe there was a story where we could find a new narrative path to follow. It’s the reason we fell in love with comics in the first place. That story is Secret Wars.
“We can’t express how excited we are to dive back into this world and explore a character as delightfully complex as Victor Von Doom. And there is no better friend or collaborator to do it with, [than] THE big one [Robert Downey Jr.].
“Marvel Family, let’s do this…”
Avengers: Judgment Day arrives in theaters on May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027.
by Joey Paur
Source: Geek Tyrant
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
