OK, the big shocker of the week, at least in terms of superhero movies was the news that the Russo Brothers returned to Marvel Studios and seemingly will direct the next two ‘Avengers’ movies, the unofficially titled, “Avengers 5,” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
Although it might seem like a no-brainer on the surface, Anthony and Joe Russo directed four super-successful Marvel movies in a row: “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame.” The latter two are among the highest-grossing films of all time.
But this doesn’t consider their recent aspirations. After ‘Endgame’ conquered the planet, the Russos felt like they had outgrown Marvel, and given their vast and earned cache, they thought they could parlay that into creating their own universes and blockbusters, and did so in the well-funded company they created AGBO. Asked if they were interested in making a “Star Wars” movie, they almost cockily said they were more interested in creating their own “Star Wars,” aka building up their own original franchises that could be as popular as Marvel and Lucasfilm. Unfortunately, most of their attempts failed and were often ridiculed outside of “The Extraction” franchise, which did fine but isn’t about to make any cultural impact.
And Marvel was coming off flops and a disappointing 2023 (“The Marvels,” ‘Ant-Man 3’), and were behind the gun. Following both “Shang-Chi” director Destin Daniel Cretton and “Deadpool & Wolverine” filmmaker Shawn Levy passing on ‘Avengers 5,’ Marvel reportedly struggled to find a filmmaker who could tackle such a large-scale film with only so much lead time (the movie starts production early-ish next year and will likely have to rush and race to finish before its May 2026 release date). So Marvel and the Russo need each other and the timing was fortuitous.
Another wrinkle to this story is that Puck News reports that the talent agency CAA tried to lobby for their clients Greg Berlanti and Noah Hawley, among others, but Marvel’s Kevin Feige “wasn’t into them.”
Now, CAA and talent agencies often do this; they have to serve their clients, but it’s curious how any of that would work. Hawley, for one, is knee-deep in the showrunning and presumably lengthy post-production of his “Alien: Earth” series due to air sometime in 2025. Surely, that would keep him out of the running unless the intention was for “Secret Wars” not to arrive until 2027.
Berlanti is a curious one, though it arguably makes more sense. Berlanti is arguably more well-known as a super producer than a filmmaker. He’s seemingly been desperate to get inside the superhero business for years. He co-wrote and co-produced the spectacular bomb of DC’s “Green Lantern” and had attempted to make a “Booster Gold” film for the company too. But he, instead, was relegated to including The CW’s Arrowverse, as well as “Titans” and “Doom Patrol,” writing and producing on all these shows, many of them critically ridiculed as cheesy efforts that often hurt the DC brand (In fact, one of the first things James Gunn did after taking over DC Studios, was killing all CW superhero shows; Berlanti was ousted, but got a big payday for his troubles).
But while it tanked at the box office, Berlanti demonstrated he could direct big-budget spectacles with heart, soul, drama, and comedy—the perfect elements of a superhero movie—with his latest film, “Fly Me To The Moon.” CAA likely screened that for Feige to try and convince him, and it’s a surprisingly really entertaining movie, but clearly, the maneuver did not work.
Additionally, you might remember that the Russos actually met with Marvel in the last few years to return to Marvel circa 2021, but the deal fell through. New reports suggest that the Russos wanted too much money and too much creative control, and Feige passed on their offer to return.
While reports from yesterday said the Russos approached Marvel, Puck says Kevin Feige sent a “late night text” to the filmmaking brothers to see if they’d be interested in re-engaging talks. Clearly, Marvel is in a spot; the Russos haven’t been very successful with their solo projects, and the timing is perfect. If they can make a deal and not walk away from the table this time, it’ll be a win-win for everyone.
More will surely be revealed at San Diego Comic-Con next week, including an official announcement.