The media narrative around the Russo Brothers, Joe and Anthony, returning to Marvel is that they struggled with their expensive and critically-derided AGBO films (“The Grey Man,” “Cherry”) licked their wounds, and returned to Marvel to get paid and change their overall fortune.
But that might not be entirely accurate. In a new interview with Omelete, the sibling filmmaking pair revealed that they initially turned down “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” even with Robert Downey Jr. attached as Doctor Doom.
The initial idea for Downey Jr. as Doom was not a concept the Russo Brothers created, they admitted, and it was one that was in the works for some time. Instead, it was Marvel’s CEO who came up with the inspired idea.
“That was Kevin [Feige],” Joe Russo said about who came up with the idea for Downey Jr. to return to Marvel as the iconic villain. “Interestingly enough about that, that conversation was had a while ago,” he added, suggesting it was a concept floated years ago.
Moreover, when pitched the concept of Downey as Doom in the Avengers movies, they initially turned it down.
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“Then Robert tried to talk us into doing [the Avengers movies] and we said ‘no.’ Weirdly, because we said we wouldn’t come back. We just didn’t have a story,” Joe Russo revealed, suggesting that Downey as Doom wasn’t enough and they needed a stronger narrative reason to return. “We didn’t have a way in. We were resistant for a while.”
But it was one half of the Markus and McFeely—the duo that wrote all their previous four Marvel films— Stephen McFeely that cracked the code and pitched it to them.
“One day, [writer] Stephen McFeely, one of our chief collaborators, said, ‘I have an idea,’” and the pair were lit up by it and immediately said yes. “We went, ‘That’s the story!’ That story has to be told; it’s a really powerful story!”
Much of this story already jibes with what was reported: that Robert Downey Jr. would not sign on to the new ‘Avengers’ movies unless the Russo Brothers were directing, and this clearly took some convincing and a narrative purpose.
Additionally, this makes sense because Christopher Markus is not part of the next two ‘Avengers’ movies, sitting out for the first time in the history of the Russos and the screenwriting pair’s collaboration.
The reasons for Markus’ absence were a mystery until recently. The screenwriter told The Playlist exclusively in a conversation about the Russo Brother’s recent release, “The Electric State,” that he simply had to choose either Marvel or many AGBO projects that hadn’t gotten off the ground, and he ultimately chose the homegrown projects because they were personal and not territory he had already covered.
“It got to the point where it was like, ‘Look, I need to grow these plants or they’re going to die,’ And [Marvel] is very extremely full-time,” he explained about the AGBO film projects that were dying on the vine without his attention. “And so, I just said, ‘Let’s just everybody be under the understanding that this is what I’m doing because [those Marvel movies] need a brain on them. They need a guide and I love them.’ So, when it came Avenging time—I mean, you don’t Avenge part-time, you don’t do anything Marvel part-time. That is a years-long commitment.”
“Avengers: Doomsday” is set for a May 1, 2026, release. “Avengers: Secret Wars” will arrive on May 7, 2027. Watch the entire interview below.
