The Russo Brothers are still doing press for their Netflix movie “The Electric State,” and it always seems like they feel more comfortable or have let their guard down with the more fawning Brazilian press. Take this interview with Omelete, where Joe and Anthony Russo reveal the first details of both “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
We just covered how it was Marvel chief Kevin Feige who came up with the idea of Robert Downey Jr. to return to the MCU as Doomsday and how the Russo Brothers actually turned down the offer to direct those films at first. Anthony Russo explained why.
“We didn’t know what our road forward was in the MCU after ‘Endgame,’ he explained. “We weren’t sure what it [our role] was. What happened was that a creative idea came to us and that felt like the right idea. It motivated us to do it again.”
More of that explanation lies here.
But what’s telling in the rest of the interview is the details they share about it, arguably the first ones ever. However, the way they differentiated the two sagas was by their opposite nature.
“What’s compelling about these two ‘Avengers’ movies is that they are a beginning; it’s a new beginning,” Joe Russo said. “We told an ending story, and now we’re going to tell a beginning story, and who knows where we’ll go from there. Maybe it’ll be another five years, but I think we needed that time and perspective to figure out where it needed to go next.”
“We feel like we have something [a concept that is] fresh; we feel like we have something important to be told,” Anthony Russo said.
The duo also hinted at the mix of classic Avenger teammates teaming up with new members introduced in Phase 4.
“We have an amazing group of collaborators again, some old and some new,” he teased. “We’re very excited. It’s a difficult movie, there’s a lot of expectations on it.”
It was Joe Russo; however, you gave the biggest reveal. “The only thing I’ll say about the movie is this: we love villains who think they are the heroes of their own stories. That’s when they become three-dimensional and when they become more interesting,” he said. “And when you have an actor like Robert Downey Jr., you have to create a well-shaped, three-dimensional character for the audience. That’s where a lot of our focus is going.”
Now, does that mean the overarching plot of ‘Doomsday’ and ‘Secret Wars’ is Doctor Doom trying to save the multiverse or his particular earth/universe and all the sacrifices he must make in order to ensure that? And is that very similar to the same narrative of ‘Infinity War’ & ‘Endgame’ with Thanos being the only one willing to sacrifice half the universe so the rest of it could live?
One, it would not surprise us if “Doom Tries To Save The Multiverse” is the plot of the two movies, and two, yeah, it does sound pretty similar.
This is speculative, but where the Russos may really differ is in their portrayal of the villain. For all his morally complex and twisted ideas, Thanos was still a cruel and merciless nihilist with a savior concept. Given you have the charismatic Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role, it’s very possible they may play the character much more like a hero, a friend of Reed Richard and the Fantastic Four, and a man just trying to do the right thing, given some pretty horrible circumstances (the multiverse probably closing in on itself in one big incursion).
Who knows how it will go down ultimately, but none of that approach would surprise me, to be honest—as there are versions of Doom in the comics that are much friendlier and not as malevolent as your typical villain.
Moreover, the more charismatic, affable and sensible that he seems, the parallels between Doom and Tony Stark won’t seem that different and perhaps chillingly similar—suggesting the idea that Tony Stark could have just as easily tipped over to the other side in his wild and dogmatic ideas (I mean, the guy did take extreme measures and positions like creating Ultron and backing the Sokovia Accords, going so far as to fight Captain America about it, so, yeah, it feels like we’re onto something here).
Regardless, “Avengers: Doomsday” is set for a May 1, 2026, release. “Avengers: Secret Wars” will arrive on May 7, 2027. Watch the entire interview below.
