A recent Production Weekly report claimed that Avengers: Doomsday was likely scheduled to commence production early this year, and we now have confirmation via The Wrap.
According to the site, Marvel Studios' next big event film will start shooting next month in the United Kingdom.
Though we don't know if this part of the report is accurate, it's worth mentioning that PW also notes that the cast members include previously confirmed actors such as Robert Downey Jr. (Doctor Doom), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Nomad(?)) and Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America), along with The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts* casts, Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), and Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch).
Ana de Armas is also listed as a possibility.
Plot details are still under wraps, but we do know that Marvel had plans in place for a Kang-focused story in the fifth Avengers movie (FKA Avengers: The Kang Dynasty), but were forced to go back to the drawing board when actor Jonathan Majors was convicted of assault.
The decision was then made to pivot to Doctor Doom, who will be played by Tony Stark actor Robert Downey Jr.
"We've always worked very closely with Markus and McFeely through all the work that we've done together," co-director Joe Russo said last year when Stephen McFeely joined the writing team. "It's a little bit like getting back on a bike. We have a really codified process that we all work together through. It's very complicated to iron out a story of this scale."
"These are gonna be very, very big movies with a lot of characters in them and a lot of storylines coalescing," added Joe Russo. "We're really happy with how they're coming together right now."
If cameras are indeed set to start rolling in March, we should start to get some official updates from the trades fairly soon.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027. Both films will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
Have another look at some photos Downey Jr. shared to Instagram after the big reveal below.