At the San Diego Comic-Con in 2024, Marvel Studios welcomed the Russo Brothers back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with Robert Downey Jr., who swaps Iron Man's armour for Doctor Doom's in this December's Avengers: Doomsday.
After saying they would likely be too busy with their AGBO endeavours to return to Marvel Studios until at least the end of this decade, Joe and Anthony shocked everyone with their MCU return for Doomsday and 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars.
Of course, they were also coming off the back of disappointments like The Gray Man and The Electric State on Netflix, so another $1 billion box office hit will do them a lot of favours in Hollywood (AGBO will, unusually, also produce the next Avengers movies).
Talking to Soundsphere, Anthony told the site that his and Joe's MCU return ultimately came down to being pitched a compelling story.
"We did really feel like our job with those two Avengers movies was to sort of provide a climax to what the MCU had been up to that point, even beyond the work that we had done," he started. "So, there was a sense that we had that there’s no narrative past this. That was our understanding. It took a few years for us to move past that story."
"Oddly enough as we’re very close with Marvel, we continue we are sort of every few months we’ll talk. We’re very close friends with them, and we talk a lot about a lot of creative ideas that we don’t end up working on, but eventually we just came to an idea, and it was Steve McFeely, the writer who co-wrote all the Marvel work that we did; he came up with this creative idea that sort of reignited."
"I can’t talk about that creative idea because it’s the basis for Doomsday, but that all of a sudden broke the skies open for us. We saw all new kinds of possibilities within the MCU with that idea," Anthony teased. "It was very much based upon the work we had done prior, and now we have Donald in official partnership on those films as well. So, it’s an exciting time for us."
Asked about bringing Downey back into the fold as Doctor Doom, Joe replied, "We were with Robert earlier, and we’re both talking about this concept that we are back to phase zero. This is starting over from scratch. We want to make sure everybody feels like we’re not leaning on anything from the past. This is going to be, as you’ll see when you see the movie, a completely new direction."
When the Oscar-winner's past as Iron Man was brought up, all the filmmaker would say was, "I’m not going to give away anything. It will all make sense when you watch the movies."
Later, the Russos revealed that Doctor Doom's MCU costume is their all-time favourite and went on to drop some hints about how they're approaching the character (which may explain persistent rumours that this Victor Von Doom is a husband and father).
"We always look at it as our job to not tell you a story that you’ve heard before," Anthony mused. "We’re never translating directly from the comics. We’re always adding a new experience that hasn’t been written yet in terms of who these characters can be."
"But I would say Doom hits that sweet spot between being very specific and unique to the original story that happens within this film, but also delivering on what the most awesome things are about Doom from the comics," he added.
Many Marvel fans are convinced that they know where the next Avengers movies are heading, especially as Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic's Secret Wars seems to be a huge source of inspiration. However, based on these remarks, the filmmakers have some curveballs in store for us.
In Avengers: Doomsday, beloved heroes from three distinct universes will be set on a deadly collision course and face an existential threat unlike anything they’ve ever encountered.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18.