Avengers: Endgame's creative team, directors Joe and Anthony Russo and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, recently reunited for Netflix's The Electric State. Unfortunately, that hasn't gone too well for them.
The foursome also collaborated on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War. In recent years, they've all been focused on producing content through AGBO but Joe, Anthony, and Stephen will return to the MCU for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Talking to The Playlist, Markus finally broke his silence on his decision to give those movies a miss.
"It’s the simple fact of opportunity really," he told the site. "When we started AGBO, part of the imperative was let’s look for things to adapt, ideas of our own. And by luck or preference, I wound up with a whiteboard full of things—two series of books that we had optioned, a spec script. about three or four other ideas and a TV pilot that was there to be written. And this was prior to all that 'Avenging' coming on the horizon."
"But 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. And so, I just said, 'Let’s just everybody be under the understanding that this is what I’m doing because [those movies] need a brain on them. They need a guide and I love them,'" he continued. "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."
Markus also confirmed that he isn't currently working with Marvel Studios in any capacity. There have been rumblings about the Russo Brothers consulting on the Mutant Saga - and perhaps even helming the X-Men reboot - but it appears the writer is happier focusing on AGBO.
Elsewhere in the conversation, he addressed what many have argued is a decline in quality for the MCU since Avengers: Endgame concluded the Infinity Saga in 2019.
"After we left, in a way, I think Marvel has become, not positively or negatively, more like the comics," Markus explained. "During our time there, it was more of a straight-line narrative. I mean, you had a million other things going on, but when you look at the comics, those things are in the same universe, but it is a diffuse, non-linear, organic expansion of the story."
"And I think that what’s been happening at Marvel is that it has just been kind of growing outward and that’s not bad or good. And in some ways, it’s kind of what you need in order to have new things. In order to hopefully bring things together again, you need to let them grow up."
It turns out that not even the opportunity to write scenes for Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom was enough to convince Markus to return. "No, I was like, ‘That’s very clever, but that’s a lot of work.' I got nothing against work, but that’s also work I’ve done. Not necessarily with Doctor Doom, but you know, you can’t have all."
Markus spent several years of his career entrenched in the MCU and we know that's not an easy task for any filmmaker. No one can really blame him for choosing to focus on AGBO, regardless of the mixed fortunes the production company has had since launching.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.