Though Joe and Anthony Russo have delivered what many fans would consider some of the best movies the MCU has to offer with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, their projects outside the Marvel Studios system have not been anywhere near as successful.
The Russos' most recent movie, Netflix's The Electric State, was panned by critics (it's sitting at an abysmal 15% on Rotten Tomatoes) and debuted to pretty low viewership numbers on the streamer.
According to a recent rumor, The Electric State's reception has led to Marvel higher-ups questioning the decision to hire the Russo Brothers to direct Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Some dismissed the report - after all, the studio will already have been well aware that the filmmakers didn't have the best non-MCU track record - but another source has now backed up this claim.
Daniel Richtman has heard that "Kevin Feige has concerns about the Russos directing the next two Avengers films. However, at this stage replacing them isn’t an option, so he plans to closely oversee the projects, ensuring the script is just right and everything stays on track. He's going to be way more hands-on than ever with them."
The Electric State - which was also co-written by Doomsday and Secret Wars scribe Stephen McFeely - had a reported production budget of over $300 million (believe it or not), so we have no problem believing that Feige is at least a little concerned and intends to keep a very close eye on how these massive event films are progressing.
Whatever you may happen to think about their other movies, Joe and Anthony Russo have done some incredible work with Marvel Studios, so we can only hope that they'll be able to recapture some of that old magic for Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Cameras are scheduled to begin rolling on Doomsday next month in the UK, and sets are currently under construction. We haven't seen any photos (nothing revealing, at least) yet, but several actors have been spotted in London over the past few weeks.
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.