At last year's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that Joe and Anthony Russo were making their MCU return to helm Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
The news was capped off with the reveal that Robert Downey Jr. will play Doctor Doom, a surprising decision which continues to divide opinions (though perhaps less so since that concept art leaked online).
The Russo Brothers have plenty of MCU experience after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. It's fair to say that Doomsday and Secret Wars are in safe hands and, in an interview with Collider, the duo weighed in on the likely runtimes for both movies.
"If I were a betting man," Joe told the site, "I would say the first one is two and a half, and the second one's three hours." With that, it seems we have the current goal for the Multiverse Saga's two-part finale likely based loosely on where they're going with the scripts for Doomsday and Secret Wars.
When it was put to them that set photos could spoil some of the biggest moments for fans, Joe said, "We’re pretty good about shutting that down." Anthony added, "We've sort of strategized to hopefully be effective with that."
Joe later confirmed that "quite a bit" of Avengers: Doomsday is being shot on soundstages. "We don’t want people getting photographs, so we are being pretty stringent," he explained before Anthony chimed in to say, "The location work we are doing, we have picked those locations with that in mind, as well."
The filmmakers also revealed that they're gearing up for "a standard-length shoot" with "six months for each of them" currently pencilled in.
When cameras were rolling on Avengers: Endgame, we got a first look at the team travelling back in time to the events of The Avengers. However, to throw us off the scent, the Russos made sure B.A.R.F. cases were also spotted on set in Atlanta.
Addressing Robert Downey Jr.'s MCU return as the villainous Doctor Doom at The Electric State premiere, writer Stephen McFeely said, "When I got the news this was where it was going, I thought it was pretty electric."
"There's an understandable desire to bring Robert [Downey Jr.] back to the [Marvel Cinematic] Universe," he continued. "To do it as Tony Stark would be betraying what I thought was a pretty lovely ending for him in Endgame."
The Russo Brothers were also on hand, with Joe revealing, "It’s all in London, we’re shooting them fairly back-to-back, it’s a lot of work again, we may or may not survive, we’ll see. But we’re very excited about it."
"We found a way into the story that we think is gonna be challenging for audiences, it’s challenging for us to execute. And it’s really exciting for us, it gets us out of bed to do it," the filmmaker added.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.