While the Russo Brothers have repeatedly expressed their love for 1984's Secret Wars crossover, the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars will take inspiration from the 2015 version of the story.
Jonathan Hickman laid the foundation for his Secret Wars—which led to a soft reboot for the Marvel Universe—in his acclaimed runs of Fantastic Four, Avengers, and New Avengers. Along the way, he introduced the idea of Incursions and a Battleworld comprised of the remaining pieces of reality after the Multiverse was destroyed.
During an interview with Bleeding Cool, Hickman was asked about how his work has inspired Avengers: Doomsday and revealed that he was enlisted to consult on the movie's script before it started shooting and seemingly ever since then.
"It's been really interesting. I don't know that it's common knowledge, but I consult for studios and read almost all the movies that they're making while they're in development," the writer revealed. "So it has been fascinating watching that change over the past two and a half years since I've been reading scripts for it."
"There was a big shift when The Russos came back on, and [Steven] McFeely came back on, and they announced that Robert Downey Jr. was going to be joining the cast again and all that kind of stuff. It has been really, really interesting. Those guys are very, very nice to me and take care of me. I'm very excited about what they're working on. I have not seen a final cut or anything like that."
Hickman added, "I've seen work in progress and all and whatnot. But I think they're really excited about it. I'll tell you the most interesting thing about the whole thing was that I have never seen a movie before while it was being worked on, in that there was no CGI involved."
"So you would see scenes where they hadn't added any special effects, and then two months later, you see the final version. It's kind of wizardry."
The writer's Marvel Comics work is very complex, threading together many different characters and storylines in a way that demands patience and concentration from the reader. The same could be said of the upcoming Multiverse Saga finale, so having Hickman lend his talents to the movie is no bad thing.
So far, we know that, along with McFeely, Michael Waldron (Loki) and Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (Spider-Man: Brand New Day) have also worked on Avengers: Doomsday's script.
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 stars Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Winston Duke, Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, and Robert Downey Jr. Wyatt Russell, Simu Liu, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Mabel Cadena, Florence Pugh, Danny Ramirez, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, India Rose Hemsworth, and Wesley Holloway all make their Avengers franchise debuts.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn join them, along with X-Men franchise stars Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden, plus Deadpool & Wolverine star Channing Tatum.
Directed by the Russo Brothers, Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18.