At this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios welcomed Joe and Anthony Russo back to the MCU by announcing them as the new directors of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Shortly after that memorable Hall H panel concluded, the Russo Brothers described Secret Wars as "the book that made us fall in love with comics." Now, they shared a lengthier statement about their return and the decision to cast Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.
You’re the best damn fans in the world, and we’ve missed you.
When we made Avengers: Endgame we truly believed that it was the end of the road for us in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We had put all the passion, love and imagination that we had into the Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and then culminated it all with Endgame. All within a few years. We had spent everything we had creatively, and we left all our emotions on the floor. But in the time since, we began to feel that there was perhaps one story where we could find a new narrative path forward. It’s the reason we fell in love with comic books in the first place. That story is Secret Wars.
We cannot express how excited we are to dive back into this world, and explore such a deliciously complex character like Victor Von Doom. And there is no better friend or collaborator to do that with, [than] THE great [Robert Downey Jr.].
Marvel fam, let’s do this...
The response to Downey playing Doom hasn't been the home run Marvel Studios likely expected. In fact, it wouldn't be unfair to call it a mixed reaction, largely because there's so much confusion about whether he's Doom or a Tony Stark Variant masquerading as the villain!
You can see the Russos' Instagram post below (and then keep scrolling for more Avengers news).
Stephen McFeely has been announced as the writer of both Doomsday and Secret Wars, confirming Marvel Studios has moved on from Michael Waldron and Jeff Loveness.
Alan Silvestri composed the scores for Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Now, many fans are convinced he's confirmed his involvement with the upcoming Multiverse Saga Avengers movies.
Jeremy Renner also made a point of sharing the logos for both movies on his Instagram Stories; that presumably means recent reports about him returning as Hawkeye for those were correct.
Avengers: Doomsday will be released in May 2026 with Avengers: Secret Wars set to follow in May 2027.