Joe and Anthony Russo, the directing duo behind the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity WarAnd Avengers: Endgamehaven’t wrapped up their work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios announced Saturday night during its 2024 San Diego Comic-Con panel that the Russos would be coming out of their brief retirement from superhero filmmaking to direct back-to-back Avengers films: Avengers: Doomsdaywhich will be released in theaters on May 1, 2025, and Avengers: Secret Warswhich will be released two years later, on May 7, 2027.
The revelation that Avengers 5 (formerly known as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty) is now known as Avengers: Doomsday is definitely a big hint as to who the villain in that movie is going to be: Doctor Doom. And the actor who is going to play Doom is none other than Robert Downey, Jr. himself. Yep, Iron Man is once again donning the… or rather, a metal suit.
But Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige also gave a hint about who otherwise will appear in those Avengers films. The casts of Captain America: Brave New World, Lightning bolts*And The Fantastic Four: First Steps will all appear in the sequel to The Avengers, Feige said.
Between directing and producing through their company AGBO, the Russos have been busy since leaving the MCU — often on projects that feature their cast members from Avengers: EndgameIn 2020, Joe Russo wrote the Chris Hemsworth-led action film Extraction for stuntman and Marvel second-unit director Sam Hargrave. Two years later, the brothers had perhaps their biggest victory lap: producing Everything everywhere at onceand guided the film to the Oscar for Best Picture.
The Russos haven’t been as successful on the directorial front, at least in terms of reviews. In 2021, the brothers made a prestige film with a much-maligned adaptation of the drug-fueled crime saga Cherrystarring Tom Holland, followed by the also rejected Netflix blockbuster The Gray Man in 2022. Directing and producing Amazon’s mega-budget spy series Citadel didn’t go so well either. They currently have another film in the works: the sci-fi tentpole The electrical state starring Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown.
During a SDCC panel in 2019/Endgame victory lap, the Russos previewed some big projects that haven’t yet come to fruition: a live-action adaptation of Battle of the Planets; an animated series based on the Grimjack comic strip series; and a Magic: The Gathering series for Netflix. In the same breath, they talked about whether they would ever direct another Marvel film. They told people not to hold their breath… unless the project might Secret Warsthat they never dreamed would happen in a million years. Well, guess what.
