The Russo Brothers in Talks to Direct Avengers 5 and 6
Marvel’s bringing in the big guns to save their declining movie franchise. An exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Joe and Anthony Russo are “in talks” to direct the next two Avengers movies. The first of the two films was previously called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but upon Jonathan Majors’ conviction, Marvel and Disney have dropped him and, seemingly, his villainous character, Kang the Conqueror, so the movie will be renamed. The second will be Avengers: Secret Wars. The Russo Brothers previously directed four Marvel movies: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Avengers: Not The Kang Dynasty is scheduled to be released on May 1, 2026, while Avengers: Secret Wars will be released on May 7, 2027.
Yep, Marvel is mighty desperate. That’s not a knock on the Russo Brothers; their four MCU films are among my favorites, with The Winter Soldier and Infinity War both vying for second place. (I have some big problems with Endgame, but I still love it for what it gets right; I also suspect a lot of the sucky stuff was forced on the Russos.) But it feels desperate because Kevin Feige previously said that the Russos would not be directing these two movies, despite their desire to helm Secret Wars, since the comic story was their favorite growing up:
The Russo brothers share with Deadline their future dream Marvel movie pic.twitter.com/hk9tyVluTP
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) July 14, 2022
Since then, several directors have been in contention, from Destin Daniel Cretton to Sam Raimi to Shawn Levy. Michael Waldron has been the screenwriter for Secret Wars for almost two years, although a recent rumor says he’s no longer with the film. In the meantime, Marvel’s movies have not been well received, nor have their Disney+ shows, and fans are turning away from the MCU because the quality is way down. It also doesn’t help that the Avengers are almost all gone – Captain America, Iron Man, and Black Widow are either dead or ambiguous – and the ones who remain were turned into shells of their former selves. Hulk is a boring hipster that resembles neither his beloved smashy persona nor Bruce Banner, Thor is a walking slapstick bit, and Hawkeye was last portrayed as a washed-up old man with hearing problems (which could have been an interesting storyline, but it was handled poorly).
Disney Marvel knows they fucked up pic.twitter.com/aHJdhP3ATy
— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) July 17, 2024
This leads to the big problem for Marvel and the Russo Brothers. As great as the Russos may be, are they going to have the ingredients necessary to make awesome, successful, crowd-pleasing Avengers movies? There’s only so much these guys can do with Ms. Marvel, Black Panther’s sister, Star Spangled Falcon, Ironheart, and Kate Bishop. Marvel has to not only bring their star directors back but get the hell out of their way if they want Joe and Anthony Russo to save them. That means not forcing unlikable characters on them (as Kevin Feige was rumored to have done with Captain Marvel in Endgame), not forcing stupid plotlines and jokes on them (let Thor and Hulk be badass again!), and not insisting on heaping doses of identity politics. It would also help to bring back Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who wrote all four of the Russo Brothers’ Marvel movies, plus Captain America: The First Avenger and the highly underrated Thor: The Dark World. I have about zero faith in Marvel at this point (I’m excited for Deadpool & Wolverine in spite of them, and because my understanding is that they mostly kept their nose out of it), so I won’t be hopeful for The Dynasty Formerly Known as Kang and Secret Wars until I know more about them. But if this pans out, bringing the Russos back is a positive development, though one that could easily be canceled out by Marvel’s recent arrogance and incompetence.
Comments (4)
It’s funny because Marvel has gotten too incestuous with its writers and directors lately, but this is the good version of that. Pick the ones who made good movies, not the ones who made stupid garbage nobody liked.
You forgot Shang Chi was an Avenger now, but I dont blame you. No one else remembers that either.
A move in the right direction, but, like you said, the ingredients are not really there. Still, it all starts with great writers and directors, great casting, etc.
Unless they drop all M-She-U influences, it will not recover. It’s too bad because, if they nailed Blade right, I am enjoying BloodHunt in the comics and also, there is a geezer one called Avengers Twilight that was really good. Both happening right now in comics. Surprised whenever I remotely like anything modern.
I like this move and wish Star Wars would’ve done the same. Go to directors with a track record. Same with writers. One guy Marvel should think about is Neil Blomkamp.