Marvel Studios made a big splash at San Diego Comic-Con this week by revealing that Robert Downey Jr. will play Doctor Doom in the newly-titled Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Additionally though, it was confirmed that directors Joe and Anthony Russo are also returning to the MCU to helm this pair of upcoming Marvel movies. Like Downey, they made their initial MCU exit back in 2019 when Avengers: Endgame was released, but now they’re back to pick up the directorial reins, and Zack Snyder, a filmmaker with his own superhero media experience, commented to CinemaBend about the Russos tackling the next two Avengers movies.
Snyder, of course, was one of the key architects of the DC Extended Universe, having directed Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the original iteration of Justice League, with the four-hour cut of that latter project being released to people with a Max subscription in 2021. While speaking with Snyder on the ReelBlend Podcast about the director’s cuts of the Rebel Moon movies that will arrive to Netflix subscription holders on August 2, and our own Sean O’Connell asked him what he thought about the Russos returning for Doomsday and Secret Wars, and he responded:
I think that's great for them. They're amazing, and they've done really... I think they've done great work with those guys. I'm sure they'll do something amazing. They're talented guys, and I think they'll do something cool. I think it's time to shake it up a little bit.
“Shake it up” is an interesting way to look at this considering Joe and Anthony Russo have already left some of the biggest marks on the MCU with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. If anything, it’s bringing more familiarity, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, having directed Cherry, The Gray Man and The Electric State post-Endgame, it’s easy to envision the Russos being newly energized and game to guide the MCU to its next status quo-changing pair of movies after previously thinking they were done with this franchise. Regardless, Zack Snyder likes their work and is looking forward to seeing what they plan to deliver the capstones of The Multiverse Saga.
While no director was ever announced to be directing Avengers: Secret Wars prior to San Diego Comic-Con, originally the plan for the fifth Avengers movie, previously called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, to be directing by Destin Daniel Cretton. However, he exited the project in November 2023, and then the following month, Marvel fired Kang the Conqueror actor Jonathan Majors. Now Downey’s Doctor Doom is taking over as the lead antagonist of these two movies, and along with an unknown number of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes joining forces again, Doomsday and Secret Wars will also include the Fantastic Four following their MCU debut in the newly-titled The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
We’ll see how Joe and Anthony Russo do with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars when the former is released on May 1, 2026, and the latter follows on May 7, 2027. As for Zack Snyder, although it hasn’t been announced what movie he’ll direct next, he has been attached for several years to Planet of the Dead, the sequel to his 2021 flick Army of the Dead.
