The latest upcoming Marvel flick, Avengers: Doomsday, will draw millions of superhero fans to cinemas later this year and pick up some of Endgame's plot threads. Returning to the directors' chairs for the superhero team-up movie are Joe and Anthony Russo, who have plenty of experience working within this franchise. Still, as one can imagine, making these movies isn't easy, and Anthony revealed one particularly challenging aspect of crafting this fifth installment that fans may not believe.
What's known about Avengers: Doomsday is that it'll see heroes from multiple universes to face off against the villainous Doctor Doom. But, with so many fan-favorite heroes in one movie, that, of course, can create story-building challenges. In a Q&A held after an Avengers: Endgame Encore screening, Anthony Russo (via GamesRadar+) explained how hard it was to bring returning characters into a new story while still respecting other key players fans love:
It’s a very difficult part of the process because, I mean, we basically just have to use our own meters because we love the characters, we love the history, we love them in the same way that many fans do.
This obstacle is definitely understandable, considering just how much fans love these characters and how much real estate the Russos have to cover in a given film. There are plenty of massive expectations for Doomsday as well, especially considering Avengers: Endgame killed it at the box office, surpassing Avatar as the top-grossing movie of all time.
As Marvel fans still flock to theaters to see their favorite characters' journeys of their favorite heroes, it’s natural that the Russo Brothers want to make sure they do them all justice for Doomsday. While it appears the sibling directors want to make sure that audiences have an enjoyable experience, they’re also realistic about not being able to please all fans if certain characters go in a different direction than fans expect. Anthony also said:
But the one thing we always like to remind people of, you know, fandom does not speak with a single voice. There’s a wide variety of opinion in terms of who responds to which characters and which versions of which characters people respond to, it’s a very complex relationship that people have with the characters.
The Cherry co-director makes a great point, as some people may like a specific take on a character, while others may not be as receptive. For example, fans seem to love the Russo's handling of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, but many are divided (including Hemsworth's own kids and their friends) on the comical way the character is depicted in Ragnarok and Love and Thunder. But, based on the trailer for Doomsday, it looks like Hemsworth will return as a more “serious” Thor as he motivates his superhero cohorts on the importance of taking down Doom as a team.
Character growth is very important to the actors as well. Tom Hiddleston, for instance, promised that Loki’s hard-earned development from his eponymous Disney+ series will not be discarded in the upcoming Avengers movie. All in all, I'm hopeful that the Russo Brothers will make continuity efforts to ensure that our favorite Marvel characters will be honored as they come together for the 2026 movie release.
Joe and Anthony Russo deserve some serious credit for the way in which they've handled ensemble casts in the MCU thus far, and this latest film may be their greatest undertaking. Doomsday has such a stacked cast with actors portraying Avengers, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, the Thunderbolts/New Avengers and more. It remains to be seen if everyone' stories will be serviced accordingly but, if anyone can accomplish that, it's the Russos.
See Earth's Mightiest Heroes and their allies assemble to face Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, which opens in theaters on December 18th. In the meantime, prepare by streaming other MCU films with a Disney+ subscription.
