The Russo Brothers Answer All Your Burning ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Questions [Exclusive]

At this year’s New York Comic Con, Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the opportunity to sit down with the Russo Brothers, Anthony and Joe. The multi-hyphenate filmmakers were there with their upcoming Netflix and AGBO film The Electric State, starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, and we couldn’t pass up the chance to inquire about their highly-anticipated return to Marvel Studios in collaboration with AGBO for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

The Russo Brothers are well-known for their work on action-packed titles like the Extraction franchise and their global series Citadel, but they’re particularly heralded for having helmed the two highest-grossing MCU films, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, in addition to Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. Their track record with Marvel is off the charts, and now, they’re reteaming up with creative partner Stephen McFeely, who co-wrote all four of the Russo Brothers’ MCU films with Christopher Markus.

During this exclusive sit-down with Weintraub, Anthony and Joe Russo provided exciting updates for the next Avengers chapter. Check out the full conversation in the video above or in the transcript below to find out the script status, who won’t be returning this time around, when they plan to begin filming, and more.

When Does ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Begin Filming?

COLLIDER: This is my first time talking to you guys since the announcement at San Diego a few months ago. Welcome back to the party.

JOE RUSSO: We always said Secret Wars would get us back.

I moderated that panel with you in Hall H before COVID. We were covering a lot of stuff, and I made you answer, like, five Secret Wars questions to start that panel off joking around.

JOE RUSSO: You manifested it.

ANTHONY RUSSO: You made us super uncomfortable, by the way.

JOE RUSSO: No, you manifested it. It wouldn’t have happened without those five questions.

I don’t think it would have happened without [Robert] Downey [Jr.].

Where are you in the writing process of something called Avengers?

JOE RUSSO: We are right in the middle of the writing process.

Is it [Christopher] Markus and [Stephen] McFeely? Who is actually working on the script?

JOE RUSSO: Stephen McFeely is writing the script.

I’m assuming you guys are intricately involved.

ANTHONY RUSSO: Yes. We’ve always worked very closely with Markus and McFeely through all the work that we’ve done together.

JOE RUSSO: And they’re both partners in AGBO with us. We’re very tight collaborators, all of us.

With Infinity War and with Endgame , you guys shot them together. Will you be doing that with these two upcoming Avengers films or do you think that that can’t work?

JOE RUSSO: It’ll be similar, but we’ll have a larger break in between the two movies than we did. I think it was four weeks, maybe. Was it four weeks in between Infinity War and Endgame?

ANTHONY RUSSO: I think it was a couple of weeks. But no, these are not as separated as you would normally separate two films of this scale, but they’re more substantially separated by a year or so.

I don’t know if you’ve announced this, but do you have a start date that you need to start filming this first one?

JOE RUSSO: We do.

[Laughs] I like that. I know it’s next year, but you’re not gonna tell me?

JOE RUSSO: It’s in the spring.

Is it London or Atlanta?

JOE RUSSO: We haven’t made up our minds yet — I’m kidding. We have. It’s probably better not to say.

ANTHONY RUSSO: We’re being sort of reticent because we’re still figuring a lot of this out.

The Russo Brothers Are Eyeing IMAX for the Next Avengers Movie

One of the things that I love is seeing movies in IMAX. Is there any chance you guys are thinking about an IMAX film for these Avengers movies?

JOE RUSSO: Absolutely. Hopefully, these are two of the biggest movies of the decade, and they deserve to be seen in the IMAX format. Those are all the conversations we’re having right now.

I don’t think a lot of people realize there are months before filming begins when all these decisions are being made. So you guys are obviously writing the scripts, and Kevin Feige has talked about how these movies are gonna have so many characters. What is it like in the writers’ room trying to figure out what actors we need versus what Marvel might want versus what works for the story? What is it like behind the scenes of it?

JOE RUSSO: It’s a little bit like getting back on a bike. It’s a process that we did so intensely for a decade that we have a really codified process that we all work together through, Anthony, I, and Steve [McFeely], that we collaborate with. And we collaborate with Kevin and the folks at Marvel. It’s very complicated to iron out a story of this scale. The ambition is similar to Infinity War and Endgame. These are gonna be very, very big movies with a lot of characters in them and a lot of storylines coalescing, but we’re very excited about the stories. That’s why we came back because we felt like we had a really strong idea for what these movies should be, and we’re really happy with how they’re coming together right now.

ANTHONY RUSSO: I would just say, you hear it in your question. There’s a lot going on but the way we always work our way through the process, and this is what we’ve done in our entire road through our careers and our time at Marvel, et cetera, is we just default to what moves us the most, what excites us the most — what is the most powerful version of storytelling we can do here? That’s how we clear up all the other issues in the room.

I think I speak for a lot of fans that we’re all very excited that you guys are coming back to helm these movies. But I am so curious, you hit such home runs with Infinity War and Endgame. W as there any hesitation, like honest conversations, about, “Do we wanna go back and try to do it again?” Or was it, “We have the skill set, let’s go and do it again?”

ANTHONY RUSSO: Look, on some level, those movies can seem intimidating because they were such successes. But what motivated us to come back is, we’re not chasing that, what we’re chasing is this idea that we felt there was more powerful storytelling to be done. That’s what motivated us, when we tuned into a story that we felt had to be told that we wanted to tell, and that would be an incredible thrill, not just for us, but for audiences. That’s what we’re focused on. We can’t really control what ends up to a movie after you make it. All we can do is put our best effort into making it.

JOE RUSSO: There’s no better experience as a filmmaker than galvanizing audiences around the world, and getting them excited about a really ambitious story. It certainly was a highlight of our careers, was sitting in audiences watching Infinity War and Endgame with those audiences. It was electric and felt like a rock concert. Stories are one of the last things that we have left that bind people together still. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, or what your political persuasion is, everyone comes together for stories of this scale. To have the opportunity to try to do that again and to have the opportunity to try to get people excited about a story that they can all get behind and share together was really attractive to us because we knew it had the potential to be another really special experience.

Introducing New Marvel Characters Is the “Thrill of a Lifetime”

You cast very instrumental characters in your Marvel movies. With these Avengers films, I am very confident that you’ll be introducing characters to the MCU that perhaps we haven’t seen yet, so what is it like for the two of you to have that opportunity again?

JOE RUSSO: Great Lakes Avengers.

You know what I mean, though? You’re in the writing process right now. You’re obviously breaking down, like, who are these characters gonna be, who do you want to cast? It has to be amazing.

JOE RUSSO: That’s the exciting part of it.

ANTHONY RUSSO: Look, we all have such a long-time investment in these characters, whether you were fans of the characters before with the comics or even if you just came to them in the MCU. It’s that time that we’ve all invested in these characters. It just makes their meaning and their resonance and their possibilities all that more powerful and intriguing and thrilling. So, yeah, when you have that emotional investment, it’s the thrill of a lifetime.

Avengers: Doomsday will hit theaters in 2026. Look for more from our exclusive interview with the Russo Brothers soon.

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