“F**k no” – Avengers: Secret Wars’ writer on his initial reaction when asked to come back to the MCU with the Russo brothers
The Russo brothers coming back to the MCU is obviously a big thing, but it turns out for them and their writing partner it wasn’t an immediate yes.
Last year, Marvel clearly made the call that it needed some familiar hands on deck to steer its slightly sinking ship. So, it brought back the Russo brothers to direct Avengers: Secret Wars and Doomsday alongside Robert Downey Jr. as a presumed alternate universe Doctor Doom. It’s a weak choice, if you ask me, and really highlights Marvel’s creative insecurity, but hey ho what’s done is done. As it turns out, though, the Russo brothers didn’t come back right away, and speaking to Empire they alongside Avengers: Endgame (and other Russo brothers projects) screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus explained what brought them back to the MCU.
“Endgame was the end, and it took a little time for us to begin to think about it as something other than an end,” Anthony Russo said to Empire. “We’re very close with Kevin [Feige] and Lou [D’Esposito, Marvel Studios’ Co-President] and the entire Marvel team and we’ve had conversations through the years. We’ve talked about a lot of ideas. Really what happened was, we ended up stumbling upon an idea that activated all of us. You couldn’t see it coming until it came, and once it came it was like, ‘Well, that’s a story we need to tell.'”
McFeely wasn’t on board even after Joe thought about how Secret Wars might work as an Avengers movie, with Joe explaining, “I remember calling Steve and said, ‘Hey, crazy idea. What do you think if we all go back and do Secret Wars?’ You were like, ‘f**k no. Absolutely not.’ And then you hung up. And the next morning at 7.30 you called and were like, ‘alright, I have an idea.'”
Whether that idea pays off for audiences or not is still the big question, and considering Doomsday isn’t out until next year, and Secret Wars is out in 2027, you’ve still got a while to wait too.