Marvel officially confirmed that Joe and Anthony Russo on stage to announce that they’ll be directing both “Avengers 5” (now titled “Avengers: Doomsday”) and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” Stephen McFeely, who cowrote the Russos’ previous Marvel films with Christopher Markus, will write the screenplays for both movies.
Marvel announced the Russo Brothers’ return by first showing a sizzle of all of the Marvel Studios films the Russos had previously directed — “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame.” As they walked out, the thunderous crowd shouted “Russo! Russo!”
The Russos said, “We missed you guys. You are the best damn fans in the world.”
“Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made,” the Russo Brothers said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou, and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves.”
“Are we really gonna do this? Hear me out, when we directed ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ Joe and I truly believed it was the end of the road for us in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” Anthony said from the Comic-Con stage.
After an “Avengers: Secret Wars” logo appeared on screen, Joe said, “There is one very important character that is required to do ‘Secret Wars’ justice… it could be the most important character in all of the Marvel Universe.” Actors dressed as Doctor Doom flooded the stage and eerie music played throughout Hall H.
The fifth “Avengers” movie will now be called “Avengers: Doomsday.” And Doctor Doom will be played by Robert Downey, Jr. himself.
Fans were first introduced to Kang — or rather, a variant of him known as He Who Remains — in the first season of Marvel’s “Loki” series. We only properly met Kang the Conqueror in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” He was set to be the villain at the center of literally everything for the next few phases, a lá Thanos, but in December Jonathan Majors, the actor who played Kang, was found guilty on charges of assault and harassment in his New York domestic violence case.
Following the verdict, Marvel fired him, and hadn’t indicated how they might fill the hole in their universe until now.
“Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” were first announced back in 2022, once again during Marvel’s Hall H panel. “The Kang Dynasty” was set to hit theaters on May 2, 2025, with “Secret Wars” following on Nov. 7, 2025.
“Avengers: Doomsday” will now arrive in May 2026, with “Avengers: Secret Wars” in May 2027.
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