Avengers: Doomsday co-director Joe Russo claims that the requisite ensemble movie makes everyone feel like it stands on its own and “isn’t leaning on anything from the past.”
The last Avengers movie came in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame, which served as a culmination to over a decade of MCU story. Since then, the franchise has rebuilt itself, introducing a new era of superheroes. The new generation of Avengers movies kicks off in December with Avengers: Doomsday, and continues a year later with Avengers: Secret Wars.
For the upcoming Avengers flicks, esteemed Infinity War and Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo are back at the helm, tasked with not only carrying forward the immense history of the MCU, but setting new foundations for viewers who haven’t watched every movie and subsequent Disney+ series. With Doomsday, we’re getting a gluttony of legacy characters: Chris Evans is back as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and the original X-Men cast, including Patrick Stewart as Professor X and Ian McKellen as Magneto. Then there’s new-generation heroes, such as Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards and the rest of the MCU’s Fantastic Four. Overseeing all of them as the arch villain is Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr. — yes, the very same one who played Tony Stark/Iron Man for all those years.
There’s already unconfirmed rumours that Doomsday could be the longest MCU movie to date, eclipsing the mammoth 3-hour runtime of Endgame. In bringing such an immense picture together, directors Joe and Anthony Russo were tasked with catering to dedicated long-term fans and casual moviegoers alike. Striking that balance was one of the greatest challenges. “That serial shifting and changing and surprising you and then reinventing itself and then shifting and changing and then surprising you — that’s exciting and I think you’re going to see some shifting and changing [with Doomsday]. So, get ready for it. Look, we were with Rob [Downey Jr.] earlier today,” Joe Russo told The Hollywood Reporter. “We were both talking about this concept that we are back to phase zero. This is starting over from scratch. We want to make sure everybody feels like this isn’t leaning on anything from the past.”
Given the gluttonous cast they’ve got, a blend of veteran actors, long-time MCU stars, and young newcomers — managing an ensemble of this scale is no easy feat. “Each one of those actors is playing somebody’s favorite character,” Joe added, “and so if you’re not going to search the character properly, then you’re going to disappoint someone in that audience. We grew up in the biggest Italian family. … We understand how to tell stories with multiple characters. A lot of that has to do with very subtle POV shifts throughout the story”
“If Thor, when he lands, if that accidentally cuts [Sebastian] Stan’s head off… That’s how close those points of view are to each other, and that’s all very calibrated, from a protocol standpoint.”
With Joe and Anthony’s experience on Infinity War and Endgame, we don’t expect balancing screen times for the gigantic cast to be among the movie’s shortcoming. The big issue, we believe, comes in striking a balance in satisfying long-term MCU fans and casual viewers. Both will be watching the movie. That said, a film of this stature must cater to the established fanbase. Catering to all can be done — look no further than The Mandalorian & Grogu — but it doesn’t always work out well.
Avengers: Doomsday releases in theatres on December 18, 2026.
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