Robert Downey Jr., the Russo Brothers and Stephen McFeely to return to the MCU in AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY

Confirming earlier reports, Marvel has successfully lured its most successful directing team, Anthony and Joseph Russo, back to their Cinematic Universe. The two directors will tackle the next two Avengers movies. The first of these has been retitled Avengers: Doomsday and will be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars to follow in May 2027. But the Russo Brothers and Kevin Feige also confirmed an old friend will be returning.

Robert Downey Jr., who previously played Tony Stark/Iron Man in nine Marvel movies, is rejoining the MCU as iconic supervillain Dr. Victor von Doom. The announcement was made at the San Diego Comic-Con yesterday.

The role of Dr. Doom, the ruler of Latveria who wants to bring about global order under his rule, was previously played in live action by Joseph Culp in Roger Corman's 1994 movie, Julian McMahon in the 2005 movie and its sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Toby Kebbell in the 2015 film.

The Russo Brothers' longtime writing partner, Stephen McFeely, is also taking over scripting duties on both new films. He previously co-wrote Captain America: The Winter Solder, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the four films previously helmed by the Brothers.

The move represents a near-inevitable pivot by Marvel Studios once actor Jonathan Majors was convicted of misdemeanour assault and harassment in December 2023. Majors had played the villainous Kangs and various alternate timeline versions of the same character in numerous projects leading up to the next Avengers face-off. Marvel had mused recasting, but, given his last appearance in Season 2 of Loki acted as a good pause point for the character, they have instead decided to move to a different story. It may be they return to the Kang storyline with a new actor at a later date, although perhaps they could be forgiven for just writing off the whole thing as a bad idea and moving on.

Speculation will now be rife that Doom - primarily a Fantastic Four villain before appearing with other Marvel characters - may appear or at least cameo in the 1960s-set The Fantastic 4: First Steps (as it was recently retitled), which is due in cinemas on 25 July, 2025 (although the main villain has already been confirmed to be Ralph Ineson's Galactus). It was also confirmed at the Marvel panel that the Fantastic Four will be (similar to Steve Rogers) travelling to the present to fight Dr. Doom in the two new Avengers films.

Given Marvel's recent creative woes, you can't fault them for turning back to their "dream team" to drag them back to the glory days, although some may also feel it's a shame they could not find a firmer footing with new talent to drive them to new levels of success.

Marvel tries to lure the Russo Brothers back to the fold

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Disney and the Russo Brothers are in talks about a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Russo Brothers have apparently been offered the job of directing both The Avengers 5 and 6 (not the final titles), due in 2026 and 2027 respectively.

Anthony and Joseph Russo initially made their name as directors in television, helming episodes of Arrested Development (2003-06) before achieving critical acclaim as frequent directors on Community (2009-14). They established themselves in film directing Welcome to Collinwood (2002) and You, Me and Dupree (2006) before joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), as well as working on the TV series Agent Carter (2015).

The directors are credited with being instrumental in the success of "the golden age" of the MCU, running roughly from The Winter Soldier to Endgame, when the franchise's critical and commercial success were both at their height. Endgame was the highest-grossing movie of all time shortly after release, although it was subsequently pushed back down by a re-release of James Cameron's Avatar and then the release of its sequel.

The Russos decided to get out whilst the going was good and have focused on developing other projects, directing Cherry and The Gray Man and producing shows including Amazon's expensive flop Citadel. They are currently in post-production on a new film directed by them, The Electric State, for Netflix.

The MCU has carried on into a new era, but one that has been decidedly patchier than what came before, with both critical and commercial performances dropping significantly from the Russo era.

With both sides' post-Endgame performance being questionable, them joining forces once more makes a lot of sense. Marvel needs the Brothers' proven ability to shape complex stories with large casts into box office gold.

However, the move may be seen as desperation on Marvel's part given the chaos that has recently engulfed their plans. Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy apparently turned down the gig after reading the draft script, whilst Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi) had previously been announced in the role of director but then withdrew to focus on a Shang-Chi sequel that has still not materialised. The two movies were being developed as one project, under the titles The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, culminating a story arc revolving around the character of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). This plan had to be shelved quickly after Majors was arrested for assault and subsequently found guilty; Marvel terminated their contract with him. The two films are now apparently being rewritten to revolve around a new threat, with the intervening projects (such as Captain America: Brave New World, due in early 2025) being rejigged to set up this new storyline.

The Russos are not believed to have accepted the offer yet, and negotiations are in the early stages, but there seems at least a reasonable chance this might come to pass. If it does, expect the timeline to be changed and the movies probably dropped back whilst new scripts are put into place.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME writers and directors teaming with STRANGER THINGS star for THE ELECTRIC STATE

Joe and Anthony Russo are re-teaming with Marvel writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to produce a film based on Simon Stålenhag's book, The Electric State. Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown is to star.

Simon Stålenhag is a Swedish artist who rose to fame with his atmospheric paintings merging 1980s nostalgia and hard-edged SF technology, forming a coherent universe in the art books Tales from the Loop (2014) and Things from the Flood (2016). This universe was adapted for television by Amazon earlier this year, and is also the source of a popular roleplaying game.

The Electric State (2018) takes place in a new setting and follows a young girl and her robotic companion traversing the fictional, near-future, somewhat post-apocalyptic state of Pacifica. It's not a novel as such, instead telling the story through static pictures. This gives the adapting team a lot of leeway in how to translate the images to the screen.

Joe and Anthony Russo are, of course, the directing team behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, The Avengers: Infinity War and The Avengers: Endgame. Markus and McFeely are the writers of the same films. Universal are producing the film with a guaranteed theatrical debut.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME becomes the highest-grossing film of all time

Avengers: Endgame has surpassed Avatar's box office to become the highest-grossing movie of all time (unadjusted for inflation). Marvel Studios supremo Kevin Feige announced the feat at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Not only has Endgame achieved the feat, it has done so about half the time that Avatar managed. The film remains in cinemas and may get an additional boost from re-releases further down the line (something Avatar also made use of to achieve its haul).

For the first time since the release of Titanic in 1997, James Cameron is no longer the highest-grossing director of all time, having passed that baton on to Endgame directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. However, Cameron will come out swinging as Avatar 2 is scheduled for release on 17 December 2021, and he'll be wanting his crown back.

Disney, which owns both Marvel and, after the acquisition of 20th Century Fox earlier this year, the Avatar franchise, is of course laughing all the way to the bank.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME directors working on a MAGIC: THE GATHERING TV series for Netflix

The Russo Brothers, directors of multiple Marvel movies including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (which should imminently become the highest-grossing movie of all time), have pivoted to Netflix and animation, where they are developing a Magic: The Gathering TV series.

Magic: The Gathering is a card game where players engage in battle using cards to represent spells and summoned creatures. Designed by Richard Garfield and originally released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, the game was an immediate smash hit, selling millions of cards in a short space of time. The game made Wizards of the Coast hugely successful, leading to them buying TSR (the creators of Dungeons and Dragons) in 1997. Wizards in turn were bought out by Hasbro in 1999. In 2015 it was believed that more than 20 million people worldwide had played the game.

The game has expanded far beyond its original incarnation to incorporate video games and novels. Some of the settings from the card game have also been developed as campaign settings for the current Dungeons and Dragons rules set.

Hasbro were keen to develop the property as a movie, point tapping Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman to write a script in 2014. However, the project stalled and appears to have now pivoted to television, with Hasbro's Allspark Studios working on the project. Joe and Anthony Russo are working on the project alongside Henry Gilroy (Star Wars: Rebels) and Jose Molina (The Tick), who will serve as the head writers. The series will apparently follow the adventures of a band of planeswalkers, including Chandra Nalaar (pictured in the concept art above), a popular character from the fiction.

No production timeline has been released, but I imagine we'll see this project in 2020 at the earliest.

Netflix are also collaborating with Hasbro on War for Cybertron, a Transformers prequel TV series aimed at older viewers.

The Avengers: Endgame

The Infinity Stones have wreaked tremendous devastation across the universe, leaving the survivors reeling. The remaining Avengers and their allies from across the cosmos gather together on Earth for one last, possible plan to stop what has happened, at the risk of losing everything that survived.

Fifteen years ago, we experienced a genuine cinematic Moment when Peter Jackson delivered the thunderous conclusion to his Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. He wrapped up an emotional, impactful and epic story in a manner that was (mostly) successful and resulted in huge numbers of people visiting the cinema multiple times to see the conclusion to an entire multi-movie arc. I doubted we would see anything like it again, but a decade and a half later we are here with Endgame, a movie that tries something even more stupendous: paying off not just three but twenty-two movies that have been building things up and leading to this moment. The hype is crazy and if anything greater than that for The Return of the King (where you could go and read the story summary online from the book any time you wanted).

Endgame, surprisingly, delivers a nuanced and tight finale to the story that began in last year's Infinity War. Infinity War was epic and impressive, a stunning sequence of epic battles and quieter character moments that came together in several confrontations with Thanos, which Thanos won (although not without cost). Endgame picks up on the aftermath of that event with the surviving heroes regrouping, but they are caught up in grief and loss. Returning heroes Scott Lang and Hawkeye rejoin the team, whilst Rocket, Nebula and Captain Marvel join the Avengers to help resolve the crisis, but their early efforts have mixed results.

Endgame's generous three-hour running time allows directors the Russo Brothers (who can now write their own meal ticket and direct whatever film they want, ever) and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to have their cake and eat it, with huge, thunderous battle sequences and lots of quieter character beats. In fact, much of the first third of the film is taken up by people processing the events of the end of Infinity War, and how you move on when half of the people you've ever met are gone. The rest of the film is taken up by our heroes embarking on A Plan to save everyone, which near-instantly goes horrendously wrong and results in lots of the action, comedy and dramatic beats that you've come to expect from a Marvel movie, but more surprising is the amount of emotion on display. Character after character has to face up to their growth and what they've gone through to reach this point, and how they handle key moments that lead to victory, or in a few cases, their death.

Events culminate in a finale that is jaw-dropping in its scale and features some of the best, punch-the-air moments you've ever seen in a superhero movie, as well as moments of real reversals and pain. The directors walk a tightrope between being self-indulgent (the film may rival Return of the King for the number of endings it has, although I think it sells it much better) and too dark, and manages to chart a difficult course through that. It even manages to use Captain Marvel well, acknowledging her sheer power and her use as an asset against Thanos but not allowing her to dominate proceedings to the detriment of the characters we've spent eleven years with.

There's a lot of movie here and it's almost entirely brilliantly-handled. What's more surprising is the sheer degree of payoff we get in this film, and how many near-obscure characters from older movies suddenly and unexpectedly show up and play vital roles (bar one case where rather obviously the actor involved didn't want to return and they had to film around it using older footage, although it kind of works). Fans of the Marvel TV shows will also get one genuine moment of delight in a scene which seemingly officially canonises at least one of the Marvel TV shows as taking place in the Marvel cinematic universe after all. There's also the film's possibly most epic shot which was foreshadowed by a single moment (not even a scene) in an earlier movie from years ago which you could have missed by just looking at your phone for a second. Another major plot revelation hinges on a line of dialogue from another, even earlier movie which makes you suspect the Russo Brothers and Kevin Feige are genuine, outright geniuses.

Problems are mostly non-existent. This is a movie which, as I think everyone has guessed, does lean into a bit of time travel and as a result viewers can have exciting conversations over whether the story completely makes sense as a result (which Ant-Man and War Machine themselves get into a knot over at one point, trying to work out if the plot of the Back to the Future trilogy makes sense whilst Banner gets frustrated at them talking about movies rather than the science). Beyond that, for the first time, a Marvel movie hits every single beat it means to, with a fantastic villain, excellent characterisation and some titanic character payoffs, some you've been waiting a decade for. The only other criticism that could be made is that the film doesn't even remotely stand alone, at all, but then that's kind of the point of it. This is an ending to a very long chapter, and I can't even work out what happens next.

The Avengers: Endgame (*****) is long, but feels short when you watch it. Every character gets their moment in the sun, and the creators somehow make 21 previous movies worth of foreshadowing and backstory pay off in a real, meaningful way through a story that is by turns tragic, epic, moving, funny and action-packed.

The Great Marvel Rewatch: Captain America - Civil War

In the aftermath of the fall of SHIELD and the battle against Ultron, which destroyed a large chunk of the nation of Sokovia, trust in superheroes is at an all-time low. The final straw is a battle against Hydra agents in Lagos, in which Scarlet Witch accidentally destroys an office building (whilst trying to prevent a much larger bloodbath). The United Nations sign the Sokovia Accords, placing superheroes under severe restrictions in how they can be deployed and when. Iron Man and Captain America find themselves on different sides of the resulting argument. When Steve Rogers' old comrade (and former brainwashed Hydra agent) Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, is implicated in a fresh atrocity, the Avengers find themselves split and at war among themselves.

Civil War is marketed as a Captain America movie, following on from The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier, but in reality it's more like The Avengers 2.5, picking up on important plot threads from Age of Ultron and setting the scene for Infinity War. As such it's one of the more continuity-heavy movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and one of the (surprising) few where an intimate knowledge of the previous movies in the MCU is a definite asset.

Civil War is very much two movies. On the one hand, it's an all-action, effects-heavy extravaganza with lots of explosions, fights and chases. On the other, it's a surprisingly effective study of the law versus free will, of security versus liberty and of responsibility and consequence. That the same team made The Winter Soldier, possibly the best MCU movie for likewise tackling slightly more serious material than some of the other films, is unsurprising and it's good to see a lot of plot points from that movie picked up and advanced. In particular, the Winter Soldier storyline is arguably more central to Civil War than it was to The Winter Soldier itself.

It was around this point in time that the MCU transformed itself into a well-oiled, purring machine, pumping out reliably entertaining blockbusters three times a year. The Russo Brothers walk a tightrope with this movie, combining crowd-pleasing superhero antics with the opportunity to study the ideas of liberty and responsibility. The problem is that they can't quite explore this theme in as much depth as they want, due to the movie having a lot of other business it needs to get done. This includes introducing both Spider-Man and Black Panther ahead of their respective first solo movies, bringing Ant-Man into the fold of the other characters and resolving the long-standing mystery of the fate of Tony Stark's parents.

Still, if the film can't fully engage with the theme, it at least pays it more than bare lip service, with the disagreement between the two sides being so fundamental that it can't be overcome with a nice chat. In one of the MCU's finest twists, Tony and Steve do eventually come to an understanding, only for a fresh revelation to drop a hand grenade on the situation. In this sense the film doesn't pull its punches, which would have been an easy cop out.

The actors are all on fine form, with Tom Holland particularly impressing as the latest incarnation of Peter Parker, and we even get a good antagonist! Daniel Bruhl is a phenomenally talented actor, and it helps that his character is perhaps less of a standard villain than a catalyst for the already-existing tensions in the Avengers to explode.

Captain America: Civil War (****) is a little bit too overstuffed to be the finest movie in the MCU, but it is up there as one of the stronger entries in the franchise. It's an effective ensemble piece with a twisting, unpredictable storyline, some great set pieces and a surprisingly downbeat ending.

The Great Marvel Rewatch: Captain America - The Winter Soldier

Two years have passed since the Battle for New York and the Avengers have scattered back to their own lives. The exception is Captain Steve Rogers, who remains working for the intelligence and security agency SHIELD. Rogers is uneasy with the murky world of espionage and counter-terrorism, preferring the old days of fighting Nazis and HYDRA agents. When a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier tries to kill Fury and SHIELD itself looks like having been compromised, Captain America is forced to go on the run and unearth secrets stretching all the way back to WWII.

The Winter Soldier is the ninth movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the second to focus on the character of Captain America. It's also the first since The Avengers to focus on SHIELD, Nick Fury and the bigger plot of what's going on in the world now that the existence of aliens, superheroes and other threats is widely known.

It also takes a different tack to previous MCU films. A formula of sorts has appeared with these films, with a lot of set-up (usually accompanied by humourous dialogue) culminating in a big CGI slug-fest, usually with a couple of fan-pleasing cameos and movie cross-references. The Winter Soldier doesn't have much truck with this formula, instead creating an atmosphere of mistrust and paranoia throughout the opening of the film as Rogers realises he doesn't know who he can trust. Even the motivations of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) appear suspect. Much has been made of the film's nods to 1970s thrillers and its preference for real stunts over CGI, and these do add a lot of weight to the film. It's interesting that one of the most impressive action sequences involves a car chase featuring Nick Fury which relies on real effects and stunt-driving with only marginal use of CGI.

The film builds up an atmosphere of murky paranoia and, impressively, shows that whilst Captain America is uncomfortable in this world he is still capable of handling it. A sequence where he, without dialogue, gradually becomes aware of undercover enemies gathering around him is particularly well-handled and gives rise to one of the film's best action beats. The characterisation for Rogers is nicely-handled by the writers and played with charisma by Chris Evans, improving on his straightforward performances in the first Captain America and The Avengers. Scarlett Johansson and, in his biggest role in the MCU movies to date, Samuel L. Jackson also impress. There's also a strong turn from Robert Redford as one of the men in charge of SHIELD's existence. As a veteran of 1970s thrillers, Redford adds gravitas to proceedings.

The story is fairly engrossing, benefiting from being (relatively) based around themes of espionage, technology and surveillance. The "big threat" in the film is fairly straightforward, even mundane, and perfectly understandable (no glowing mystic cubes from beyond time here). There are a few plot twists and surprises that are either predictable or implausible, but for the most part the film stays relatively grounded. There's also a nice line in the bad guys not underestimating Captain America, bringing almost ludicrous amounts of firepower to every attempt to kill him and not believing for a second that he's dead until they see his body. The bad guys are - relatively - fairly smart and more sinister a threat because of that.

The film falters a little bit in several areas. First of all, the "Winter Soldier" storyline is, despite the name of the film, more of a subplot and more of a setup for follow-up movies (such as Civil War and Infinity War) than a strongly-defined storyline in this film itself. Several times it feels incongruous in terms of the narrative. There's also the fact that the movie's final act involves a massive aerial battle involving helicarriers, fighter jets, guys in winged suits (an ordinary soldier puts one on and turns into a superhero almost instantly) and huge explosions, where the CGI overload missing from the rest of the movie comes back with a vengeance. The directors hold it together reasonably well, but it does feel like, after a more twisting and interesting narrative, the ending is much more "standard Marvel" than it could have been.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (****½) is the least Marvel-like of the MCU films and is all the better for it, touching on real-life themes and trying to stay more grounded in (or at least in vague touch with) reality. It's also (arguably, still) the best of the Marvel films to date, and even played a key role in helping the Marvel TV show Agents of SHIELD develop into something more interesting in the last few episodes of its first season. In retrospect, this films marks a major turning point in the MCU as the Russo Brothers turned out to be the collaborators Kevin Feige needed to make his "Infinity Saga" really work, and lifted the quality of the entire series up a notch.

Note: The original version of this review was posted in 2014.