Avengers 5 Bringing Back Iconic Directors?
Could they coming back?
No one can ever claim the Marvel Cinematic Universe is short on directing talent. From as early as Phase 1, Marvel Studios had not only Jon Favreau working for them but at least one Oscar-nominated director — Kenneth Branagh. Over a decade in and the MCU now counts Taika Waititi, Ryan Coogler, James Gunn, and Sam Raimi among its filmmakers, but there’s still the two directors fans want to see come back: Anthony and Joe Russo. Starting with 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Russo brothers made some of the best superhero films anyone will ever be lucky enough to see. Now, in spite of many believing the Russos would never be the ones to direct Avengers 5, the brothers made it clear to “never say never.”
On Friday, AP Entertainment tweeted out a clip from an interview in which they were asked about a possibility of returning to make Avengers 5 or any other Marvel movies. Joe Russo answered, “We’re always open to it. We love those guys, we love everyone over there.” You can watch that clip below.
Joe Russo does point out, “Right now, our slate’s pretty full.” It doesn’t take more than a gander at IMDb to see he isn’t kidding. On the directing side of things, the brothers’ upcoming sci-fi drama Citadel is in post-production, and they’re just gearing up to start making their Netflix original The Electric State with Millie Bobby Brown. But it’s on the production side of their schedule where you see why they probably don’t get a ton of sleep. Not counting The Gray Man — which starts streaming on Netflix next Friday — the Russos have a half-dozen films in various points of production, including the Chris Hemsworth led Extraction 2 and the live-action adaptation of Disney’s Hercules. Add to that two television series and a number of other projects that haven’t yet reached the pre-production phase, and it’s pretty easy to see why they aren’t ready to sign on to Avengers 5 just yet.
Still, they’re not resigned to never working on a Marvel film again. “You never say never,” Joe Russo said. “If the right story lines up at the right time, then we all go back to work.”
AP Entertainment also went beyond the question of Avengers 5 to ask the Russos specifically about possibly bringing the X-Men into the MCU. Joe Russo professed his love for the X-Men, pointing out that one of the most beloved pieces in his comic book collection is 1974’s Incredible Hulk #181 — Marvel Comics’ first full appearance of Wolverine. He did say, however, that the X-Men represent something Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has “rightly put aside for a while… to introduce some new characters.”
Whether or not the Russos do come back to the fold in time to make Avengers 5, it’s tough to get around the idea that they may just be the perfect choice for the job. The directing team excelled at upping both the stakes and the growing cast lists with each film they made. When they made Captain America: Civil War in 2016 it featured just about every surviving MCU hero to be introduced at that point except Thor and Hulk, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War had an even grander scope, and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame blew the roof off. If the next big Marvel project is Secret Wars — and everything seems to be pointing to it — the directors who have already proven they know how to keep scaling up and up past the point where you think it’s even possible may be the best candidates.
