Exclusive: Russo Brothers In Talks To Direct Marvel’s Secret Wars
We've exclusively learned that Marvel is talking to the Russo Brothers about a Secret Wars movie.
This article is more than 2 years old
What would it take for Marvel to do a Secret Wars movie on the big screen? Everything would have to come firmly into place. There would need to be the Fantastic Four, for one thing. (Check. That movie will release in 2023.) The X-Men would need to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Check.) And there would need to be people behind the scenes who know how to pull off a major event at the scale of Secret Wars. They’d need to have a box office track record with Marvel. These creators would have to be passionate about bringing such a wide-scale project to the screen. Well, if current talks go well, we may be getting that check mark soon. Thanks to some work from one of our trusted and proven inside sources, Giant Freakin Robot has exclusively learned that the Russo Brothers are currently in talks to come back to Marvel to make Secret Wars.
Right now, the studio is in talks with the Russo Brothers. It’s hard to imagine that the pair aren’t in an excellent position when it comes to negotiating with Marvel at this time. While the franchise is so huge that they could probably get any number of filmmakers on board, the Russos have to know how special they are, and Marvel has to know that as well. They have been the minds behind some of the biggest Marvel movies. Who else could be trusted to make a project like this? Still, the brothers have been working on other projects recently. Will they be willing and ready to come back to Marvel for Secret Wars? We were unable to learn what demands the pair may have in order to make such a return, or when they would need to be available.
It’s safe to assume that Marvel will want to wait to make Secret Wars until they have the X-Men firmly established as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on screen and the Fantastic Four as well. While Fantastic Four hasn’t even gone through casting yet, it is scheduled to come out in 2023, so a Secret Wars project may not be that far off. Even if Marvel was willing to overlook having the essential character groups in place and moving the project up sooner, the Russo Brothers wouldn’t be. They’ve already mentioned that they’re big fans of the Secret Wars crossover event in the comics. That twelve issue run was something they read as children and it really opened their eyes to what crossover events could be.
In fact, in July 2020, the Russo Brothers did an interview with BroBible where they said that Secret Wars would be the project they would consider returning to Marvel for. Clearly, Marvel has been listening. Even before the directors famously made this statement, they had to be who Marvel had in mind for a project like this. They’ve seemed to have had this in mind for a while, since they’ve been getting all the players set up.
The Secret Wars comics saw a being known as Beyonder watching the Marvel universe play out, in much the same way audiences watching Marvel movies do. That being decides it would be a fun idea to bring a bunch of the characters together to a place called Battleworld and tell them all, “I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all that you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!” So, they all start having it out. The comics were wild and snarky and came with their own toy line. It was a major event, and Marvel was nervous to do it. It would make sense if the studio was nervous now. It would also make sense if the Russo Brothers were nervous, but it sounds like they’re at least interested enough to publicly speak about wanting to make the film a year ago and now to enter into talks.
