03 September,2026 06:01 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Avengers: Doomsday. Pic via IMDb
The Russo Brothers aren't losing sleep over Avengers: Doomsday going into production without a finished script. Joe and Anthony Russo, who are returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after directing Avengers: Endgame, have made it clear that they see the screenplay as something that can evolve during the filmmaking process.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Joe Russo said, "We always view the script as a living organism." He explained that the brothers are "improvisation-based, rehearsal-based directors" who like discovering what actors bring to their characters rather than having every creative decision locked in advance.
"We like to see what the actors bring to the characters, and sometimes you don't get the actors until a few days or few weeks before you shoot them," Joe said. "And a lot of the time, that's when the magic happens."
The approach is particularly interesting given the scale of Doomsday. The film marks the directors' first MCU tentpole since Endgame and their return to the franchise after initially deciding against making the next Avengers movie.
The fifth instalment was originally planned as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, with Jonathan Majors' Kang positioned as Marvel's next major villain. Following Majors' exit from the MCU amid his legal troubles, the project underwent a major overhaul. The Russos eventually returned, alongside Robert Downey Jr., who is making his MCU comeback as Doctor Doom.
The Russos, however, aren't approaching the sprawling MCU as a puzzle they need to solve in its entirety. Anthony Russo told the AP, "Our job isn't to answer for the entirety of the MCU. We intersect it in a very specific way. It's that intersection which is where we can make sense of things."
Their philosophy stands in stark contrast to that of James Gunn, who has been vocal about the risks of beginning production without a completed screenplay. After taking over DC Studios, Gunn said he wanted the studio to avoid that practice.
"I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies," Gunn told Rolling Stone last year. "It's not because of home screens getting so good. The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay."
Gunn also revealed that DC had scrapped a project despite it already being greenlit because the screenplay wasn't ready. "Everybody wanted to make the movie," he said. "It was greenlit, ready to go. The screenplay wasn't ready. And I couldn't do a movie where the screenplay's not good."
With Avengers: Doomsday, the Russos are clearly betting on a different philosophy, one where the script can breathe, actors can influence the material and "magic" can happen on set. Whether that gamble pays off when Doctor Doom faces Earth's mightiest heroes remains one of Marvel's biggest questions. Avengers: Doomsday is set to release on December 18, 2026.
