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Joe and Anthony Russo, who propelled “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Endgame” to stratospheric box office heights, may return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The filmmaking brothers are in early talks to direct 2026’s “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and 2027’s “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which will conclude this stretch — known as the Multiverse Saga — of the MCU. The films will presumably be connected, à la the two-part story of 2018’s “Infinity War” and 2019’s “Endgame.”
Marvel Studios had been looking for filmmakers to tackle the ambitious back-to-back tentpoles after Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) departed “Kang Dynasty” in 2023. “Deadpool & Wolverine” director Shawn Levy was offered the gig but apparently passed on the projects. “Loki” creator Michael Waldron was recently hired to write the screenplay for “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” while “Secret Wars” doesn’t have a screenwriter attached at the moment.
Beyond the search for directors, the status of “Kang Dynasty” and “Secret Wars” has been a subject of speculation. That’s because Jonathan Majors has already played multiple versions of the titular supervillain Kang — the Thanos of this phase of the MCU — on the Disney+ series “Loki” and last year’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” But Marvel cut ties with Majors after the actor was found guilty of domestic harassment and assault.
It’s unclear when Marvel plans to begin production on the upcoming “Avengers” installments. Anthony and Joe Russo’s next film is Netflix’s “The Electric State,” a sci-fi adventure with Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown that completed shooting in late 2022. Post “Endgame,” the brothers pivoted to streaming with Netflix’s “The Gray Man,” starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, as well as the Apple TV+ crime drama “Cherry,” featuring Tom Holland. They were producers for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Amazon’s TV series “Citadel” and Netflix’s “Extraction.”
The Russos have directed four Marvel films, including 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.” At the moment, “Avengers: Endgame” is the second-highest grossing movie in history with $2.79 billion while “Infinity War” is the sixth biggest with $2.05 billion. They’re in the company of James Cameron as the only directors with two $2 billion blockbusters.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the Russo Bros. involvement.
