While the internet hangs onto every casting announcement for the Marvel Cinematic Universe for narrative speculation, it turns out the truth behind who gets to be in the next big tentpole might be a little less exciting.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the Russo Brothers (Electric State) discussed going back to the drawing board with Marvel to work on the next two Avengers films, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which will feature former Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. turning heel to play Doctor Doom.
This isn’t the first time they’ve done something this risky with the franchise’s leading star. Joe Russo recalled approaching Downey, at the time still leading the MCU as Iron Man, to be the bad guy in Captain America: Civil War —”a movie that wasn’t even titled after his character. And it was the pitch of our lives. And he said, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’ He liked the risk, to Robert’s credit, and that choice led the explosive upside to Infinity War and Endgame.”
In the past, the Russos famously kept a set of baseball-style cards featuring their superhero cast, to help keep track of the number of films they’re contracted to be in. THR asked the duo if they still use them. “Yes, we continue to use the baseball cards,” Anthony Russo shared. The method helps shape whichever Marvel film they’re working on.
Joe added, “Now they have magnets on them so we can put ‘em on a board and look at ‘em. It’s the only way to keep track of the amount of characters that we’re working with.”
It’s beginning to sound more like a budget spreadsheet rather than anything related to crafting a story, but Anthony downplayed that aspect. “And as far as how do we look at who’s in the movies, it’s just a long creative process of exploring where we want to take the story. What is the most surprising and exciting area for us to push into, and which characters help us in that effort?”
But the stars’ contracts and financial stats obviously still play a role; if they didn’t, why use the baseball cards? As the next behemoth of a Marvel movie cross-over looms, more cards have been aded to the deck, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps coming out this summer. So, will the Russos have more star players on deck? Or have people moved on from stuffed line-ups of characters overpowering the movie’s story? Pulling the same card trick on a bigger scale is a gamble but we’ll see if it pays off come 2026 with the release of Avengers: Doomsday.
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