Joe and Anthony Russo find themselves in a unique and somewhat curious position when it comes to their hypothetical future with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it’s all to do with Secret Wars.
Having helmed four installments in the franchise, concluding with the back-to-back box office bonanza that was Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, the sibling duo bowed out of the superhero business, at least for a while. However, the Russos have never shied away from admitting that the one thing capable of drawing them back would be the chance to tackle Secret Wars.
As fate would have it, most fans are fully expecting the epic multiversal saga to be the Avengers-level event that draws the MCU’s next overarching storyline to a close, right while the Russos are coincidentally in the midst of promoting Netflix blockbuster The Gray Man.
Sure enough, the Secret Wars questions have been flying thick and fast, but the brothers were typically cryptic when quizzed yet again by The Wrap.
“I mean, here’s the crazy thing – everyone asks us and we just answer truthfully. But there are no conversations, there aren’t. It’s just people saying, “Hey, you want to go back to work for Marvel Studios?” Sure. We loved working with them. However, we run our own company. Now we have three or four projects lined up. The dance card’s pretty full. Their dance card’s pretty full. It would have to be a time and place thing, but we’re talking years out.
And then we’re asked, “Well, what project would you like to do?” And we always say Secret Wars because it was our favorite comic book growing up. We have no idea if they’re heading in that direction. We have no idea if they’re interested in working with us again. We have no idea about any of it. We just answer the questions honestly, but it’s funny that it keeps turning into a headline and people think we’re trying to manifest this. No, we’re just really answering a question that we seem to get asked over and over and over again, as truthfully as we can answer it.”
Once again, that’s not a yes, or a no. Should Secret Wars become a reality, then the Russo brothers would be delighted to take charge of the project, but that’s about as much as we’ve got to go on from a factual perspective.