The Russos Are Not Directing the Next ‘Avengers’

As recently as 10 days ago, when asked about directing a movie for Marvel based on the comic series Secret Wars, Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo certainly made it sound like an intriguing possibility.

“Our love for Marvel is based on the books that we read as kids, the books that we fell in love with. The one series that we adored growing up was Secret Wars.” said Joe Russo. “It’s incredibly ambitious. It would be bigger than Infinity War and Endgame. But it’s a massive undertaking. Those two movies were very hard to make. So trying to imagine making another two movies even bigger than those two? We’re going to have to sleep on that.”

Well, I guess they slept on it and decided, thanks but no thanks. Or they were never seriously considering it in the first place, but they know the game when asked about Marvel work. (You say no, you never get asked again. You said “Eh maybe, you never know,” and you get headlines and you get asked about it again every time you do interviews, ensuring more coverage.) Because at Comic-Con, after formally announcing Secret Wars as the second of two upcoming Avengers movies, Marvel’s Kevin Feige revealed that the Russos were definitely not directing these sequels.

“They’re not connected to it,” Feige told Deadline. “We love them, they love us. We want to find something to do together, it’s not this.”

The Russos are currently in the midst of a deal with Netflix; their latest movie, The Gray Man, debuted on the streaming service the Friday of Comic-Con. It stars one of their former Marvel leading men, Chris Evans, but it’s based on a spy novel, not a superhero comic book.

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty opens in theaters on May 5, 2025. Avengers: Secret Wars opens in theaters on November 7, 2025. At this time, no director for either project has been announced.