Following the successes of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the Russo brothers are interested in returning to the MCU to make yet another ambitious film: Secret Wars.
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, or Secret Wars for short, was a 12-issue comic book crossover written by Jim Shooter. In it, a cosmic entity called the Beyonder becomes fascinated with both heroes and villains on Earth. He teleports the groups to a planet called Battleworld, where he promises that those who vanquish their enemies will have all their greatest desires. With Kang the Conquerer (Jonathan Majors) appearing to be the next big bad in the MCU, all signs point to a Secret Wars-style ending to Phase 4, possibly as an Avengers film.
In a recent interview with Deadline, the Russos shared that they would be willing to come back to direct what would be a mega-multiversal film based on the Secret Wars storyline. "Our love for Marvel is based on the books that we've read as kids and the books that we fell in love with. The one series that you know we adored growing up was Secret Wars," Joe Russo said. "It's incredibly ambitious. It would be bigger than Infinity War and Endgame. But it's a massive undertaking, and, you know, 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 it." It's no secret that the final two installments of Phase 3 of the MCU took years to develop. Every previous film led up to both Infinity War and Endgame, so every character had to play a vital role in the finale.
In addition, the phase had to be concluded in a way that not only pleased Marvel fans, but also made sense going into the next phase. "I keep saying Secret Wars because that was one of the first books that I really fell in love with as a kid," Joe continued. "This notion of, you know, event storytelling, and I think that's part of the reason that we gravitate so strongly towards these event films and these ensemble films is the notion that you can contain so many different characters and so many different points of view and galvanize them around a story point is really compelling to us."
In Secret Wars, the heroes team includes the Avengers, which consists of Captain America, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Thor, the Wasp, and Hulk in this version, and three members of The Fantastic Four (Human Torch, Mister Fantastic and the Thing). Also included are two solo heroes (Spider-Man and Spider-Woman) and the X-Men (Wolverine, Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Rogue, Storm, and Lockheed the Dragon). The villains' team includes the Absorbing Man, Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, Enchantress, Kang the Conqueror, Klaw, the Lizard, Molecule Man, Titania, Ultron, Volcana, and the Wrecking Crew. With the amount of Marvel characters still alive on this list, and the promise of an X-Men introduction into the multiverse, it's possible that Phase 4 could have a Secret Wars-style ending.
Although nothing is set in stone, Marvel Studios is set to make an appearance at Comic-Con in July. So, hopefully, Kevin Feige will be on hand to make big announcements about the MCU's future.
Avengers: Endgame is now streaming on Disney Plus.
Source: Deadline