Russo Brothers officially return to Marvel to direct new Avengers movies Doomsday and Secret Wars

Joe and Anthony Russo, the brothers who directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, haven’t finished their work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe just yet. Marvel Studios announced at its 2024 San Diego Comic-Con panel on Saturday night that the Russos would come out of short superhero-movie retirement to direct back-to-back Avengers movies: Avengers: Doomsday, which hits theaters on May 1, 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars, which arrives a year later on May 7, 2027.

The revelation that Avengers 5 (previously known as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty) is now known as Avengers: Doomsday is certainly a big hint about who’s going to be the villain in that film: Doctor Doom. And the actor who will be portraying Doom is none other than Robert Downey, Jr. himself. Yep, Iron Man is getting back into the — or, rather, a metal suit.

“New mask, same task,” Downey said at Marvel’s Hall H panel on Saturday.

But Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige also offered a hint about who else is going to appear in those Avengers movies. The casts of Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and Fantastic Four: First Steps will all appear in the Avengers sequels, Feige said.

Between directing and producing through their company AGBO, the Russos have kept busy since departing the MCU — often on projects that involve their cast members from Avengers: Endgame. In 2020, Joe Russo wrote the Chris Hemsworth-led action flick Extraction for stuntman and longtime Marvel second-unit director Sam Hargrave. Two years later, the brothers had perhaps their greatest victory lap: producing Everything Everywhere All at Once, and shepherding the movie to Best Picture Oscar glory.

The Russos weren’t as successful on the directing front, at least as far as reviews were concerned. 2021 saw the brothers make a prestige play with a malianged adaptation of the drug-fueled crime saga Cherry, with Tom Holland, followed by the equally rejected Netflix blockbuster The Grey Man in 2022. Directing and producing Amazon’s mega-budgeted spy show Citadel didn’t go so well either. They currently have another film in the can: the sci-fi tentpole The Electric State starring Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown.

At a 2019 SDCC panel/Endgame victory lap, the Russos teased some major projects that still haven’t come to fruition: a live-action adaptation of Battle of the Planets; an animated series based on the Grimjack comic series; and a Magic: The Gathering series for Netflix. In the same breath, they addressed whether they would ever come back to direct another Marvel movie. They told people not to hold their breaths... unless maybe the project was Secret Wars, which they could never dream of happening in a million years. Well, what do you know.

You can find all Polygon’s coverage of SDCC 2024 news, trailers, and more here.