NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Before they were the most-trusted hands behind Marvel\u2019s largest epics, Joe and Anthony Russo presided over a slightly less potent assemblage of talent: the Bluth family of \u201cArrested Development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beginning with \u201cArrested Development\u201d ( 14 episodes directed<\/a> ) and \u201cCommunity\u201d (34 episodes), the Russo brothers established an especially keen sense for the rhythms and intersections of ensemble casts.<\/p>\n \u201cFor whatever reason, Joe and I have always really been drawn to ensemble storytelling,\u201d Anthony says. \u201cMaybe it speaks to the fact that we work as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe grew up in a very large Italian family full of colorful personalities,\u201d suggests Joe, citing their Ohio upbringing. \u201cIt was complex family dynamics. We all grew up on the same street; people lived in different houses. We spent dinners together on Sundays.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were always interacting with a large amount of personality and interpersonal dynamics. I think that\u2019s how we see the world and see stories.\u201d<\/p>\n That inclination has served the Russos well in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly in the sprawling superhero films \u201cAvengers: Infinity War\u201d<\/a> (2018) and \u201cAvengers: Endgame\u201d<\/a> (2019). But even for the Russos, \u201cAvengers: Doomsday\u201d (in theaters Dec. 18) is a unique juggling act. It brings together (deep breath) the Avengers, the Wakandans, the New Avengers (from Earth-616), the Fantastic Four (from Earth-828) and the original X-Men.<\/p>\n \u201cThe MCU is this massive experiment in how vast, how much scope can an ensemble really have?\u201d Anthony says. \u201cIf we have a taste and talent for ensemble storytelling, we\u2019re certainly pushing ourselves further than we ever have before.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe and Anthony Russo spoke in a recent exclusive interview \u2014 or rather interviews, because the brothers spoke separately while knee-deep in work on \u201cDoomsday\u201d and its 2027 follow-up, \u201cAvengers: Secret Wars.\u201d They were finishing work on \u201cDoomsday\u201d \u2014 scoring, editing \u2014 while, in their words, \u201csoft prepping\u201d production on \u201cSecret Wars.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing one of these movies it\u2019s the hardest thing you\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Joe says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing two of them, it\u2019s almost inconceivable. But it\u2019s the second time around we\u2019re doing two back to back.\u201d<\/p>\n After a rocky few years, Marvel looks to reassert its dominance <\/p>\n When the Russo brothers were last at the helm in the MCU, \u201cEndgame\u201d marked the apex of Marvel as a cultural force. Conceived as the culmination of a decade of movies, \u201cEndgame\u201d became the second highest-grossing film of all time, with $2.8 billion in ticket sales. (The Walt Disney Co. will bring it back to theaters as \u201cAvengers Endgame: Encore\u201d on Sept. 25.)<\/p>\n Since \u201cEndgame,\u201d the MCU has undergone plenty of expansion and experimentation. But Phases four, five and six of the MCU have also been notably rockier than the first three phases. Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, has acknowledged that oversaturation played a role in the downturn.<\/p>\n For the first time, Marvel wasn\u2019t immune to the ups and downs that characterize the rest of the movie world. \u201cThe Marvels\u201d in 2023 tapped out with just $206 million in ticket sales. \u201cCaptain America: Brave New World\u201d in 2025 landed the worst CinemaScore, a \u201cB-,\u201d for a Marvel movie.<\/p>\n \u201cDoomsday\u201d aims to reinvigorate the MCU. It features not just the return of the Avengers and the Russos, but also Robert Downey Jr.<\/a> The former \u201cIron Man\u201d star plays the villain Doctor Doom. Downey has said he wouldn\u2019t have come back if the Russos didn\u2019t, too.<\/p>\n So there is a get-the-band-back-together quality to \u201cDoomsday,\u201d a movie expected to be among the highest-grossing ever. Do the Russos feel that the film will, after some MCU stumbles, restore order in the Marvel universe?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great question. It\u2019s part of the unique challenge,\u201d says Anthony. \u201cThe thing that Joe and I have always appreciated about our collaboration with Marvel is: Our job isn\u2019t to answer for the entirety of the MCU. We intersect it in a very specific way. It\u2019s that intersection which is where we can make sense of things.\u201d<\/p>\n Can \u2018Doomsday\u2019 match \u2018Spider-Man\u2019?<\/p>\n Of course, \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day\u201d ($2.3 billion worldwide) has already nearly matched \u201cEndgame\u201d in box-office might. Anthony Russo, \u201cbuzzing\u201d from the movie, calls the film\u2019s reception \u201ca wonderful challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet the Russos promise something special in \u201cDoomsday.\u201d They have referred to it as \u201cback to zero,\u201d \u201cstarting from scratch\u201d and \u201ca profound shift\u201d in the MCU. Even in the ever-expanding realm of the MCU, the Russos have been animated by stories with defined beginnings (\u201cDoomsday\u201d) and legitimate endings (\u201cEndgame\u201d). Even if \u201cEndgame\u201d wasn\u2019t really the end, they needed to believe it was.<\/p>\n Since then, the Russos have directed three films for streaming: 2021\u2019s \u201cCherry,\u201d<\/a> for Apple Studios; 2022\u2019s \u201cThe Gray Man,\u201d<\/a> one of Netflix\u2019s most-watched original films; and 2025\u2019s \u201c The Electric State<\/a>.\u201d They also launched an action franchise for Netflix with \u201cExtraction.\u201d<\/a> Their production company, AGBO, has turned into a consistent blockbuster maker, producing not just \u201cDoomsday\u201d but the Oscar-winner \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n It took something extra to bring the Russos back to Marvel. They were coaxed back, Anthony says, by a \u201cfoundational narrative concept\u201d suggested by cowriter Steve McFeeley. <\/p>\n \u201cWe never want to coast on the capital that already exists,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want the greatest value of the film to reside in the new thing it\u2019s bringing to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Orienting the film around Dr. Doom, however, wasn\u2019t the initial plan. Originally conceived as \u201cAvengers: The Kang Dynasty,\u201d the fifth \u201cAvengers\u201d film went through considerable retooling after Jonathan Majors<\/a> (who played Kang the Conqueror) was dropped from the franchise<\/a> after being convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend. <\/p>\n The Russos eventually stepped in. But the revamped production meant going into shooting with an unfinished script.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always view the script as a living organism,\u201d says Joe. \u201cWe\u2019re improvisation-based, rehearsal-based directors. We like to see what the actors bring to the characters, and sometimes you don\u2019t get the actors until a few days or few weeks before you shoot them. And a lot of the time, that\u2019s when the magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n A lot has changed since the Russos last released a Marvel movie. The pandemic came and went. The industry defaulted to streaming, only to again embrace theatrical. The phrase \u201csuperhero fatigue\u201d was trotted out at times, though less so after \u201cBrand New Day.\u201d<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a guiding template for the Russos for the kind of movie they want to make \u2014 one with grand scale and moments of emotional intimacy \u2014 it\u2019s the Western. Sergio Leone\u2019s \u201cOnce Upon a Time in the West\u201d was a particular inspiration for \u201cDoomsday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe and I grew up fans of all types of cinema, but Westerns have always been very special to us. Throughout cinema history, the Western has been declared dead for decades, and then you can still make one of the greatest examples of the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Before they were the most-trusted hands behind Marvel\u2019s largest epics, Joe and Anthony Russo…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1039895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[193729,171,57,59,36478,54348,53,4659,1574,1573,64768,132811,416008,132820,61,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1039894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-anthony-russo","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-inc","tag-jonathan-majors","tag-kevin-feige","tag-movies","tag-netflix","tag-oh-state-wire","tag-ohio","tag-robert-downey-jr","tag-sergio-leone","tag-steve-mcfeeley","tag-the-walt-disney-co","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117204426984852212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}