After dedicating many years and four movies to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Joe and Anthony Russo have given a semi-straight answer as to if they’d come back to work on upcoming Marvel projects. Since the incredible success of their last MCU movie Avengers: Endgame, the directors have gone on to other massive projects. However, the question of if they’ll ever come back to the MCU is always looming.
The brothers were recently interviewed by Variety to discuss their studio AGBO, and all their upcoming projects. During the interview, they were asked if they’d return to Marvel, and Joe Russo responded with:
We’re always talking; we’d need to see what would work. We won’t be ready to do anything with Marvel until the end of the decade.
That seems fair, the directors and producers have a lot on their plates in the coming years. Since Avengers: Endgame, the pair have directed Cherry and The Gray Man, and are working on a TV series and another film. On top of directing, they have also been producing. They had a producer credit on the 2022 movie schedule hit Everything Everywhere All At Once earlier this year, and have over ten projects in development according to IMDb where they're listed as producers. So, waiting until 2030 to direct another Marvel movie makes sense logistically. I’d also assume they are taxing productions to work on because of how massive they are, so that also could factor into why the brothers have decided to step back from the MCU for a bit.
By watching the Marvel movies in order, you can see that the Russo brothers have been the guys behind some of the most successful and acclaimed MCU movies. The duo began their tenure at Marvel with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they then went on to helm Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Making four massive movies has to take it out of the people running the show, and I’d imagine it can be creatively draining working on similar projects all the time.
It’s important to note that Marvel Studios has a tendency to bring back its directors. For example, Ryan Coogler helmed both Black Panther movies, Jon Watts led the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy, and Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed the first Shang-Chi, has been tapped to direct its sequel and Avengers: Kang Dynasty, and there are many more. So, it makes sense why they’d want to keep the Russos around for more Avengers movies. It doesn't sound like the Russos have completely ruled it out, we’ll just have to wait a while before we see another Russo-led Marvel film.
While it won’t be with Marvel Studios, there are a lot of projects to look forward to from the brothers. They have projects that will appear on both the 2022 and 2023 movie schedules, and it’s been announced that Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown will star in one of their Netflix original movies. So, there is still a lot to look forward to from the directing duo, and maybe in ten years or so, that could include another Marvel project.
