Summary
Avengers: Doomsdayis the next major play for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the filmmakers behind it are taking a lot of precautionary steps to avoid one major pitfall of modern filmmaking in a bid to help audiences get the best experience.
Avengers: Doomsdaywas originally going to beAvengers: The Kang Dynasty,bringing Jonathan Major’s villain fromAnt Man & The Wasp: Quantumaniato the fore of the franchise as the new big bad of the MCU a la Thanos. However, real life events would lead to Marvel Studios scrapping those plans and cutting ties with Majors. With the titular villain of the nextAvengersfilm missing and the rest of the franchise at a low point, the Russo brothers would return to save the day despitebeing ruled out of the running to headline the nextAvengersprior to the surprise announcement. Also returning to the franchise was Robert Downey Jr, a move that legitimately left fans dumbfounded and became an insanely viral moment.
The Russo brothers aim to deliver even betterAvengersmoviesthanInfinity WarandEndgamewithDoomsdayand the planned sequelSecret War,and part of that experience is giving fans more moments that come as a genuine surprise like the RDJ reveal. To that end, the filmmaking duo are taking the challenge of keeping production under wraps. Speaking toColliderin a recent joint interview, the Russos discussed how seriously they’re taking keeping the details of what’s coming a secret. “We’re pretty good about shutting that down,” Joe Russo explained, with Anthony Russo adding, “We’ve sort of strategized to hopefully be effective with that.” When the interviewer guessed that the strategy likely meant a lot of filming on sound stages, the pair admitted that was the case, with Joe saying, “We don’t want people getting photographs, so we are being pretty stringent.” Anthony weighed in again to clarify that filming on location was also accounted for, saying that “The location work we are doing, we have picked those locations with that in mind, as well.”
Leaks and substantiated rumors have been a feature of the MCU since it became the cultural juggernaut that it is, but from the other side of the screen, it’s clearly more of a bug. Almost every MCU project gets some leaks put out ahead of time, ranging from minor cosmetic choices to massive, pertinent plot points. Thanks to social media, once a picture, video, or other leaked material gets online, everyone is liable to see or hear about it, regardless of whether they want to. WhileRyan Reynolds raged at websites for leakingDeadpool 3spoilersdespite his genuine efforts to have everyone behave, the Russos are planning ahead to make sure things don’t get to that point to begin with. It goes without saying that theAvengersfilms are a bit more high stakes thanDeadpool,and fans will have waited more than half a decade since the last one to seeDoomsday.The less is spoiled for the general public ahead of the film’s release, the better for Marvel Studios.
While it’s great that the Russos are on top of the production’s secrecy, the film might have bigger problems. There have been recentrumors suggesting thatAvengers: Doomsdaymight be delayeddue to the uncertainty surrounding the lineup of heroes for the upcoming mainline entry. Even with most of the originalAvengersbeing taken off the table, there’s still a whole litany of characters at hand for the fight against Doom. Many of those characters willonlyappear in a mainline movie thanks to Marvel Studios and Disney’s more conservative approach to streaming shows following the recent turbulence the franchise has experienced. This makes paring down the roster and choosing who features prominently might be a challenge. Fortunately, it’s one the Russos are experienced at handling.
