The Russo brothers hope that Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are a "new beginning" for the MCU

After a few years of hits and misses, the MCU seems to be reaching a critical point with the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, with directors the Russo brothers calling them "a new beginning" for the franchise.

The filmmaking duo have been offering a few clues recently about the highly anticipated movies, debunking that Avengers: Doomsday concept art leak and even revealing which comics inspired them. Now, they describe the new Avengers installments as the opposite of what Infinity War and Endgame meant for the superhero saga in 2019.

"The greatest thing that ever happened is we got to, you know, get immersed in you know a 20 movie arc and and see an ending to that arc," Joe Russo said in an interview with Omelete.

"What's compelling about these two new Avengers movies is they're a beginning. It's a new beginning. We told an ending story, now we're going to tell a beginning story. And then who knows where we'll go from there. Maybe it'll be another 5 years but I think we just needed that time and perspective to figure out where it needed to go next, and the only thing that brought us back was the right story."

Most details about that story and which superheroes will join the cast are still under wraps. All we know so far is that Robert Downey Jr. is set to play Doctor Doom, and he has reportedly been hard at work on his character's backstory.

While we wait for more secrets about Doomsday and Secret Wars to be revealed, the MCU's next stops are Thunderbolts* in May and The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July.

Avengers: Doomsday is set to hit theaters on May 1, 2026. For more, check out our list of all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows you need to know about.