Avengers: Endgame included a series of goodbyes, but perhaps none more important to the MCU-at-large than the departure of directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who revealed to 12DOVE last year that Endgame would likely be their final Marvel movie for the time being.
The Russos, though, have always been open about a project that could tempt them back; Secret Wars, an adaptation of the seminal heroes vs. villains '80s Marvel crossover, is something that the pair are intriguingly still keen to talk about.
“I read that when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together. It was one of the first major books to do that — that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest,” Joe Russo told BroBible of his love for Secret Wars and maybe some day turning it into a movie, a prospect he teased at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
“I also like the idea of villains having to team up with heroes. Anth and I like complicated relationships between heroes and villains, we like villains who believe they’re heroes in their own stories, so it’s all sort of built into this notion of Secret Wars.”
Secret Wars, essentially a crossover event to put an end once and for all to the playground questions over which comic book character would beat the other, featured the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and several other heroes and villains from the wider Marvel universe doing battle on Battleworld.
It would be an epic undertaking, no doubt, to try and get that on film – one that Anthony Russo even describes as “the biggest movie you could possibly imagine, so that’s what really excites us about the story – the ambition of it is even bigger than the ambition of the Infinity Saga.”
For now, Marvel Phase 4 (and beyond) is showing no signs of putting the pieces together on a Secret Wars saga, nor are the Russos returning to the MCU director’s chair for the fifth time. But if anyone can put it together, it’s Marvel Studios.
There's no Marvel presence at SDCC this year, but there's still plenty on. Find out everything you need to know with your complete Comic-Con 2020 guide.
