AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY Will Completely Reset The MCU as the Russos Call It “Phase Zero” - "This is Starting Over From Scratch"
With more than 30 superheroes and nearly 40 interconnected movies feeding into it, you’d think Avengers: Doomsday would require a doctorate-level understanding of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After all, Marvel has spent the better part of two decades building this sprawling franchise, and the years following Avengers: Endgame have only added more characters, timelines, universes, and storylines to keep track of.
But according to directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, that may not be the case at all. Speaking at SXSW London, the filmmakers revealed that they’re looking at Doomsday in an unexpected way. Instead of treating it as the latest chapter in a long-running saga, they’re framing it as a fresh starting point.
“That serial shifting and changing and surprising you and then reinventing itself and then shifting and changing and then surprising you—that’s exciting and I think you’re going to see some shifting and changing [with Doomsday],” Joe Russo said.
“So, get ready for it. Look, we were with Rob [Downey Jr.] earlier today. We were both talking about this concept that we are back to phase zero. This is starting over from scratch. We want to make sure everybody feels like this isn’t leaning on anything from the past.”
That’s a fascinating statement considering what Doomsday actually is. This is the 39th film in the MCU. It brings Robert Downey Jr. back to the franchise in a completely new role as the story’s central villain, Doctor Doom.
It also features the return of Chris Evans, while drawing from a huge roster of characters introduced across recent Marvel projects. We’re talking about heroes and concepts tied to Deadpool & Wolverine, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, along with the long-awaited arrival of characters from Fox’s X-Men universe.
On paper, that sounds like a movie that would require extensive knowledge of what came before. Yet the Russos seem to be suggesting the opposite.
If Marvel can truly make Doomsday accessible to audiences who haven’t kept up with every Disney+ series and every theatrical release over the last several years, it could be exactly what the franchise needs right now.
The MCU finds itself at an important moment after several recent projects failed to reach the sky-high expectations that Marvel once routinely exceeded.
Creating a movie that rewards longtime fans while also welcoming casual audiences back into the fold could be a smart way to re-energize the brand. It’s just a very different strategy from the one Marvel has relied on for most of its existence.
Of course, that clean-slate approach only goes so far. While the Russos continue work on Doomsday, which is scheduled to hit theaters on December 18, they’ve already started pre-production on its follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars, arriving in December 2027.
And unlike Doomsday, that film sounds very much like part two of a larger story. “The stories that we’re focused on now are complete,” Anthony Russo said.
“Doomsday and Secret Wars speak with one another as two films and they form a complete expression. Whether or not we all collaborate with Marvel beyond that is certainly a possibility, but right now, the vision, the narrative vision is just for Secret Wars.”
So while Marvel may be positioning Doomsday as an entry point for newcomers, it sounds like Secret Wars will be the payoff that follows. You may not need to watch the last six years of MCU movies and Disney+ shows before seeing Doomsday, but you’ll almost certainly want to watch Doomsday before heading into Secret Wars.
Fans have been waiting for another event-level Marvel story that delivers the kind of excitement and payoff that Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame brought to theaters. If Marvel can pull off a true reset while still building toward something that big, it could be exactly the shot in the arm the MCU needs.