SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Writers Have Been Helping Marvel Shape Next Two AVENGERS Movies

After helping give Marvel Studios a massive win with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have also been helping out with two of the biggest movies the MCU has ever attempted.

The writing duo has confirmed that they’re involved with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, putting the writers behind Spider-Man’s billion-dollar comeback right in the middle of Marvel’s next gigantic Avengers event.

The timing certainly makes sense. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already earned more than $1 billion worldwide in its first week of release, but the money is only part of the story.

The movie has also landed extremely well with Marvel fans, critics, and general audiences, with a lot of the praise focused on how it manages to tell a personal, character-driven Spider-Man story while still playing around with the much larger MCU.

That balance could be incredibly important for what Marvel is trying to pull off with Doomsday and Secret Wars.

We first got a hint that McKenna and Sommers had jumped over to the Avengers movies thanks to Destin Daniel Cretton. While promoting Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the director revealed during an interview that the writers had stepped away during production to work on Avengers.

That opened the door for some digging, and The Wrap followed up directly with McKenna and Sommers, who confirmed their involvement.

“We’re happy to say we are involved with the Avengers. We can’t really say much more than that,” Sommers said. “We love working with Marvel, and we have a relationship with the Russos, and it’s a pleasure. It’s a real pleasure.”

Marvel has gone through several writing configurations while developing these two Avengers movies. Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were originally expected to reunite with Joe Russo and Anthony Russo for Doomsday and Secret Wars.

Michael Waldron, whose Marvel credits include Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, was also brought into the process for Secret Wars.

Eventually, that writing group was narrowed down to McFeely and Waldron working on Doomsday, with McKenna and Sommers later joining the Avengers operation.

Exactly what McKenna and Sommers contributed remains a mystery. We don’t know how extensively they rewrote material from Waldron and McFeely for Avengers: Doomsday, nor do we know how much they’re shaping Secret Wars. Their involvement, however, is particularly interesting considering the enormous storytelling challenge Marvel has on its hands.

Avengers: Doomsday is bringing together an absolutely massive collection of Marvel characters, and getting everyone onto the screen is the easy part. Making audiences care about what happens to them is where things get tricky.

The footage released so far has kept the movie’s central themes and major character arcs largely under wraps, and there have also been rumors suggesting Marvel has wrestled with how to turn all of the multiversal insanity into a cohesive emotional story with a climax worthy of an Avengers movie of this scale.

That’s exactly where McKenna and Sommers could prove useful. Spider-Man: Brand New Day had plenty of characters competing for screen time, including Punisher, Hulk, and Jean Grey, yet the movie still managed to keep Spider-Man at the heart of the story. The supporting Marvel heroes didn’t swallow up Peter Parker’s journey. They were part of it.

If McKenna and Sommers can bring some of that same character-focused storytelling to Doomsday, it could help keep the movie from becoming two-plus hours of superheroes, multiversal cameos, portals, and explosions fighting for our attention.

There’s also the small matter of Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom. Bringing Downey back to the MCU as Victor von Doom is one of the strangest and most fascinating creative swings Marvel Studios has taken.

Whatever explanation the movie has planned, Doom needs to be much more than a familiar face attached to a giant Marvel villain. He needs a story that justifies the casting and gives audiences a reason to become invested in this new chapter for Downey within the MCU.

McKenna and Sommers have plenty of Marvel experience beyond Brand New Day as well, so they already understand the complicated machinery involved in connecting individual character stories with the larger MCU. Now they’ve been handed an opportunity to help shape the culmination of the Multiverse Saga.

After seeing how well Spider-Man: Brand New Day balanced its expanding Marvel roster without losing sight of Spider-Man himself, having McKenna and Sommers involved with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars feels like a promising move.

Marvel can throw every superhero, mutant, variant, universe, and surprise cameo imaginable into these movies. None of that matters nearly as much if the story underneath it doesn’t land.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently playing in theaters. Avengers: Doomsday arrives December 18th.