The Russo Brothers Haven't Ruled Out More Marvel Movies

After months of guesswork, we finally know the title of the upcoming fourth ‘Avengers’ film. It’s ‘Avengers: Endgame‘, a title that seems both ominous and in a way, natural. After all, Marvel has been teasing fans for well over a year with the notion that ‘Endgame’ will mark the end of an era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We won’t know exactly what that means until the film makes its debut in April, but most people expect to see long founding Avengers like Captain America and Iron Man either killed or otherwise taken off the table. By doing so, they’ll both allow those actors to take on other projects without years of Marvel commitments already filled in and open space in the spotlight for less established characters like Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange.

But there’s also the possibility of turnover behind the scenes. This is every bit as speculative, given how little their post-‘Endgame’ film slate Marvel has been willing to confirm publicly, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising if they had some fresh blood lined up. After all, Phase 2 saw an infusion of new directors (including the Russos and Shane Black) taking on established properties while Phase 3 has managed to have its cake and eat it too by giving newcomers like Scott Derrickson and Ryan Coogler a chance to shine while the Russos helped studio president Kevin Feige steer the wider universe toward the cataclysmic events of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. And it’s likely that trend will continue beyond Phase 3. We already know, for example, that Derrickson will be returning for a ‘Doctor Strange’ sequel.

But what of the Russos? ‘Infinity War’ was a monumental undertaking, and ‘Endgame’ looks to be just as massive (well, maybe half as massive). If nothing else, you could hardly blame them for wanting a break when all this is done. There’s not yet been any word on what the brothers’ post-‘Endgame’ plans are, let alone whether or not they’ll include Marvel, but Joe Russo made clear in a recent interview with Business Insider that they’re not ready to close that door just yet:

“We love Marvel, we’ve had an incredible experience with them. It’s why we’ve made four movies in six years with them. They’re like family to us. I think they do a great job of separating “church and state,” where we’re focused on the projects we’re focused on, and someone else will focus on those other projects. We’d work with them in any capacity moving forward, and we value as much as anything in our work life the quality of the people we’re around and quality of the life that we have when we’re working with those people, and that’s A++ when you’re working with Marvel.”

Directed by the Russo brothers from a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, ‘Avengers: Endgame’ sees the superteam pick up the pieces after the events of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, which saw Thanos annihilate half the life in the universe. The film counts Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Chris Evans among the cast. The hotly anticipated movie is set to arrive in theaters on April 26, 2019.