Avengers: Doomsday director on evolving MCU icons: 'We need to surprise ourselves'

Bringing back the same characters audiences have spent years with — while still finding ways to surprise them — is one of the hardest problems in blockbuster filmmaking, and Anthony Russo, co-director of Avengers: Doomsday, isn't pretending otherwise.

Speaking at a Q&A following an Avengers: Endgame Encore screening at New York's 92nd Street Y, Russo was asked how he and his brother Joe balance honoring what audiences love about the MCU's characters with the need to move the story forward. His answer was candid.

It's a very difficult part of the process because I mean, we basically just have to use our own meters because we love the characters, we love the history, we love them in the same way that many fans do. But the one thing we always like to remind people of, you know, fandom does not speak with a single voice. There's a wide variety of opinion in terms of who responds to which characters and which versions of which characters people respond to, it's a very complex relationship that people have with the characters.— Anthony Russo, co-director, Avengers: Doomsday

Russo said the filmmakers hold deep respect for the storytelling road already traveled, but that reverence alone isn't enough.

That's part of their magic, a big part of their magic. But at the same time, we need to surprise ourselves in terms of who those characters are, where they can go, what they can do, what can happen, and in doing that, we hopefully surprise audiences as well.— Anthony Russo, co-director, Avengers: Doomsday

No casting decision in Doomsday makes that tension more visible than Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU — not as Tony Stark, who sacrificed himself to save the universe in Avengers: Endgame, but as Victor Von Doom, a character who may be the biggest villain the franchise has ever produced, according to GamesRadar+.

It is figuring out that balance of how do you challenge yourself, i.e. casting Robert Downey as Victor Von Doom, and then how do you sort of stay faithful to the very thoughtful and wonderfully effective storytelling road that's been traveled up until this point.— Anthony Russo, co-director, Avengers: Doomsday

Avengers: Endgame Encore is currently in release. Avengers: Doomsday is among the upcoming Marvel films and shows scheduled for 2026 and beyond.

Why it matters — With Downey returning in a completely new role after one of the MCU's most definitive character endings, Russo's comments reveal the creative and fan-relations tightrope the Doomsday filmmakers must walk.

Reported by variety.com, gamesradar.com