The Hollywood Reporter has word that Joe and Anthony Russo, the directorial duo behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, are in talks with Marvel Studios to return to helm the fifth and sixth Avengers films.
According to the trade, talks between Marvel and the Russos over the next two Avengers movies—previously publicly titled as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, although just how Marvel still intends to navigate the departure of Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in the wake of his legal issues remains to be seen, outside of a name change for Kang Dynasty—are still in their early stages. But the talks represent a promising development in a months-long search to find new directors to replace the outgoing Destin Daniel Cretton, who departed Avengers 5 last year.
Previous reports indicated that Shawn Levy, the director of the incoming Deadpool & Wolverine, was potentially in the mix, having purportedly been given scripts for the film, but now it seems that Marvel may return to the closest thing its cinematic universe has had as a safe pair of hands in the last decade since James Gunn parted from the studio once again after the conclusion of his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy to go run Warner Bros.’ slate of DC Comics adaptations.
Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars are currently slated for release on May 1, 2026 and May 7, 2027, respectively.
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