{"id":712012,"date":"2026-06-03T10:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/712012\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:06:13","slug":"avengers-doomsday-may-not-require-you-to-see-any-previous-marvel-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/712012\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Avengers: Doomsday’ May Not Require You to See Any Previous Marvel Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featuring over 30 superheroes from almost 40 movies released over the past 20 years, one would assume this December\u2019s Avengers: Doomsday<\/a> could be the ultimate Marvel Cinematic Universe final exam. 2019\u2019s Avengers: Endgame<\/a> was one thing, but since then, Marvel has introduced so many additional characters<\/a> and concepts that the prospect of all of it paying off in a new Avengers movie<\/a> is mindboggling. But, apparently, it may not actually matter.<\/p>\n

Speaking this week at SXSW London, Doomsday directors Joe and Anthony Russo referred to their upcoming film as being \u201cPhase Zero\u201d of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. \u201cThat serial shifting and changing and surprising you and then reinventing itself and then shifting and changing and then surprising you\u2014that\u2019s exciting and I think you\u2019re going to see some shifting and changing [with Doomsday],\u201d Joe Russo said, via the Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. \u201cSo, 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\u2019t leaning on anything from the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Doomsday, the 39th film in the MCU, which brings back Robert Downey Jr. as a recast main villain, as well as a thought-to-be-retired Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, \u201cisn\u2019t leaning on anything from the past?\u201d Wasn\u2019t this supposed to be part of Phase Six of the story, and now you\u2019re referring to it as \u201cPhase Zero?\u201d That\u2019s wild. You\u2019d imagine that tying in characters new and old from Fox\u2019s X-Men universe, Deadpool vs. Wolverine, Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts, Shang-Chi and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, just to name a few, would require at least some prior knowledge of those stories. But the implication is that it will not.<\/p>\n

How that\u2019s possible, we have no idea, but in theory, it\u2019s probably a smart approach. Clearly, Marvel Studios is at a crossroads after its last several releases have failed to meet its incredibly high expectations. So there is probably a balance to give fans who have stuck with the franchise lots of the characters and storylines they love while also not alienating fans who haven\u2019t seen everything. It\u2019s just surprising because that\u2019s not usually the Marvel playbook.<\/p>\n

And, in fact, that original playbook comes back just one year later. While the Russos are still working on Avengers: Doomsday for its December 18 release, they\u2019ve also begun pre-production on its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, which is scheduled to release one year after Doomsday in December 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories that we\u2019re focused on now are complete,\u201d Anthony Russo said via Deadline<\/a>. \u201cDoomsday\u00a0and\u00a0Secret Wars\u00a0speak 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\u00a0Secret Wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, basically, while you won\u2019t need to have seen the past six years of movies and Disney+ shows to see Doomsday, you will have to see Doomsday to see Secret Wars. Which, frankly, we\u2019re fine with. We\u2019re craving the kind of payoff Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame provided. We\u2019d just love to all be on the same page about it.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Featuring over 30 superheroes from almost 40 movies released over the past 20 years, one would assume this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[171681,3076,3077,49,48,75,171682,3079,3080],"class_list":["post-712012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-anthony-russo","tag-avengers-doomsday","tag-avengers-secret-wars","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-joe-russo","tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","tag-marvel-studios"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}