Avengers: Doomsday’s Phase Zero Reset Is the Clearest Sign Yet the MCU Lost Its Way

If you thought Avengers: Doomsday was just going to be another round of MCU greatest hits, dusting off the old capes and throwing in the usual fan-baiting cameos, think again. This upcoming instalment is apparently Marvel pressing the reset button—pretty hard. The Russo brothers (Joe and Anthony, directors behind some of the MCU’s best and, frankly, only consistently solid films) have been out chatting at SXSW London, and what they had to say about Doomsday actually caught me off guard.

The Russo Approach: Back to 'Phase Zero'

During their panel, the Russos shared a bit about their reunion with Robert Downey Jr., and it turns out they’re not looking to tap into nostalgia. Not in the way you’d expect, anyway. Joe Russo put it like this:

'That serial shifting and changing and surprising you and then reinventing itself and then shifting and changing and then surprising you—that’s exciting and I think you’re going to see some shifting and changing [with Doomsday]. So, 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't leaning on anything from the past.'

So rather than doubling-down on references, they're binning most of their old playbook. No resting on laurels—this is Marvel Studios, confronted by the fact that what worked before simply isn’t working now.

Let’s Be Honest: The MCU’s Last Few Years Have Been Wobbly

There was a time when every Marvel flick sold out instantly, and the only real worry was whether your popcorn would survive the first act. That momentum, which peaked with Avengers: Endgame in 2019, came crashing down after Phase Three. Marvel unloaded a barrage of new projects—Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, The Marvels, and the less said about Quantumania the better. Characters changed, stakes were supposedly higher, yet somehow the whole lot just felt... flat.

What was meant to be a passing of the torch to younger, snazzier heroes didn’t quite take. Fans, who used to show up for literally anything with 'Marvel Studios' slapped on it, started seriously questioning where the whole thing was going. Even the multiverse angle—meant to be the next big thing—never really caught fire with audiences, culminating in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania properly tanking and setting off a bit of a crisis behind the scenes.

What’s Next: Building the MCU From the Ground Up (Again)

Now, Marvel’s basically stuck in a purgatory where nobody quite knows what comes next. Where every new project used to be a guaranteed talking point, now you’ve got fans squinting at release schedules, actually hesitating to get excited. The Russos, to their credit, aren’t ignoring this reality. Doomsday’s approach—as they've outlined it—amounts to a rare, explicit admission that the whole machine needs a hard reboot.

• Avengers: Doomsday is being treated as a clean slate—'phase zero' in the Russos' words
• This follows a run of MCU projects post-Endgame that failed to connect with audiences
• The multiverse saga fizzled, culminating in the much-maligned Quantumania and a general loss of trust among the fanbase
• Marvel is now looking to win fans back with more focused, serialized storytelling—starting with Doomsday and projects like Daredevil: Born Again and Spider-Man: Brand New Day

There’s definitely a mountain to climb if Marvel want the old buzz back, but with some fresh thinking and, ideally, a bit less self-congratulation, maybe the next era can actually start surprising us again—or at least avoid the unceremonious belly-flops of the past few years.