The Russos learned to juggle the Doomsday cast at their family's Sunday dinner table

Look, the Russo brothers are back in the Marvel business – and if you thought Avengers: Endgame was the end of the pile-on, just wait for Avengers: Doomsday. The word from the Russos themselves is that this will be absolutely chock-a-block with familiar faces: Avengers, Fantastic Four, even the original X-Men crew. They’re basically emptying the Marvel toybox (again) – and apparently, we’ve got their Italian family dinners to thank for it.

Avengers: Doomsday is landing in cinemas on 18 December 2026.

So why do the Russos keep drawing the short straw for movies with enough characters to field several football teams? According to the brothers, it all goes back to growing up with a swarm of siblings and cousins in Ohio. Anthony Russo explained to the Associated Press that ensemble storytelling just clicks for them – maybe because they work as a team themselves. And Joe, not to be outdone, described epic Sunday meals with neighbourly relatives as his training ground for managing ‘complex family dynamics.’ In other words, years of shouting over lasagne at your aunt across the table, and suddenly you’re fit to orchestrate Tony Stark and Scott Summers in the same scene. Fair enough.

Not Their First Rodeo

This isn’t a new obsession for the Russo brothers. If anyone remembers Community or the ever-chaotic Arrested Development, that’s where they honed this knack for wrangling unwieldy casts. Marvel picked up on it, threw them into Infinity War and Endgame, and now here they are, upping the ante yet again. According to Anthony Russo, making a film like Doomsday is pushing the absolute limits of how many storylines you can genuinely cram into a couple of hours. Rather than sweating over the logistical nightmare, they treat it a bit like a fun puzzle: how do you keep it fresh, not just ‘look, it’s that guy from the other franchise!’

The Big Surprise (and What’s New)

One curveball: Robert Downey Jr. is coming back, but this time not as Iron Man – he’s showing up as Doctor Doom. That’s bound to send the fandom into a full meltdown. The cast itself is shaping up to be one of Marvel’s largest ever, with returning faces from all over the MCU’s sprawling history. The Russos seem dead set on making sure this isn’t just fan service – they want something that actually feels new, rather than a nostalgia playlist with capes.

• Anthony Russo says the upcoming film tries things they’ve never attempted before – even after handling Avengers: Endgame.
• The cast list pulls in Avengers old and new, Fantastic Four, as well as the classic X-Men group.
• Robert Downey Jr. switches sides, appearing as Doctor Doom instead of Iron Man.

Whatever you think of Marvel’s endless expansion, the Russos are clearly keen on treating Avengers: Doomsday as another big storytelling experiment – and probably the busiest superhero reunion you’ll see before the decade’s out.