Did The Russos Spoil the Ending of Avengers: Doomsday & Secret Wars?
With Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars on the way, we’re searching for every little morsel of context possible.
If you’re not a fan of spoilers, it looks like the Russo Brothers have dropped a clanger. Usually, the MCU leaves the spoiling to Spider-Man star Tom Holland, but now, Marvel Studios is clearly taking it up a notch.
Of course, given that the MCU has comics as its source material, there is always going to be a sense of predictability around the overall plot direction. Unless the studio dramatically deviates from the comics, it is arguable that, in virtue of these comics’ existence, a lot of Marvel TV shows and movies are arguably ‘spoiled’ from the outset.
But with their extended ode to 'Time Runs Out', the comic book prelude to the Secret Wars storyline, the duo may well have said a little too much…
What Did The Russo Brothers Say?
In their extended introduction as part of the book 'Avengers: Time Runs Out' in the Marvel Premier Collection, the Russo siblings talk a lot about the comic book portrayal of Doctor Doom. It’s clear from reading the foreword that the way Doom was written had a profound impact on them, and, in turn, may well influence their own approach to the character.
“Doom is not just an adversary,” they write. “He is ambition and fear woven together. In 'Secret Wars', he tries to hold reality in place through sheer will. He believes he can save everything if he controls enough of it. Hickman [the comic book author] reveals the strain behind that effort and the human fragility beneath the armor. Even someone who can reshape existence cannot escape the emotions that define him.”
What Does This Mean For Avengers: Doomsday and Beyond?
If we want to get granular with it, their emphasis on the idea of Doom trying to “hold reality in place through sheer will” teases the possibility of them going down a similar route. It suggests that, initially, Doom wins and is able to establish the Battleworld in Doomsday before the Avengers fight back in Secret Wars.
The fact that the Russo brothers focus so much on the “strain” and “human fragility” Doom feels after establishing the Battleworld could also indicate that, for them, these qualities, along with Doom’s inability to escape his emotions, are key to the supervillain’s eventual downfall in their films.
“In Time Runs Out, one of the most striking elements is how the world begins to slip,” they add. “It is not a dramatic explosion. It is fear. It is compromise. It is the slow erosion of trust among people who care deeply and still cannot prevent the fall. Stories like that linger. They ask us to look at who we become when pressure shapes every choice.”
With this excerpt in particular in mind, it seems like the idea of a gradual downward spiral as opposed to one Big Battle™ is a narrative the Russos are pretty keen on. It would make sense if Avengers: Secret Wars ended up being more of a slow-burn than other MCU movies we’ve seen before. That would really set it apart from Avengers: Endgame, especially.
Ultimately, this introduction message does confirm that, at the very least, the source material was highly influential for the pair. While it’s impossible to know how much of this is a ‘spoiler’ until the films are released, it does make it clear as day that they will handle the storyline with a lot of care and nuance.
