Avengers: Doomsday Is Back to Zero, as the Russo Brothers Promise a Profound Shift for the MCU

Avengers: Doomsday is going to be a massive shift for the MCU, at least according to the Russo brothers. In a recent interview with AP News, they described the film as back to zero, starting from scratch, and a profound shift, which basically means that with Doomsday they are starting over.

This is not the first time the Russos have hinted at this, and it is not the first time Kevin Feige has either. Feige has said before that we are indeed getting a soft reboot, but I think that soft reboot might not be as soft as a lot of people think. I do not mean in terms of characters not surviving. I mean in terms of what we know the MCU to be.

The Russo brothers call Endgame an ending and Doomsday a beginning

The AP News piece is titled "Avengers Doomsday Fall Movie Preview, Russo Brothers, Maestros of Ensembles, Test Their Limits," and there is a lot in it that I think fans are going to want to hear. First, it helps to remember that the Russo brothers have said Avengers: Endgame was an ending and Avengers: Doomsday is a beginning. Kevin Feige backs that up as well.

A lot of people, myself included, widely believe that this new beginning happens because Marvel finally has access to every character. Thanks to buying Fox, and thanks to the rights arrangements with Sony and Universal, Marvel has access to all of its characters at this point. So the belief is that they are getting rid of their current universe to start a new one where all of those characters can exist together. That is widely regarded as what we expect the new MCU to be, and it is believed that this will happen in Avengers: Doomsday.

Joe Russo confirms Doomsday started without a complete script

The script has been talked about before, and it made a lot of people panic that the Russos went into Avengers: Doomsday without a complete script. Now the Russo brothers have basically confirmed that. Joe Russo explained their approach this way: "We always view the script as a living organism. We're improvisation-based, rehearsal-based directors. We like to see what the actors bring to the characters, and sometimes you don't get the actors until a few days or a few weeks before you shoot them. And a lot of the time, that's when the magic happens."

I agree with this. I do not think you should have a script where every single little thing has to be followed no matter what, particularly in this situation, because we are talking about characters that go back to 2008. The actors know what their characters would do in these situations. They have become their characters.

The Russo brothers have also been along for the ride for a long time, since Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Letting a script live and breathe on set is something they typically do. They did it for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and look how those turned out. Because the actors know their characters, being able to breathe and improvise some scenes to create more magic is exactly what I think Avengers: Doomsday needs.

Marvel is pivoting after rocky years and oversaturation

The AP article also addresses why Marvel is pivoting into something new, acknowledging that the studio has had a few rocky years. One section is subtitled "After a rocky few years, Marvel looks to reassert its dominance," and the piece notes that since Endgame the MCU has gone through plenty of expansion and experimentation, while Phases 4, 5 and 6 have been notably rockier than the first three phases. Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, has acknowledged that oversaturation played a role in the downturn.

I think we know that. They did too much. It was not all on them, because we know Disney really pushed them to do a lot for Disney Plus, but some of it did get a little oversaturated. That is not to say we did not have some amazing projects come out of those phases, because we did. Unfortunately, not all of them were at the level that I think a lot of fans expected.

They also state that the MCU is this massive experiment in how vast an ensemble can be and how much scope it can really have: "If we have a taste and talent for ensemble storytelling, we're certainly pushing ourselves further than we ever have before." So they are going bigger. They want to go past Infinity War and Endgame, which is really hard. Endgame is probably about to become the biggest movie of all time again now that it has re-released, and Infinity War is one of the biggest movies too. The vast majority of fans believe those are the top caliber of Marvel movies.

A foundational narrative concept from Stephen McFeely brought the Russos back

This is where it gets really interesting. The Russos still promise something special in Doomsday, again describing it as back to zero, starting from scratch, and a profound shift in the MCU. According to the article, even in the ever expanding realm of the MCU, the Russos have been animated by stories with defined beginnings, like Doomsday, and legitimate endings, like Endgame. Even if Endgame was not really the end, they needed to believe it was.

It took something extra to bring them back to Marvel. They were coaxed back by a foundational narrative concept suggested by co-writer Stephen McFeely, who they are writing the movie with. I really like that. Maybe we know a little bit about it, but maybe we are about to be really surprised.

My theory: Doctor Doom wins and Battleworld becomes the fresh start

Once again, it is stated that Marvel is going back to zero, essentially starting from Phase One when we get to Avengers: Doomsday. I think the main reason is that the multiverse is going to be destroyed. I think everybody at this point knows Doctor Doom is going to win at the end. However he does it, and we do not know that yet, he will create a new universe and a new world, Battleworld. He will rule over it for a little while in Secret Wars until, as we believe, the heroes come together and defeat him.

What happens after that, we are unsure of. But basically, what the Russos are saying is that in Secret Wars, at the end of Doomsday, there is a fresh start. The reason it is a profound shift is that, from what we have been told in the past by insiders and other reports, not everyone in this new universe is going to remember the past. Some will, but memories are going to be taken away. Some people will only ever remember Battleworld, so they will believe they have been in that universe the entire time and that nothing really happened before. That is a really interesting way to do a new beginning.

Some characters need to remember the Infinity Saga

I have always said this and I maintain it: there need to be characters who remember the old universe. We cannot just forget the Infinity Saga and some of the good projects in the Multiverse Saga. We can forget some projects, but not all of them. So I do believe there is going to be something like an Illuminati, or several characters who remember the past. That way the past stays there and we always have it. We do not want to erase it.

But they are soft rebooting it so that everyone can start at zero. Some characters carry over, like Tom Holland's Spider-Man, and I am assuming some of the Thunderbolts will too. But we are going to get a new Iron Man, a new Captain America and new Avengers, which Kevin Feige already confirmed, and then the new X-Men team. That has already started being introduced, since we have some of the X-Men cast, and then we go right into that after Secret Wars.

They call it a new beginning, but to get a new beginning you have to have an end. So Doomsday really is an ending to what we know the MCU to be, and the beginning of a new MCU that will not be the same as we know it. That is exciting, but it is also a little bit scary.

Fans are excited but nervous about the reset

When we asked fans what they think, the mood was mixed: excited but skeptical, terrified but eager, excited and nervous about a potential reset while seeing interesting storylines in having everyone together. I totally get that. It is hard to hear that this is a new beginning and that Marvel is shifting from what you know.

I do not think that means Marvel is going to be completely different, with no phases and no characters coming together. I think it means that what you have come to know is not their standard. With all of the Disney Plus projects being woven in, that became a lot for a lot of people. You hear the word homework a lot, and people do not want so much homework. I just think they are going back to how the Infinity Saga was, but bigger than ever, adding things like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and hopefully some Celestials. That makes me excited, but the reset is a little terrifying because we do not know exactly what they are going to do.

Other fans said the reset is needed after all the multiverse chaos, and that is what I am talking about. A lot of fans feel there was too much going on. You can follow it, but sometimes you do not want to have to watch a show to keep up with a movie, and I think a lot of people understand that even if they do not feel that way themselves.

The Multiverse Saga plan changed too often, from Kang to Doctor Doom

I also believe that during the Multiverse Saga, Marvel might have had a plan, but I think that plan fluctuated and often changed. We saw the big change from Kang to Doctor Doom. Kevin Feige originally said they were not even going to have Kang as the main villain, but then they saw Jonathan Majors play He Who Remains in Loki and decided to make him the main villain of the saga. So things changed a lot.

Hopefully, and it already seems this way, when we go into the next saga they have a plan they know is going to work and that they will mostly stick to. Like the script, it is okay to have some freedom. Having something locked down does not mean it cannot change for the better. That is the biggest part: for the better. If it changes for the worse, then what are we doing here?

Some heroes will not survive the soft reboot, but I think what comes next will be incredible

Some fans worry that Marvel might kill most of the heroes to show how strong Doom is, the way the Hulk and Thanos scene worked in 2018. Maybe. I do think there are heroes who are not going to survive the soft reboot, whether they get a happy ending or whether they are killed.

Regardless, I think we are going into something really incredible with the next part of the MCU. With the X-Men finally in the MCU alongside the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, I think the next chapter is going to be absolutely incredible.

Do you think a back to zero reset is what the MCU needs, and which characters should keep their memories of the old universe?