In some bad news for fans, Joe and Anthony Russo have put their plans to make another Marvel film on hold due to the ongoing feud between Scarlett Johansson and Disney. The Russo Brothers have had a long relationship with Marvel, having directed some of their biggest films including, Avengers: Endgame and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal, the director siblings have “hit an impasse in negotiations to direct another Marvel movie.”
This reason for this predicament is the uncertainty of the release medium of their movie. According to WSJ, Joe Russo and Anthony Russo are “unsure how their next movie would be distributed and how they would be paid.” In July this year, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney alleging the company of a breach of contract over Black Widow‘s simultaneous streaming and theatrical release. Johansson alleged that Disney released Black Widow on Disney+ Premium Access which affected the film’s box office and in turn, affected the Oscar-nominated actor’s earnings.
Scarlett Johansson was supported by several of her colleagues including, Kevin Feige and Elizabeth Olsen. Feige himself opposed Black Widow’ s release strategy. Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot were also not happy with Warner Bros.’s decision to release WW84 on HBO Max, but they were fairly compensated. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with Johannsson. Disney accused her of being insensitive in times of a global pandemic after the Black Widow star sued the company.
With the Covid pandemic still not showing any signs of slowing down and the big Hollywood movies struggling at the Box office, Disney could do to the Russos what they did to Johansson. The possibility of that scenario happening is probably what’s behind the Russo Brothers reconsidering their MCU return. Hopefully, they sort out whatever issues they have with Disney because fans would love for them to helm another Marvel movie.
As for what mystery project the pair were planning to make, we can only speculate on that. Based on the Russo’s past filmography, Marvel most likely wants them for another mega-blockbuster on par with the scale of an Avengers movie. In the past, the siblings have expressed interest in bringing the Fantastic Four, Wolverine, or the Secret Wars storyline to the big screen. And Anthony Russo, in a 2019 MTV interview, leaned towards Secret Wars if they were to direct another movie.
“I keep saying Secret Wars because that was one of the first books that I really fell in love with as a kid. This notion of, you know, event storytelling, and I think that’s part of the reason that we gravitate so strongly towards these event films and these ensemble films is the notion that you can contain so many different characters and so many different points of view and galvanize them around a story point is really compelling to us.”
The Russo’s next directorial venture will be The Gray Man starring Hollywood heartthrobs Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling as CIA spies. The Gray Man will mark the pair’s second collaboration with Netflix after Chris Hemsworth starrer Extraction. Touted as Netflix’s most expensive movie, The Gray Man will reunite the Russos with the Captain America trilogy and Avengers: Infinity War scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The Gray Man is currently in post-production, having wrapped filming in July. A summer 2022 release date is expected for the film. So far, no confirmation has been released by the Russos regarding their Marvel return. Stay tuned for more updates. This news comes to us from IGN.