Russo Brothers Defend Shooting Avengers: Doomsday Without a Finished Script

Joe and Anthony Russo have answered the question that has followed Avengers: Doomsday since cameras started rolling, telling the Associated Press that beginning production without a locked screenplay is how they prefer to work.

“We always view the script as a living organism,” Joe Russo said, describing himself and his brother as improvisation-based and rehearsal-based directors who want to see what actors bring to a character. He added that they sometimes do not get an actor until days or weeks before shooting, and that this is often where the best material comes from.

The comments arrive in an AP fall movie preview published September 2, in which the brothers were interviewed separately while finishing scoring and editing on Doomsday and beginning early prep on 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. Joe described making one film of this size as the hardest thing they have ever done, and making two at once as almost inconceivable, though the pair have now done back-to-back Avengers movies twice.

The same interview includes the reference point guiding their approach. Anthony pointed to the Western, and specifically Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, as the model for pairing enormous scale with quiet character moments. The brothers also traced their instinct for ensembles back to their television work on Arrested Development and Community, where they directed 14 and 34 episodes respectively.

What Prompted the Question

The script issue has been public for roughly a year, and it did not come from anonymous scoop accounts.

Rebecca Romijn, who plays Mystique, told The Hollywood Reporter at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2025 that she was not sure whether she had finished shooting because the script had not been finished, adding that Marvel keeps everything close to the vest.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays The Thing, told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he did read a full script, that those scripts change quite a bit, and that the version he saw probably did not have a full third act. He does not think it had an ending. Alan Cumming, cast as Nightcrawler, told Entertainment Tonight the opposite side of the same coin, saying the cast eventually saw a script and that it took a while but they had one.

Sebastian Stan told Le Journal du Dimanche in an interview published in August that he knows nothing about the movie because there was no script, and that the cast shot scattered scenes in a continuous, constantly evolving process. He said producers did not want the cast reading it in full so journalists could not question them about it, and that he has been working under that rule for fifteen years.

Kevin Feige has previously described Marvel’s ongoing script changes as “plus-ing,” framing it as standard studio practice rather than a problem. Doomsday inherited an unusual amount of that churn after Marvel pivoted away from Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and installed the Russos.

Reshoots Are Still Happening

Additional photography has been underway through August. Winston Duke, who plays M’Baku, said so in an interview with CNA, the only on-record confirmation from anyone involved.

Scooper Daniel Richtman reported that Marvel is adding a significant number of cameos and that Secret Wars will not begin production until the end of September, with the Doomsday work tacked onto the front of that schedule. Reports on September 1 indicated the reshoots have wrapped and included scenes for Scarlet Witch and Sue Storm. Mark Ruffalo has been rumored to have stepped away from HBO’s Task season two to shoot something, and Jeremy Renner posted a photo of his Hawkeye costume on Instagram set to a track labeled “Avengers x Hawkeye.” Marvel has confirmed none of those returns.

The reported focus of the additional shooting was character interaction rather than plot repair, giving a cast reported at more than 60 speaking roles actual scenes together instead of isolated appearances.

That distinction is where the two readings of this story split. In July, John Campea’s source claimed the Russos were struggling to find the movie in the edit, and World of Reel reported friction in the cutting room while maintaining the release date was never in question. Nothing in that account has been confirmed, and the comparison Marvel defenders reach for is Infinity War and Endgame, which were also written and rewritten deep into production. What is different is the calendar. Reshoots running into September on a film releasing December 18 leave a narrow window, and Doomsday opens the same day as Dune: Part Three.