AVENGERS DOOMSDAY Directors Reveal HUGE Plot Details!

What in tarnation do this? TELL ME, VICTOR, DID YOU DO THIS? AND this. have in common? Well, knowing the answer. will unlock the secrets of Avengers. Doomsday. Welcome back to New Rockstars. I'm Eric Voss, and Avengers Doomsday. directors the Russo brothers opened up. to the Associated Press about their. process for Doomsday and how. mysteriously Sergio Leone's Once Upon a. Time in the West was a major inspiration. for them as they are crafting this film. For those of us who are familiar with. Leone's amazing 1968 Western, it's a bit.

surprising and intriguing and a little. confusing what they mean by that. And. there are three to four explanations. that I can think of that I'm going to. explain in this video, and all of them. have me even more excited for December. 18th. By the way, I'm wearing our new. Doomsday design celebrating the two. amazing films coming on December 18th, available exclusively at our merch store. nerdrider.shop. We love it when our fans. wear our gear out in the world, post a. selfie, and tag us like Blue JD rocking. our omega-level storm shirt while. showing your omega-level progress on leg.

day. Good on you, my man. Okay, this. week Jake Coyle of the AP shared an. interview with the Russo brothers from. the set Doomsday. Included in the. interview was this new shot of the. directors in the X-Mansion set talking. to someone in the foreground with a bit. of yellow on the shoulder strap and. brown hair that I think could be James. Marsden's Cyclops. If he's laying on the. ground, I'm a little worried if he could. be mortally wounded. But it was really. the quotes from this AP article that I. found to be the most fascinating. The. article says that these directors spoke. separately while knee-deep in work on. Avengers Doomsday and its 2027 follow-up.

Avengers Secret Wars. And actually, separating the Russo brothers is always. the best way to get the best quotes out. of them cuz whenever these two are. together, they kind of just like look at. each other and are both really good at. making that eye contact to do this kind. of a Italian family brother connection. of, "Hey, hey, don't say too much. The. feds might be listening." But here's. what the article says. They were. finishing work on Doomsday, scoring, editing while, in their words, soft. prepping production on Secret Wars. Quote, "When you're doing one of these. movies, it's the hardest thing you've. ever done," Joe says. "When you're doing. two of them, it's almost inconceivable. But it's the second time around we're.

doing two back-to-back. Back-to-back? Well, this confirms what I shared in. yesterday's video. Because when I got to. talk to Anthony Russo face-to-face. briefly last December at Agbo, he. indicated to me that at the time they. planned on a bit of a gap between. Doomsday production and Secret Wars. production, more than the gap that they. had between Infinity War and Endgame. But now it sounds like things are. back-to-back and maybe overlapping a. little bit. And I think they might be. shooting scenes on the Battleworld sets. that can be used as reshoots for the. final sequence of Doomsday and preshoots. for the full Secret Wars film. But then. the article talks about Marvel Studios.

box office woes and the oversaturation. in the years since Endgame and how. Doomsday represents an attempt to. reinvigorate the brand. The article. says, "So there is a. get-the-band-together quality to. Doomsday, a movie expected to be among. the highest grossing ever. Do the Russos. feel that the film will, after some MCU. stumbles, restore order in the Marvel. Universe?" Quote, "It's a great. question. It's part of the unique. challenge," says Anthony. "The thing. that Joe and I have always appreciated. about our collaboration with Marvel is. our job isn't to answer for the entirety. of the MCU. We intersected in a very. specific way. It's that intersection.

which is where we can make sense of. things." [music] I think this is the. Russos' way of signaling not all of the. MCU characters and storylines, particularly from all the Marvel. television shows and movies like. Eternals, will be represented in the. plot of Doomsday. The article then. discusses the Russos' optimism at the. huge success of Spider-Man: Brand New. Day this summer, which they call quote a. wonderful challenge. The article writes, "Yet the Russos promise something. special in Doomsday. They have referred. to it as quote back to zero, starting. from scratch, and a profound shift in. the MCU." Even in the ever-expanding.

realm of the MCU, the Russos have been. animated by stories with defined. beginnings, Doomsday, and legitimate. endings, Endgame. Even if Endgame wasn't. really the end, they needed to believe. it was. This is interesting because I. hear Doomsday and Endgame as somewhat. synonymous, the ending of something, a. climax, and a send-off to other. storylines. This is really the first. time I've heard of Doomsday as described. as the beginning of anything. But, you. know, with the Battleworld of it all, I. think we know what they're hinting by. this. The article goes on, "It took. something extra to bring the Russos back.

to Marvel. They were coaxed back, Anthony says, by a foundational. narrative concept suggested by co-writer. Stephen McFeely." Ah, yes, this is the. big idea that we've talked about in past. videos that Stephen McFeely called them. about something early one morning and. that idea convinced them to come back. The answer to this question has been my. white whale in all of these months. leading up to Doomsday. The article then. talks about the original plan for the. fifth Avengers movie to center around. Jonathan Majors Kang the Conqueror, which Marvel of course shifted away from. after the actor was dropped from the. franchise. The Russos eventually stepped. in, but the revamped production meant.

going into shooting with an unfinished. script. Quote, "We always view the. script as a living organism," says Joe. "We are 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 time that's when. the magic happens." So, I find the. summary of the timeline here to be a bit. confusing. The Russo brothers were. announced in July 2022. The movie at. that point had a release date of May. 2026, which was plenty of time. And then. the following April it was pushed back. even further to December 2026, meaning.

this fifth Avengers movie from the time. it was announced in July of 2022 was. delayed several times by several years. to give the studio and these new. filmmakers and their screenwriters, including Stephen McFeely, Michael. Waldron and we're now hearing Chris. McKenna and Eric Sommers, plenty of time. to write and rewrite and complete a. script. So, I don't think the studio. revamping the production is why the. Russos like to start shooting with an. unfinished script and they like to use. improv. I just think that's how they. prefer to approach all of their projects. regardless of how much prep time they. have. Now, some cinephiles on Film. Twitter hate hearing this kind of stuff.

because they believe that all films. should have a perfectly polished. screenplay before cameras start rolling. and directors should work through a. never-changing and never-evolving shot. list all the way until wrap. As a type A. creative, I feel similarly. I join every. AD and line producer out there in. agreement with this. But much to my. chagrin, finding these movies in the. edit and using extensive reshooting and. insane VFX crunch periods has been. Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige's method. since all the way back to the first Iron. Man film. And for most of the history of.

Marvel Studios, it has worked really. well for them. It really only became an. issue in 2021 to 2025 during a period of. over saturation and overextension with. interconnected Disney Plus shows. But. you know, if your studio scales back to. releasing one to two movies a year and. if you don't force your TV shows to have. to connect everything, Marvel Studios. method of building the plane while. they're flying it can still very much. work for the studio and for the Russo. brothers. And this brings us to the. final revelatory part of this article. If there's a guiding template for the. Russos for the kind of movie they want. to make, one with the grand scale and.

moments of emotional intimacy, it's the. Western. Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time. in the West was a particular inspiration. for Doomsday. Quote, Joe and I grew up. fans of all types of cinema, but. Westerns have always been very special. to us. Throughout cinema history, the. Western has been declared dead for. decades and then you can still make one. of the greatest examples of the genre. Wow. Okay, so there are a lot of ways to. take this. Sergio Leone's 1968 Once Upon. a Time in the West is considered one of. the all-time best Western films,

arguably the last of the great spaghetti. Westerns, meaning it was shot in Italy. and Spain by an Italian crew led by the. great Sergio Leone and his amazing. composer Ennio Morricone. After he had. directed the iconic Man with No Name. trilogy with Clint Eastwood, Leone was. reportedly done with the Western genre, but was convinced by Paramount to come. back with a stunt casting of Henry Fonda. and a budget that he liked. I wouldn't. trust Doctor Doom to babysit my son. He's wearing a mask, he's doing magic, trying to take over the multiverse. There's a reason you shouldn't trust. Doctor Doom to babysit your kid. Just.

like there's a reason why Morgan &. Morgan is America's largest injury law. firm. Morgan & Morgan has a proven track. record of fighting for the people for. over 35 years. With over $30 recovered. for their clients, Morgan & Morgan knows. a thing or two about fighting to get. their clients the compensation they. deserve. Hiring Morgan & Morgan is like. hiring an army to go into battle. They've got more than 1,000 lawyers and. 100 offices nationwide. If you're. injured by someone else's negligence, you deserve to be paid. Not all law. firms are the same. Hire the wrong one.

and you may be beat before you even. start. If you're ever injured, you can. check out Morgan & Morgan, and their fee. is free unless they win. For more. information, you can go to forthe. people.com/rockstars. So, I'm going to get into spoilers for. the movie here. It is nearly 60 years. old. Once Upon a Time in the West tells. the story of a lot of different factions. of characters who all kind of come. together in an interesting conflict. You. have Frank, Henry Fonda, a real piece of. who murders Brett McBain and his. three children on the ranch, leaving.

behind McBain's new young bride, Jill. We find out railway tycoon Morton had. hired Frank to intimidate, not kill, but. intimidate McBain because McBain owns to. build a watering station on this plot of. land to profit from the railroad that. would be passing through this property. And if this watering station was not. complete by the time the railroad. reached the property, the property would. revert to Morton's company. But, the. killings of McBain's family are blamed. on another outlaw, Cheyenne. But, really, the movie begins with the. arrival to the Sweetwater town in the. iconic opening scene, the mystery.

gunslinger named Harmonica, who blows a. specific creepy harmonica tune. And he. ends up working with Cheyenne and Jill. to save the McBain ranch and build the. station as quickly as they can. The. conflict evolves in very interesting. ways, and there's an incredible shootout. on a high-speed train, and it all comes. to a head as Frank and Harmonica have a. tense showdown on the ranch. And in this. moment, we learn in a flashback that. long ago, Frank prepared to hang a man, and he forced this guy's younger brother. to support him on his shoulders while. stuffing a harmonica in his mouth. The. boy collapsed, leading to his brother's.

death. That boy grew up to be Harmonica. And back in the duel, he beats Frank to. the draw. As Frank dies, Harmonica. pushes that harmonica into his mouth. Cheyenne, meanwhile, has been dying from. the wound he got from his fight with. Morton, and Harmonica rides off with his. body as Jill serves water from the. successfully built watering station to. the railroad workers. Once Upon a Time. in the West has an enduring appeal for. Leone's incredible directing style, proving that these spaghetti westerns. had one last hit still in them. And of. course, the way composer Morricone's. haunting music works diegetically with.

the character of Harmonica, and the way. that the film really deconstructs the. myths of the western genre, presenting. the American West as a dying frontier. being reconstructed by the. transcontinental railroad. Once Upon a. Time in the West is considered the film. that arguably ended that era of western. films, at least as audiences knew them. in the '60s, paving the way for the. Hollywood revolution that would be. taking place in the '70s, led by. directors like George Lucas, Steven. Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Martin. Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola. But, Once Upon a Time in the West did so in. such an iconic way that it really.

immortalized the genre and allowed the. western to still forever be beloved and. inspire generation of filmmakers who. longed for that old iconic style. For. example, Clint Eastwood, 14 years after. this, would finally be able to make. David Webb Peoples' amazing script. Unforgiven in 1992 that would further. deconstruct and demythologize the. western genre and become one of the. greatest western films ever made as it. explored the power and the falseness of. myth itself. A film that would directly. inspire the greatest Marvel film ever. made, 2017's Logan. And of course, filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino would.

revolutionize Hollywood in the '90s, greatly inspired by what Sergio Leone. did both with The Man with No Name. trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the. West, using the same composer, Ennio. Morricone, to score many of his films, entitling his 2019 film Once Upon a Time. in Hollywood as a reference to that. specific era in Hollywood coming to an. end a year after that in a suburb 1969. and the Manson family murders. So, one. way of reading the Russo brothers'. reference to Once Upon a Time in the. West is maybe they're just comparing the. superhero and comic book film genre to. the western film genre as something that.

some critics wrote off as being dying or. dead, but really they feel it's actually. just going through a transformation and. it's really going to be a forever genre. that will always have a place in. Hollywood. At least that's how the AP. article interpreted it. Maybe these. Italian brothers liken themselves with. the great Italian Sergio Leone and they. thought they were done after their. popular run of Marvel films, but they. were lured back with some iconic stunt. casting. In Leone's case it was Henry. Fonda, in their case it's Robert Downey. Jr. And of course, a pile of cash. doesn't hurt. And it just makes them. feel like really the only filmmakers who. can pull this off to make Doomsday and.

Secret Wars their Once Upon a Time in. the West to their already popular. previous run of Captain America: Winter. Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War and. Endgame. But another way of looking at. the comparison to Once Upon a Time in. the West is what most people really. think of when they think of the film, Sergio Leone's incredibly refined visual. style. The patient deliberate editing, the extreme close-ups on various little. details as he makes us patiently wait. through a scene as attention builds and. builds and builds. The focus. specifically on characters' eyes as. being the full expression of their. souls. Obviously, that's a huge part of.

how the Russo brothers are shooting. Doctor Doom and Doomsday. Also, the. emphasis on iconic musical leitmotifs to. express the mystery of a character. We. know Alan Silvestri has composed little. score samples for Doctor Doom in this. movie. Maybe the Russo brothers really. want to shoot Doomsday as much as. possible in these tight close-ups with. tense standoffs that all come together. very quickly. But I think there could. also be a deeper thematic, structural. and character analog that the Russo. brothers might be working within because. Once Upon a Time in the West is a story. about transformation, the death of one. era and the beginning of a new world.

that we [music] know today. The. impending arrival of the railroad and. the toiling by these heroes to build. something to prepare for that could. mirror the X-Men, Fantastic Four and. Avengers and Wakandans all kind of. working together to build some kind of. technology to prepare for the coming. incursion event of these three Earths. colliding. The way the American West was. forever changed and arguably ended by. the transcontinental railroad, the MCU. could forever be changed by these. universes colliding and forming. something new that will become the 616. MCU as we know it after Secret Wars. But.

the question I have is do the Russo. brothers see their star character, Doctor Doom, as the villain of Once Upon. a Time in the West, Frank, Henry Fonda's. character, the unambiguous black hat. whom we first see in the movie gunning. down an innocent family in cold blood. working on behalf of and really going. beyond the orders of a greedy railroad. tycoon trying to grab as much turf as he. can in this changing world around them? I mean, I could see that Paramount and. Leone scoring Henry Fonda was the same. kind of get that Marvel and the Russos. got with Robert Downey Jr. In the way. that Leone framed so many shots around.

Fonda's piercing eyes, weaponizing those. eyes, seems to inspire what the Russos. are doing with Robert Downey Jr. playing. Doctor Doom through his green eyes. But. we have to remember that Once Upon a. Time in the West properly punishes Frank. and leaves him dead at the end of that. movie. Meanwhile, Doomsday, I think, will show Victor victorious and portray. him as more of a complex anti-hero. So, another curious possibility is that the. Russos see Victor Von Doom as Harmonica, Charles Bronson's character, the man of. mystery who shows up at the beginning of. the film in a terrifying mysterious.

reveal from behind the train and. shockingly gets the drop on these three. guys who are trying to ambush him. A man. who ends up aligning with the heroic. characters of the movie and helps them. build what they're trying to build. And. then, at a critical moment, is revealed. to have this gut punch of an origin. story that reframes everything he's been. doing in the movie as personal revenge, revenge that we can completely. understand. And then the film ends by. leaving Harmonica as one of the last men. standing in this revolutionized. frontier. I think that could be how. Doomsday could leave Doom and how.

Doomsday could be the beginning that the. Russo brothers are describing it to be. The question would then be who are the. Cheyenne and the Jill of the movie? Is. Steve Rogers the Cheyenne, kind of an. outlaw in a sense, someone accused to do. things that he didn't actually do but. still has to carry the guilt and the. weight of those crimes anyway? Is Jill. kind of the Sue Storm, someone who in a. way might end up being Doctor Doom's. consort [music]. who kind of has to make sense of this. new revolutionized world on the other. side of the conflict. I highly encourage. all of you to watch Once Upon a Time in. the West before you watch Avengers.

Doomsday. I think it's going to make a. much richer narrative experience. Comment down below with your thoughts on. this and a special thanks to one of our. In Our Underground subscribers, Ricardo. Martinez, for supporting us at the. executive producer [music] level. You. can get all of our exclusive bonus. content by clicking the link in the. description below or going to. inourunderground.supercast.com. That's the one place that you can get. access to our exclusive Monday mailbag. show where we answer your questions. Here's a sample from this past Monday's. episode. Movies are more profitable and. arguably better than ever. I think the. quality of the 2025 and 2023 movies were.

two of the best years for quality movies. ever made. 2026, the jury's still out. We'll see. I mean, The Odyssey and. Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Obsession. and Backrooms and The Invite and The. Drama are all really, really good movies. and we'll see how good Dune Dune Part. Three and Digger and The Social Net. Social Reckoning are. >> And I feel like for once now, it seems. like there's some stability in the. streaming wars where. I don't know. It seems like Netflix is.

now kind of being open to theatrical. distribution in a way that I find really. optimistic. >> It does feel like Greta Gerwig kind of. went like, "No, you can do this and it. will work." And they were like, "Well, maybe Greta's right, you know.". >> So, that was my worry for a time that. Netflix was just going to mean that no. one went to movies anymore, but I think. Netflix has recognized that there's too. much money to be made with what they. learned from K-Pop Demon Hunters. So, they're going to give that to Greta. Gerwig. They're giving it to David. Fincher for The Misadventures of Cliff. Booth and I think you're going to see. more and more directors who get like. month-long theatrical distribution. So, it seems like theatrical windows are. getting longer again. There was just a.

lot of optimism at CinemaCon this year. and I feel that and you should feel. that, too, Matt. >> I feel I feel it, too, broadly. I do. >> You can get the full episode and all of. our benefits and support New Rockstars. directly by going to. inourunderground.supercast.com. Big thanks to StudioTech Brian Kim, New. Rockstars editors Joshua Steven Hurd and. Abby Friel and all of our supporting. editors for their work on this video. Follow me at EAVoss and hit that. subscribe button. Thanks for watching. and I'll see you next time. Bye.