Why Avengers: Doomsday Filmed Before Its Script Was Finished

Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to reach Australian cinemas in December, with Marvel Studios hoping its next team-up can restore momentum after disappointing results from The Marvels, Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*.

The film is expected to carry box-office ambitions closer to Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Endgame. To help deliver that scale, Marvel brought Joe and Anthony Russo back to direct.

The Russo brothers’ case for an unfinished script

Production began before the screenplay was complete. That decision followed Marvel’s change of direction after abandoning its planned Kang the Conqueror storyline in the wake of controversy involving actor Jonathan Majors.

In an interview with AP News, Joe Russo said the directors prefer a process shaped by rehearsals and improvisation. Their aim is to discover what performers contribute once they are working with the characters, rather than treating the screenplay as permanently fixed.

“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 few weeks before you shoot them. And a lot of the time, that’s when the magic happens.”

The brothers’ earlier work on the comedy series Community also exposed them to a production style that made room for actor contributions, including improvised dialogue from performers such as Donald Glover and Gillian Jacobs.

Is filming without a final script a warning sign?

Starting a major Hollywood production without a finished screenplay is not unheard of, but it can create problems. Story threads may become uneven, and later changes can make a finished film feel less cohesive.

That concern is particularly relevant here because the fifth Avengers film was initially designed as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. After Majors, who played Kang, was convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Marvel reworked the project. The Russos then joined the reshaped production.

As an unplanned change of course, Doomsday may not have the same long buildup enjoyed by the previous two Avengers films. The movie is therefore carrying both the pressure of a franchise reset and the expectations attached to its returning directors.

A mixed recent record

The Russos’ post-Avengers filmography has also attracted criticism. Their three most recent features—Cherry, The Gray Man and The Electric State—received poor Rotten Tomatoes scores. At the time of the source report, The Electric State, released by Netflix, held a 14% Tomatometer score.

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When is Avengers: Doomsday released?

Avengers: Doomsday is set for release on 18 December, the same day as Dune: Part 3. That places the Marvel film in direct competition with another major science-fiction event movie.