Marvel's Russo brothers explain what convinced them to return to the MCU
"If you like the work that we had done previously in the MCU, I think you should be excited for what we've got coming."
With the Marvel Cinematic Universe currently struggling to win the acclaim – or indeed the box office numbers – of it's not-so-distant heyday, executives have appear to have landed on a strategy of bringing back some of the people who were pivotal to that earlier success.
Robert Downey Jr will of course be returning to the fold in a new role as villain Doctor Doom, but he's not the only familiar face who will be back for upcoming Avengers films Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Directing pair Joe and Anthony Russo will be back in the director's chairs for both movies, having previously helmed a number of hugely successful MCU films, including Infinity War and Endgame – and speaking recently to RadioTimes.com, the brothers explained why they decided to return.
"The work that we'd done in the MCU was really among the most fulfilling of our lives," Anthony said during an exclusive interview to promote their new Netflix film The Electric State.
"We were able to tell a four movie narrative arc that was very interconnected and built... you know, each sort of expression built on the previous."
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He added: "We're excited to come back now, because we've been away for a bit, we're excited to sort of pick that narrative through line up again that we were carrying, and find a new way to push it forward with everything that's transpired since that point in time.
"It's a challenge, but it's one that we think we finally lit on an idea that we felt really made it work... really made it worth us coming back to tell another story, so we can't talk about it in much detail sorry, but we're excited."
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He concluded that: "If you like the work that we had done previously in the MCU, I think you should be excited for what we've got coming."
Meanwhile, Joe revealed that the pair had previously been "convinced" they would never come back.
"I mean, we were very tired after those last movies, we did four of them in seven years," he said. "It was a lot of work, and we were asked a few times, and we said no.
"And then we finally, as Ant said, found a story that really excited us, [that] we felt compelled to tell over other stories that we've been working on, and so now we're back."
The Electric State – which arrives on Netflix on Friday 14th March – is based on an illustrated novel of the same name by Simon Stålenhag, but takes quite a few liberties with the source when it comes to both storyline and tone.
“The primary driver of the changes that we made were because of the themes we were exploring," Anthony explained when asked about the changes.
"So what we responded to most strongly in Simon's work is this really complex relationship between humanity and technology. That was really striking to us in the way he was approaching it.
He added: "Now we feel like that issue is not only a big issue for us, but it might even be more of an issue for youth today.
"Young people are particularly vulnerable to these digital technology issues, so in adapting that story, we wanted to really expand the tonal reach of the movie so that it can include younger audiences as well. And that's basically the shift that we made."
The Electric State will stream on Netflix from 14th March 2025 – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
