In 2025, James Gunn revealed his theory as to why the film industry was dying: “People are making movies without a finished screenplay.” It wasn’t hard to figure out which “people” he was referring to. His comments came at a time when the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s standing as the dominant player in the movie world was looking more precarious than ever. But Gunn’s opinion doesn’t seem to have affected the way Marvel Studios approaches its films. At least not in the case of “Avengers: Doomsday” directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who have now told AP News that they still view their script as a “living organism” that can change at any time, especially during filming.
During an interview with the outlet, Joe Russo justified his and his brother’s fluid approach to the screenplay. “We’re improvisation-based, rehearsal-based directors,” he said. “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.”
When you’re working with some of the biggest names in the industry on a team-up movie packed with characters, the schedule is guaranteed to be much more chaotic and unpredictable than when you’re shooting a more traditional film. In that sense, it’s entirely understandable that the Russos would reserve the right to adapt the script based on their interactions with, and the thoughts of, actors who are popping in and out of production as it goes on. What’s more, you can hardly fault the directing duo given how big their previous films have been. “Avengers: Endgame” shattered box office records in 2019 and remains the second highest-grossing film of all time. But still…
The Russo brothers’ approach to Avengers: Doomsday is business as usual for Marvel
Not that the man who said “The Flash” was one of the greatest superhero movies ever should be blindly trusted, but there’s almost certainly something to James Gunn’s criticism of shooting movies without finished scripts. Yet, while the DC Studios co-head has made a commitment to never shoot a DC project without a locked screenplay, Marvel Studios hasn’t taken any notice, and is seemingly giving the Russo brothers the freedom to approach “Avengers: Doomsday” how they see fit.
There’s plenty of logic to that given their prior success, and as long as their free-form approach to making the film is simply geared towards allowing actors to improvise, it doesn’t seem like a big problem — especially in light of DC’s “Supergirl” flopping at the box office despite presumably going into production with a complete script. What’s more, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige revealed to Variety that the studio is operating as it always has: “We’ve never started a movie without a full script and I have never been satisfied with a script that we’ve had.” So at least there’s been something at the start of production, but ideally, the screenplay would be in better shape at that point. Hey, it worked for more than a decade, so apparently the script can’t be the problem, despite what Gunn says.
Still, it seems as though this isn’t merely a case of leaving room for improv. In July 2025, Rebecca Romijn, who played Raven/Mystique in the Fox X-Men movies, shocked fans when she revealed the “Doomsday” script was still being written despite the fact she had filmed scenes. The actor said she was unsure as to whether she’d wrapped on “Doomsday” due to the fact that the screenwriters “haven’t finished writing it.” In that instance, it seemed less like the directors were leaving room for improv and more like they’d jumped into production without a road map.
Marvel’s unfinished script approach seems much less advisable than it once did
Since Jeff Bridges revealed that 2008’s “Iron Man” was shot without anything resembling a finished script, Marvel Studios has used the same loose approach for all its movies. In that instance, however, star Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau were there to make sure the final product delivered. What’s more, everything leading up to “Avengers: Endgame” happened within a specific framework. Thanos was the overarching MCU villain until “Endgame.” But Marvel has essentially been scrambling ever since its poorly-executive multiverse saga and middling streaming shows made mass audiences tune out.
With RDJ set to make his debut as Victor Von Doom in “Doomsday,” it may seem as though Marvel has corrected course — especially in light of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” dominating the box office and becoming a $2.3 billion movie (and counting). But much of this seems like Marvel Studios is playing catch-up. After Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror had to be dropped as the main villain of the MCU post-“Endgame,” RDJ’s addition to Doomsday was Marvel’s attempt to turn things around. But so much of this feels like a mad scramble, and working with an unfinished “Doomsday” script feels like more of the same.
Add to that the fact that much of what we’ve seen of “Doomsday” hasn’t exactly been embraced by fans (the awful “Doomsday” trailer rollout should have been a wake-up call for Disney) and it all seems dubious at best. Of course, “Doomsday” will almost certainly make a healthy profit when it arrives in theaters December 18, 2026. But even when it dominates the box office, it will be hard to shake the sense that the movie might have been better had the filmmakers had a finalized script in place in advance and largely stuck to it.
