--- title: 'Joe Russo Defends Avengers: Doomsday’s Unfinished-Script Gamble' type: 'blog post' section: 'Away From Set' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'The Russo brothers began filming Marvel’s next Avengers movie before its screenplay was complete. Joe Russo says the moving target gives actors room to create, while cast accounts reveal how unusual the process has been.' author: 'Marcus Reid' published: '2026-09-03' updated: '2026-09-03' about_people: - 'Russo brothers' - 'Joe Russo' tags: - 'Avengers Doomsday unfinished script' - 'Joe Russo Avengers Doomsday production' - 'Russo brothers improvisation Marvel movie' - 'Sebastian Stan Doomsday script comments' - 'Ebon Moss-Bachrach Avengers script' sources: - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/avengers-doomsday-shot-without-a-finished-script/ar-AA2brrRk' - 'https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/avengers-doomsday-director-joe-russo-155833002.html' - 'https://www.aol.com/articles/avengers-doomsday-directors-address-why-225208000.html' - 'https://geektyrant.com/news/the-russo-brothers-explain-why-avengers-doomsday-didnt-have-a-finished-script-when-filming-began' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/joe-russo-defends-avengers-doomsdays-unfinished-script-gamble' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Joe Russo Defends Avengers: Doomsday’s Unfinished-Script Gamble *The Russo brothers began filming Marvel’s next Avengers movie before its screenplay was complete. Joe Russo says the moving target gives actors room to create, while cast accounts reveal how unusual the process has been.* By Marcus Reid, 2026-09-03 · Away From Set Avengers: Doomsday began filming before the Russo brothers had a finished screenplay, and Joe Russo now says that uncertainty can make room for “magic.” In interviews reported by AP News and carried by outlets including Yahoo Entertainment, the director described a process built around rehearsal, improvisation and seeing what actors bring to a role. For a film with Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and a cast that includes Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and the Fantastic Four, that is a meaningful choice about how a very large production gets made. The movie reaches theaters on December 18, 2026. Until then, the clearest story is not a plot detail. It is the way the story itself has been taking shape. ## Joe Russo Calls the Script a “Living Organism” Joe Russo told AP News that the brothers do not treat a screenplay as a sealed set of instructions. “We always view the script as a living organism,” he said. He and Anthony Russo favor rehearsal and improvisation, and they want to see what performers discover once they are in the room together. That approach depends on timing. Russo said some actors arrive only a few days or weeks before their scenes are shot. Their work can change what the directors think a character should do. In his telling, the late discovery is not a breakdown in the plan. It is the point at which the plan gets better. There is a human calculation inside that idea. An actor does not bring the same thing to a scene when every gesture has been fixed months in advance. A rehearsal can reveal a comic pause, a sharper reaction or a sadness nobody wrote down. The director has to notice it, and then make space for it. ![Joe Russo, Co-Founder and Partner AGBO, at the SXSW London festival hosted in London, England during June 2026.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/705f36ba-3e97-44c2-a282-987a22714c99.webp) *Photo: DavidPMaynard · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Russo_at_2026_SXSW_London_01.jpg)* ## Sebastian Stan Describes Scattered Scenes on Set Sebastian Stan, who plays Bucky Barnes, offered a more practical picture in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche. He said the production did not have a script when he was working on it and that the cast was shooting scattered scenes in a process that kept changing. Stan also said producers did not want performers to read the entire screenplay because journalists might ask them about it. That detail makes the secrecy around Doomsday part of the working method, not only a publicity concern. The people on set were being asked to perform pieces of a story while holding back information about the whole. For an actor, that can mean carrying a scene without knowing where the character is headed. It can also mean trusting the directors to connect those pieces later. Stan’s account does not tell us whether the gamble works on screen. It does tell us what the gamble asks from the cast: flexibility, patience and a willingness to play a moment before its place in the film is clear. ![Russo brothers - Captain America 2 press conference](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/4f9180dd-c52d-4bff-9572-334963a35921.webp) ![Joe Russo, Co-Founder and Partner AGBO, at the SXSW London festival hosted in London, England during June 2026.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/3735bef7-78b0-4a25-b8d4-cbd46fca5ce6.webp) *Photos: Elen Nivrae · [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russo_brothers_-_Captain_America_2_press_conference.jpg); DavidPMaynard · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Russo_at_2026_SXSW_London_02.jpg)* ## Other Cast Members Saw Different Versions of the Script The reports do not describe one identical experience for everyone. Alan Cumming, who returns as Nightcrawler, told ET that the cast eventually saw a script, although it took time to arrive. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays the Thing, said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he read a full script but believed it was likely to change. He also suspected it did not contain a complete third act or ending. His comments suggest that even a document labeled “full script” could still be a working draft rather than a final map. Those accounts sit beside Stan’s description of shooting without a script. Together, they show a production where access and certainty varied. One performer was working from fragments; another read a version that may have stopped short of the finish line. ![Russo brothers - Captain America 2 press conference](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/06f8c541-d687-4429-83f6-8de79fa01611.webp) ![Joe Hohenstein Russo Park Ribboncutting](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/d00714a5-9eec-46d3-bd54-c46e2fca26af.webp) *Photos: Elen Nivrae · [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31731285); Philadelphia Parks & Recreation · Public domain · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Hohenstein_Russo_Park_Ribboncutting.jpg)* ## Marvel Changed the Movie Before the Cameras Rolled Doomsday was first developed as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, with Jonathan Majors set to play Kang the Conqueror. Marvel moved away from that plan after Majors was convicted of assault, according to the reports. The Russo brothers later joined the project, and production proceeded under the new Doctor Doom-centered title. That history matters because an unfinished screenplay did not emerge from a quiet, settled production. The film changed direction, changed its central villain and then assembled a huge returning cast. Alongside Downey Jr., Hemsworth, Evans and Stan, the announced lineup includes Anthony Mackie, Letitia Wright, Tom Hiddleston, the Thunderbolts and the Fantastic Four. Joe Russo’s confidence is a statement about his method, not proof of a result. The movie has not opened, and these interviews cannot tell us whether the improvisation will produce the promised spark. They can tell us that Doomsday is being built in motion, with actors sometimes learning the shape of their work as the cameras keep running. The concrete deadline remains December 18, 2026. By then, all those scattered scenes will have to become one film. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Russo brothers](https://cinepixo.com/people/russo-brothers) - [Joe Russo](https://cinepixo.com/people/joe-russo) ## Sources - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/avengers-doomsday-shot-without-a-finished-script/ar-AA2brrRk - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/avengers-doomsday-director-joe-russo-155833002.html - https://www.aol.com/articles/avengers-doomsday-directors-address-why-225208000.html - https://geektyrant.com/news/the-russo-brothers-explain-why-avengers-doomsday-didnt-have-a-finished-script-when-filming-began Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/joe-russo-defends-avengers-doomsdays-unfinished-script-gamble Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.