EXCLUSIVE: As Deadpool & Wolverine tracks big forward of its July 26 launch and looms as a summer season field workplace savior, we are able to reveal that director Shawn Levy is the best choice and is having early conversations to direct one other Marvel Studios pic — one which doubtlessly might be the subsequent Avengers film.
Deadline hears that Levy has been given the newest script by Michael Waldron, although sources add that he has not given a solution on whether or not he would come aboard, and the studio remains to be planning to satisfy with different administrators whereas they wait on a choice from him.
Marvel Studios couldn’t be reached for remark.
We will’t say for certain that Levy will take the job; he expects to be closely concerned as a director and government producer of the ultimate season of Netflix’s signature sequence Stranger Issues, and there may be additionally a Star Wars movie in his future. Nonetheless, the prospect of Levy steering the subsequent Avengers makes a helluva lot of sense as Marvel boss Kevin Feige continues to kind out the subsequent iteration of his superhero empire.
There have been 4 Avengers blockbusters, two directed by Joss Whedon (the $1.5 billion-grossing The Avengers in 2012 and $1.4 billion for the primary sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron) and two by Joe and Anthony Russo (the $2.05 billion-grossing Avengers: Infinity Conflict and Avengers: Endgame). Endgame‘s $2.8 billion international cume made it the highest-grossing movie of all time upon its launch in 2019 till rereleases pushed James Cameron’s authentic Avatar to $2.9 billion.
Even with no director set and the script solely not too long ago coming in, Marvel has been working onerous in current months to drag this collectively so taking pictures can start subsequent yr on considered one of Marvel’s largest productions thus far. Sources near each the challenge say greater than 60 MCU characters might reprise their roles, together with everybody from Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth and Benedict Cumberbatch to Tom Hiddleston, Simu Liu and Karen Gillian. In contrast to the primary 4 movies by which there was a core group that consisted of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Hemsworth and Ruffalo, most of the characters on this movie would have equal footing, making it extra of an ensemble characteristic as an alternative of a handful of characters main the workforce.
Plot particulars are unknown, and following Jonathan Majors’ exit from the MCU as Kang following his reckless assault conviction in December, it’s unknown who the central villain can be, or if the movie might doubtlessly embody a number of antagonists.
The Avengers challenge is one other big swing for Marvel given the initiatives it can influence going ahead. However in Levy they’d have a director with an enviable observe file of hits, many on a tentpole degree, which the MCU calls for. Levy’s credit as director vary from the Evening on the Museum movies to The Pink Panther, Massive Fats Liar, Date Evening, Actual Metal, Free Man, The Adam Undertaking and the Steven Knight-created sequence All The Gentle We Can’t See.
As producer at 21 Laps, Levy’s outcomes are much more intensive, together with Stranger Issues.