We've been hearing that Marvel Studios might be planning to split Avengers: Secret Wars into two parts for a while at this stage, but the initial rumor was all but dismissed as speculation. However, several different sources have since backed up the report.
Alex Perez recently weighed in during a Cosmic Circus Q&A, and he seems to feel that there is "a very high chance" that Secret Wars will ultimately become two movies. Secret Wars was scheduled to begin shooting this summer, but Perez indicated that production could end up being delayed, as the project has now entered a “conditional start” phase.
Apparently, this means that "Marvel cannot legally film anything for Secret Wars until a new verification of the contract is achieved. In the few instances that this has happened, it’s because there has been a massive shift from what the production was originally looking like. For example, like one film now being split into two parts."
Despite these reports, industry insider Jeff Sneider doesn't see it happening.
"As of right now, Marvel is not planning to split Avengers: Secret Wars into two films," he writes in this week's newsletter. "That may have been mentioned by someone, somewhere along the chain of power, but it’s not being seriously discussed in Burbank due to the difficulty of scheduling the enormous cast — not to mention the prospect of having to pay Robert Downey Jr.’s even more enormous salary again."
It sounds like Kevin Feige and co. may have given the notion of a Secret Wars split some serious thought, but, as Snieder notes, it could ultimately "bite them in the ass with audiences, who would smell the corporate greed from a mile away."
Sneider also weighed in on the rumors that Matt Reeves' The Batman sequel might be delayed due to star Robert Pattinson's The Odyssey commitments.
"As for Pattinson, I’m told he is expected to promote The Odyssey, and The Batman Part II’s shooting schedule was built with his press obligations in mind, so director Matt Reeves will simply shoot non-Pattinson scenes while the actor is busy talking to various bozos at the film’s junket."
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were recently hit with significant delays, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
Doomsday will star:
Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Lewis Pullman as Sentry, Florence Pugh as Yelena, Danny Ramirez as Falcon, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, James Marsden as Cyclops, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
Along with Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Letitia Wright as Black Panther, Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.