There's a kind of beautiful, lightning-in-a-bottle chaos that you hear about from the set of the first Iron Man. A movie built on a prayer, a half-finished script, and the sheer force of Robert Downey Jr.'s improvisational genius. It worked. It launched a universe. But that was a lifetime ago, when Marvel was the underdog.
This is different. This feels… frantic.
News dropped recently that feels both utterly shocking and completely predictable if you've been paying attention. When asked if she had more scenes to shoot for the next massive team-up film, actress Rebecca Romijn gave an answer that should send a cold shiver down the spine of every fan. “Not quite sure,” she said, “they haven't finished writing the script.”
Yes, you read that right. Avengers: Doomsday, the lynchpin film meant to anchor the entire next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is currently shooting without a finalized script.
So, How Does This Even Work?
Principal photography kicked off in late April 2025. And according to the man himself, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, the screenplay is actively being developed on set. He's got a term for it, of course. A nice, clean, corporate-approved term: “plus-ing.” Feige describes it as part of Marvel's “creative process,” an ongoing series of daily rewrites and updates.
But let's call it what it is: scrambling.
This isn't some indie darling finding its story on the fly. This is a picture with a rumored $300 million budget, a release date of December 2026 breathing down its neck, and the weight of a decade-plus of storytelling on its shoulders. The writers tasked with this Sisyphean feat are Stephen McFeely, who knows this world from Endgame, and Michael Waldron of Loki fame. Two very smart guys who are essentially trying to build the plane while it's in mid-air.
It's one thing to tweak dialogue. It's another thing entirely when actors like Kelsey Grammer and David Harbour admit they haven't seen a full script—that they're being briefed on concepts, not scenes. You end up with performances built on guesswork, with actors trying to find an emotional core for a character whose journey hasn't even been fully mapped out. Do the main actors even have a clear understanding of their arcs? Who knows.
I can already smell the reshoots from here. Acres of them. An army of editors will be tasked with stitching this Frankenstein's monster together in post-production, hoping to find a coherent narrative somewhere in the digital dailies.
A Gamble of Galactic Proportions
Frankly, Marvel is playing with fire. Constant rewrites, especially on a film this complex, are a recipe for disaster. Narrative inconsistency, muddled character motivations, sloppy pacing… these aren't just risks; they're near certainties. And you have the Russo Brothers, a directing duo desperately in need of a critical and commercial hit after a string of duds, reportedly shooting scenes without even knowing the final cast.
What could possibly go wrong?
Look, I get it. Marvel productions have been infamous for this kind of thing for years. It's their model. But the goodwill is running thin. The benefit of the doubt has been spent. This isn't the scrappy, charming startup from 2008 anymore. It's a global behemoth, and this behind-the-scenes chaos doesn't look innovative; it looks messy. It threatens the quality of what should be a monumental cinematic event.
They're juggling half of Hollywood's A-list, a schedule from hell, and a story that needs to land perfectly. Building it on the fly isn't a “creative process.” It's a high-wire act without a net, and we all have front-row seats to see if they make it to the other side.
What do you think? Is this just business as usual for Marvel, or a sign of deeper trouble in the house that Feige built? Let me know in the comments below, and let's talk about it.
