The Russo Brothers know that superheroes hit harder when the world around them feels real. Anthony Russo and Joe Russo favour gritty textures, muted colours, handheld camerawork, and kinetic action, giving everything from Captain America’s fights to the Avengers’ clashes with Thanos a tangible edge. Now, Avengers: Doomsday seems ready to borrow some Western magic from Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West.

The fun begins with seeing how Leone’s Western touch will reshape Avengers: Doomsday and its packed ensemble of heroes.

Joe Russo and Anthony Russo are currently doing what Marvel directors do best: attempting to herd an army of superheroes while simultaneously pretending everything is under control. The brothers spoke separately with the Associated Press while finishing Avengers: Doomsday and “soft prepping” Avengers: Secret Wars, giving fans a glimpse at what is shaping their next cinematic monster.

“Joe and I grew up fans of all types of cinema, but Westerns have always been very special to us,” said Anthony Russo. That love explains why Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West became a particular inspiration for Doomsday. The Russo Brothers see something wonderfully persistent in Westerns: Hollywood keeps burying the genre, and the genre keeps turning up with another great film.

The affection is not merely theoretical, either. The Russo Brothers have dissected Western storytelling and its showdown grammar, even likening Thor’s town confrontation to the genre’s classic faceoffs. As the brothers explained to the Associated Press, that old-fashioned Western machinery could prove surprisingly useful when an entire universe of heroes enters the room.

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For a film that could make the Russo Brothers the highest-grossing directors in history, one cannot help but wonder what they have borrowed from Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West for Avengers: Doomsday.

Sergio Leone did not need a superhero to make a stare-down feel like the end of the world. Once Upon a Time in the West built its grandeur through patient tension, morally murky characters, and a world slowly being swallowed by change, ingredients that could translate beautifully to Marvel’s collapsing multiverse and its uneasy gathering of heroes.

Then there is Doctor Doom, whose casting carries the same delicious inversion as Henry Fonda playing Leone’s villain. Add desperate alliances, competing worlds, and an existential threat closing in, and Avengers: Doomsday suddenly has the makings of a very expensive Western showdown, only with superheroes instead of gunslingers.

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  Are you looking forward to the Once Upon a Time in the West-esque Avengers movie? Let us know in the comments!