Marvel Studios’ next, next big event film is firming up. We’ve been hearing rumors that Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo are in line to direct The Avengers 3 for a while now, and it appears like their involvement is firming up. Devin over at Badass Digest reports that the Russo Brothers have just closed their deal to direct Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and 2, the massive saga that Marvel Studios announced last fall.

Marvel was clearly happy with the work the Russo Brothers did on The Winter Soldier when they hired them to direct Captain America: Civil War (which starts filming in mere weeks), and it now looks like they’ve become the studio’s go-to filmmakers. Moreover, Badass Digest adds that screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely—the scribes behind all three Captain America movies, Thor: The Dark World, and the driving force behind getting Agent Carter off the ground—are in talks to pen the screenplay for Infinity War.

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Image via Disney

This also means that, as we’ve reported before, Joss Whedon is probably bowing out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters in May. His deal with Marvel to helm Avengers 2 and act as a creative consultant was set to expire in 2015, and he’s definitely made it clear that he’s keen on hitting “reset” and working on something original next.

The report adds that Captain America: Civil War—which pits Robert Downey Jr. against Chris Evans and also introduces Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-Man (still-to-be-cast) to the MCU—ties very closely to the Infinity War saga, so it makes sense that the Russo Brothers, Markus, and McFeely will be the architects steering the ship. The story, broadly, will likely find Thanos (Josh Brolin) finally coming to blows with the Avengers and possibly the Guardians of the Galaxy over those darned infinity stones, so we’re going to be in for the biggest Marvel event yet.

I know plenty of people were fans of how The Winter Soldier turned out, so I imagine this comes as good news to the Marvel faithful. The Russo Brothers have a solid hold on action, but I’ll be curious to see how much Whedon’s wit and knack for character is missed the next time all of the Avengers come back together.

Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and 2 will be shot back-to-back as part of one long production in 2016 and 2017, in anticipation of a May 2018 release for Part 1 and May 2019 release for Part 2.

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Image via Marvel