Summary
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is gearing up for its next big crossover event, kicking off withAvengers: Doomsday. Phase 5 of the MCU is rounding off with two newAvengersmovies, marking the first full-blown outing since 2019’sAvengers: Endgame. WhileThe Kang Dynastyhad to be hastily reworked asAvengers: Doomsday, it led to the unexpected opportunity for Robert Downey Jr. to return to the franchise, albeit in a very different capacity.
Expected to follow inDeadpool & Wolverine’s footsteps with crossovers from the history of Marvel movies, the two-part saga is also tipped to topAvengers: Endgame’s iconic portal scenein terms of characters. Aside from Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom and The Fantastic Four,Doomsday’s cast is growing to include the likes of the Thunderbolts and Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter. As more famous faces get invited to the party, fans now know one person won’t be part of the ensemble.
Avengers: Doomsday Has a Popular Captain America Theory
Avengers: Endgamewent back to the start of the MCU and focused on the original six Avengers, but with it, there came some tragic goodbyes. Even though Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk have remained active in the MCU, the current Avengers lineup (if it can even be called that) looks very different. At the forefront isBenedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Stephen Strange, but speaking to Variety, the star confirmed he won’t be inDoomsday. Cumberbatch’s comments suggest thatDoomsdayis going in a very different direction, telling the outlet that it has to do with:
[…] the character not aligning with this part of the story.
While many assumed Doctor Strange would be a staple ofDoomsday, his absence could work in the franchise’s favor by backing up a popular theory. Robert Downey Jr. is confirmed to make his Doom debut in Matt Shakman’sThe Fantastic Four: First Steps, which makes sense given the villain’s history with the team.First Stepstakes place in a 1960s retro-futuristic realityaway from the Earth-616 timeline. Considering RDJ played Tony Stark/Iron Man in this reality, it’s possible thatDoomsdaywill focus on characters from this timeline instead of the main variants seen so far.
Over on Reddit,u/LollipopChainsawZztheorized thatDoomsdaywill be set in an alternate timeline that’s triggered by Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) going back to 1949 duringEndgame’s finale. The Russo Brothers seemingly rounded off Evans’ arc in the MCU by having Cap return the Infinity Stones to their rightful place to prevent the branching timelines that the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) warned Bruce Banner about.Cap got his happy endingand his long-awaited dance with Atwell’s Peggy Carter. He decided to remain in the past and appear as ‘Old Man Cap’ to hand over the Captain America mantle to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in 2023.
The MCU’s complicated time travel rules suggest that Rogers staying in the past would have created its own branched timeline. Meanwhile, the appearance of Old Man Cap in the Earth-616 timeline suggests something is off. The theory posits that Rogers’ meddling in the 1950s is responsible for creating The Fantastic Four’s retrofuturistic backdrop and could have sparked a chain of events that led to Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom instead of Iron Man. Pieces like Atwell are already in place, whileEvans has been talking about coming backto the MCU for years. He briefly reprised his role as Johnny Storm/the Human Torch forDeadpool & Wolverine, but fans want more from the actor.
It wasn’t long ago that there were whispers that Marvel Studios was planning aDisney+ series that followed Steve Rogers returning the Infinity Stones, with each of the six episodes showing a period of history where Cap dropped off the individual stones. The high-profile departure of Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror presumably led to logistical and story problems behind the scenes, so it’s possible the Cap series was reworked intoDoomsday. There’s enough story there for things to be spun out from a limited series into a whole movie, while Rogers has the credentials to carry anAvengersmovie.
Don’t Worry, Doctor Strange is Back for Secret Wars
It’s possible that Cumberbatch is misdirecting fans, but considering his role inDoomsdaywouldn’t exactly be a surprise, it would be odd to mislead fans in this way. There’s sure to be some disappointment that Stephen Strange is sitting this one out, but if the nextAvengersmovie is focused on a different reality/realities, it allows for a new cast of characters to lead the charge. Any number of variants could be added to the mix, which neatly backs up the recent report thatChadwick Boseman’s T’Challa/Black Pantherwill be recast forDoomsday.
There’s also the fact that Strange’s current status in the MCU means he could easily be parked for now.Doctor Strange had a prominent role inSpider-Man: No Way Home, but with the world forgetting who Peter Parker is, Strange lost a major connection. The same can be said for the deaths of Tony Stark and Wanda Maximoff, who he’d shared a lot of screen time with.
The last fans saw Strange, he was dashing off into the Multiverse with Charlize Theron’s Clea to stop an incursion. The so-called ‘New Avengers’ are sure to be active inSecret Wars.Strange will sit alongside the likes of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Black Panther (Letitia Wright), and Mackie’s Captain America. Still, likeEndgamewas the end of the road for some characters,Secret Warsis sure to have similarly high stakes.
Spider-Man 4slots in neatly between the next twoAvengersmovies. With wild rumors it’s been elevated from a street-level story to involve the likes of Ghost Rider and Mephisto, it would be easy to fold Strange back into things ahead ofSecret Warswith a post-credit cameo or more substantial role. Coupled with his new-found knowledge of incursions and the Multiverse, he will likely be a major player inSecret Wars. Cumberbatch has hinted at as much, telling Variety he will be “in a lot” of the Russo Brothers’ 2027 movie. The sixthAvengersmovie is set to do far more than just round off Phase 5 – withSecret Warsapparently going to reboot the MCU.
Then again, there are fears thatDoomsdayandSecret Warsare already going to be saturatedwith characters. Strange will surely return with Clea in tow, but alongside these two and the rest of the New Avengers, everyone from Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man are rumored to be suiting up. The Secret Wars of Marvel Comics stitched together various realities and forced heroes to forge unlikely alliances with villains from across the Multiverse. Assuming that Battleworld will be adapted into the MCU, decades of Marvel movies are ripe for exploring.Avengers: Endgamealready had a groaning cast list that looked like it couldn’t get any bigger. But when it comes toSecret Wars, Cumberbatch is destined to be part of the biggest superhero hero movie of all time.
