Box office struggles and legal troubles have recently spelled doom for Marvel, but now fresh faces and doppelgangers are promising a new path forward for the looming Doomsday. Here's everything we know so far.
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00:00Box office struggles and legal troubles have recently spelled doom for Marvel, but now
00:04fresh faces and doppelgangers are promising a new path forward for the looming Doomsday.
00:09Here's everything we know so far.
00:12It shouldn't surprise any fan when Marvel is incredibly tight-lipped about all of its
00:16projects.
00:17Because of the studio's legendary silence, we don't yet have a clear idea regarding the
00:20plot of Doomsday, and we probably won't until a trailer is released.
00:24For now, all we can do is make some educated guesses.
00:26Given the official announcement of Doomsday, a rumored synopsis leads to revealing what
00:30the plot of the Kang Dynasty might have been.
00:32This should be taken with a grain of salt, but it was reportedly going to involve anchor
00:36beings from various universes trying to defeat the Council of Kangs.
00:40These beings would have included the likes of Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew
00:43Garfield as their respective Spider-Men, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
00:47Their failure in this fight would lead to the creation of Battleworld in the lead-up
00:50to Avengers Secret Wars, which was intended to incorporate even more characters.
00:55It's unclear if Doomsday will go in an entirely different direction, or basically just swap
00:59out Kang for Doom.
01:00Either way, it's probably safe to assume that an eclectic collection of heroes would try
01:04to stop Doctor Doom from doing something and fail, at least at first, which would then
01:08lead into Secret Wars.
01:10News about Doomsday's cast has been steadily trickling out, with further announcements
01:14bound to come soon.
01:15The most high-profile star confirmed thus far is Robert Downey Jr.
01:18He was the face of the MCU for over a decade as Tony Stark, but he'll switch things up
01:23this time around as Doctor Doom.
01:25Plenty of fans were initially a little worried about Downey playing the classic Fantastic
01:28Four villain, as it felt a bit like stunt casting.
01:31But he's a consistently entertaining, award-winning actor, so we imagine he'll prove to be an imposing
01:36threat.
01:37Benedict Cumberbatch will return as Doctor Strange, and we imagine that this will be
01:40a pretty sizable role, considering that he knows plenty about the multiverse following
01:442022's Multiverse of Madness.
01:47It's also been confirmed that the main cast of the Fantastic Four First Steps, which is
01:51due to arrive in July 2025, will reprise their roles in Doomsday.
01:55This includes Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as
02:00Johnny Storm, and Eben Mars Bacharach as Ben Grimm.
02:03Reports also suggest that Anthony Mackie's Captain America and Tom Holland's Spider-Man
02:07will be in the mix as well.
02:08And to top it all off, a good chunk of the cast of Thunderbolts are also rumored to show
02:12up after their own movie comes out in May 2025.
02:15But perhaps the most intriguing casting news since Downey is the announcement that Chris
02:19Evans will also be returning to the MCU, but he won't be Steve Rogers, as he's rumored
02:24to be playing Nomad instead.
02:25Nothing regarding his return has been officially confirmed, though.
02:28Regardless, the idea of Downey and Evans playing villains in the same movie is a tantalizing
02:33possibility, although it's worth noting at this point that Evans could be playing almost
02:37anyone.
02:38After all, he did just pop up in Deadpool and Wolverine as Johnny Storm, so he seems
02:41up for whatever these days.
02:42We don't know that guy.
02:44We thought we did.
02:45As of December 2024, Avengers Doomsday is slated to hit theaters on May 1st, 2026, while
02:51Avengers Secret Wars is currently pegged for May 7th, 2027.
02:55But Marvel release dates have been shuffled around before, so these could very well change
02:59in the meantime.
03:00In 2022, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced at San Diego Comic-Con that the
03:05next Avengers movie, originally subtitled The Kang Dynasty, was set to come out on May
03:102nd, 2025.
03:11A lot has happened with that project.
03:13But after some restructuring, Kang Dynasty was changed to Doomsday.
03:18When the next Avengers movie was originally planned as The Kang Dynasty, the MCU tried
03:21to establish Kang the Conqueror as its next Thanos-level threat.
03:25As played by Jonathan Majors, Kang was a primary antagonist in 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp,
03:30Quantumania.
03:31Even though he's defeated by the end of that movie, there's also a stadium full of Kangs,
03:35indicating that his power runs throughout the multiverse.
03:37Variants of Kang known as He Who Remains and Victor Timely also appear in the low-key TV
03:42series, but now the MCU is heading in a different direction.
03:46This is largely due to Majors' legal troubles, which began when his ex-girlfriend accused
03:50him of domestic abuse.
03:51Following his arrest in March 2023, Marvel Studios kept things close to the vest for
03:55the remainder of the year regarding the actor's future with the franchise.
03:59In December of that year, Majors was convicted of second-degree aggravated assault and third-degree
04:04misdemeanor assault.
04:05Marvel then promptly dropped him from any future projects, opting to go in a completely
04:09different direction with the next Avengers movie by making Doctor Doom the Big Bad.
04:14At 2024's San Diego Comic-Con, it was also announced that Anthony and Joe Russo would
04:19be back to direct both Doomsday and Secret Wars.
04:22Marvel has had an incredibly fruitful relationship with these filmmaking brothers, as they've
04:26previously helmed Captain America The Winter Soldier, Captain America Civil War, Avengers
04:30Infinity War, and Avengers Endgame.
04:32The hiring of the Russos for these next chapters is incredibly fortuitous, which was clear
04:37in 2022 when they told Deadline,
04:39"...our love for Marvel is based on the books that we read as kids, the books that we fell
04:43in love with.
04:44The one series that we adored growing up was Secret Wars.
04:46It's incredibly ambitious.
04:48It would be bigger than Infinity War and Endgame, but it's a massive undertaking."
04:52While Infinity War and Endgame were filmed back-to-back with only a four-week break between,
04:56there will be a more sizable hiatus between filming the next two Avengers flicks.
05:00Anthony Russo has stated that there will be about a year between productions, so if work
05:04on Doomsday kicks off in the spring of 2025, Secret Wars will likely begin toward the beginning
05:09of 2026 in order to meet its 2027 release date.
05:13The Russos will once again work with Stephen McFeely on the scripts for Doomsday and Secret
05:18Wars.
05:19McFeely and the Russos previously collaborated on the screenplays for The Winter Soldier
05:22and Avengers Endgame, and it sounds like the directors are keeping a close eye on the current
05:26writing process.
05:27We've always worked very closely with Marcus and McFeely through all the work that we've
05:33done together."
05:34It's worth noting that McFeely and Christopher Marcus are usually a writing partnership in
05:39the MCU.
05:40The two have also continued working with the Russos outside of Marvel, having written the
05:43scripts together for The Gray Man and The Electric State.
05:46However, Marcus doesn't appear to be involved with Doomsday.
05:50McFeely replaced Michael Waldron, who had been hired to pen the script for The Kang
05:53Dynasty after previously working on Multiverse of Madness and Loki.
05:57McFeely coming aboard suggests a complete changing of the guard, perhaps hinting at
06:00a vastly different story from the one that was mapped out for Kang Dynasty.
06:05Alan Silvestri is a legendary composer whose credits include the likes of Back to the Future,
06:09Predator, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
06:11He's also been an integral force on the MCU, including the last two Avengers movies, and
06:16he's set to come back for both Doomsday and Secret Wars.
06:19Considering all the familiar faces within the cast and crew, it looks like Marvel is
06:22opting for a tried-and-true formula.
06:24That makes sense, as these are going to be massive movies, and a chance to prove that
06:28the MCU still belongs at the top of the modern entertainment landscape.
06:32We imagine Silvestri's iconic Avengers theme will be heard in Doomsday, but hopefully,
06:36he also takes his compositions in intriguing new directions.
06:39After all, Doctor Doom surely deserves his own unforgettable theme.
06:43With nothing really concrete to pull from, all we can really do at this point is speculate
06:47what might happen in Doomsday and Secret Wars.
06:49One fan theory posits that Robert Downey Jr. is actually playing a variant of Doctor Doom
06:54who used to be Tony Stark, but pursued a path of evil instead of good.
06:57This would give him a solid entryway into the story while leaving the door open for
07:01a more proper victim on Doom to appear later in the MCU.
07:04Looking ahead, another fan theory suggests that Secret Wars will be a soft reboot of
07:08the MCU, possibly through a merging of universes into one where the main timeline's population
07:13includes mutants.
07:14Fans also have a lot of thoughts about the epic showdown that's potentially being set
07:18up for Secret Wars.
07:19Some believe that Downey's Doctor Doom could manipulate Peter Parker to help him, since
07:23he has the same face as his former mentor, while others have speculated that Doomsday
07:27may be a secret Avengers vs. X-Men film.
07:30But of course, until there's more solid information, our imaginations will just continue to run
07:34wild with a multiverse of possibilities.