Avengers: Doomsday - What We Know So Far
Storylines Switching Up As Latest Cast Announced
The anticipation for "Avengers: Doomsday" is palpable, especially with the confirmed casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Victor von Doom. This film promises to be a monumental event in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), bringing together not only many MCU regulars but also the cast of the forthcoming "Fantastic Four: First Steps" and several returning faces from the 20th Century Fox "X-Men" films. The absence of some major Marvel characters suggests that the full cast list may still be under wraps.
"Doomsday" is set to be a two-part film, akin to the epic duology of "Infinity War" and "Endgame". The storyline is expected to revolve around Doctor Doom achieving godly power and ruling over a realm called Battleworld. This plot draws inspiration from both the original 1984 "Secret Wars" by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, and Bob Layton, and the 2015 "Secret Wars" by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic.
However, predicting the exact plot of "Doomsday" is challenging. Beyond introducing Doom and setting the stage for "Secret Wars," other plot details remain unclear. The 2015 "Secret Wars" had significant build-up, with Hickman spending three years writing "Avengers" and "New Avengers" in tandem, focusing on the primary thread of the Multiverse collapsing in events called Incursions. These Incursions involve two Earths merging and, unless one is destroyed, colliding in mutual destruction.
Hickman's "Avengers" explored different groups working to stop the Incursions. The superheroes in the Illuminati discovered there was no ethical way out of omnicide, while Thanos' Cabal happily slaughtered world after world to preemptively stop Incursions. Alien women called "Black Swans" visited worlds during Incursions, spreading word of a "great destroyer," Rabum Alal.
Rabum Alal was eventually revealed to be Doom, who was trying to preserve as much of reality as he could, not destroy it. The MCU adaptation may include elements from this storyline, with films in the "Multiverse Saga" mentioning the idea of Incursions. It is possible that "Avengers: Doomsday" ends on a cliffhanger of an Incursion destroying the MCU's "Sacred Timeline," leading into a Doom-ruled Battleworld.
The film's confirmed cast hints at various storylines that could be adapted. There are as many X-Men characters in "Doomsday" as there are Avengers ones. Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Cyclops (James Marsden), Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), and Gambit (Channing Tatum) are confirmed so far. This has led to speculation that the main source material of the film will be "Avengers vs X-Men". Rather than starting anew with a new X-Men cast and building up to such a battle, Marvel Studios might be using the event as one last hurrah for the previous X-Men actors.
In the comics, "Avengers vs X-Men" ran through 2012, authored by a team of writers including Jonathan Hickman, Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, and Matt Fraction, and artists Olivier Coipel, Adam Kubert, and John Romita Jr. The conflict was over the Phoenix Force, with Cyclops wanting to control the Phoenix for the greater good, while the Avengers wanted to destroy it. Cyclops and his four disciples (Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik, and Namor) bonded with the Phoenix Force and briefly took over the world. Once the Avengers overthrew the Phoenix Five, the episode left mutants more hated than ever.
"Doomsday" might not follow the specific story of the comic. When do they ever fully do that? The X-Men team probably comes from the world seen at the end of "The Marvels," with actors from the Fox movies but with Jim Lee-'90s "X-Men" costumes and aesthetics. Perhaps this world and the Avengers' will experience an Incursion, pitting the teams against each other for their own survival.
"Secret Wars" #1 did something similar, where Classic Marvel (Earth-616) and Ultimate Marvel (Earth-1610) were the only two realities left and then combined for the final Incursion. The X-Men's world could fill a similar role, so the Incursion is between two familiar worlds.
The "Doomsday" cast list also includes important faces from the "Black Panther" films: Shuri (Letitia Wright), M'Baku (Winston Duke), and Namor (Tenoch Huerta MejÃa). This hints at a possible adaptation of the "Doomwar" storyline, where Doctor Doom invades Wakanda for its Vibranium supply. Doom rules his own country, the Eastern-European nation Latveria, putting him on equal footing with the Black Panther. The X-Men were a big part of "Doomwar," fighting on Wakanda's side. However, this could risk being repetitive, as "Infinity War" and "Wakanda Forever" also featured invasions of Wakanda.
"Avengers: Doomsday" is scheduled to be released in theaters on May 1, 2026. I have to say, I was a little over so much Avengers, but with a small break, I’m back to getting excited about this one
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