Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom is obviously shaping up to be an incredibly powerful new villain for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a recent synopsis confirmed that he will utilize a mixture of "cutting-edge science and powerful magic" to "unleash a cascading crisis across the entire multiverse."
Last week, we got what we assumed to be our first look at Doom's character design for Avengers: Doomsday via some promo art, and the accompanying light show video appeared to feature the villain wielding Shang-Chi's (Simu Liu) Ten Rings.
In his latest Q&A, The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez shared some new details on how Doom plans to enhance his abilities, and it sounds like he will indeed target the Master of Kung Fu to acquire the ancient and incredibly powerful Ta Lo artefacts.
Perez begins by mentioning that Shang-Chi will mostly be used as "comic relief" in Doomsday, presumably after Doom relieves him of those Rings!
"He may feel a bit out of place because it’ll be his first time being in a large group of super-powered heroes. Although I do have to say, did you see Doom’s recent design from the Disney 2026 Merchandise Expo in China? Shoooooot. Not the 1:1 design they’ll use in Doomsday, but it’s close. Say, upon closer inspection, doesn’t that Plackart Doom have on his abdomen look mighty interesting? It almost looks like you could bounce a ring off it. Or 10."
Perez also describes Doom as, "a man scorned by the incursions that are happening across the multiverse, dooming countless realities, and he wants to bring an end to that by any means necessary."
Previous rumors have claimed that Liu would have had a major role in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty before Marvel pivoted to Doom, so this sounds like it might be a bit of a downgrade for Shang-Chi. Still, Doom wielding the Ten Rings along with the rest of the tech he's acquired on his travels should make him a big bad for the ages.
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were recently hit with significant delays, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
You can check out the full (for now) Doomsday cast list below.
• Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki
• Lewis Pullman as Sentry
• Florence Pugh as Yelena
• Danny Ramirez as Falcon
• Ian McKellen as Magneto
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky
• Winston Duke as M’Baku
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Kelsey Grammer as Beast
• James Marsden as Cyclops
• Channing Tatum as Gambit
• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm
• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
• Patrick Stewart as Professor X
• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
• Letitia Wright as Black Panther
• Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor
• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards
• Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm
• David Harbour as Red Guardian
• Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing
• Anthony Mackie as Captain America