Though he has obviously faced-off against plenty of other heroes over the years, Doctor Doom was always best-known as a Fantastic Four foe, with the leader of the team, Reed Richards, emerging as the megalomaniacal villain's nemesis.
Doom was (briefly) introduced in the mid-credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but some fans were worried that they may not get the opportunity to see this long-standing rivalry carry over to the big screen in Avengers: Doomsday.
It did seem like a valid enough concern, especially after scooper MTTSH recently described Doomsday as "Civil War 2" since it will once again focus on Chris Evans facing-off against Robert Downey Jr. The context will be very different this time, of course, but it sounds like Evans' Nomad vs. RDJ's Doom might end up being the main focus of the movie.
Fortunately, it doesn't sound like Marvel Studios intends to completely ignore the Reed/Doom dynamic. According to a new post from MTTSH, Richards will still have "a major role" in the movie, and a "lot of interactions with Doom."
Though we're sure they will ultimately clash, there is a chance that Doom and Mr. Fantastic will start out as "allies," since Victor is expected to use his resemblance to Tony Stark to gain the heroes' trust (you can learn more about Doom's motivations here).
We'll get our first official look at Doomsday in a few weeks when the trailer is released, but a lot of fake "leaks" have been doing the rounds online, and some of these AI-assisted images are pretty convincing.
The latest feature Doctor Strange, Shang-Chi, Captain Marvel and Loki, and have fooled a lot of people. Twitter is acting up at the moment and won't allow embeds, but you can click HERE to take a look.
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