Last week, the news broke that Chris Evans will return to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday. The actor was last seen as Captain America in 2019's Avengers: Endgame and showed up for a memorable cameo as a Human Torch Variant in Deadpool & Wolverine.
We later found out that Hayley Atwell will be back as Agent Peggy Carter; interestingly, the trades mentioned that Marvel Studios once had plans for both her and Steve Rogers to headline their own movie but couldn't quite crack the story.
According to The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez, several actors will pull "double duty" in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Evans will "definitely" play the Steve from Endgame and believes we'll visit that timeline after he and Peggy got their happy ending.
The scooper has also heard that "Evans could be portraying another character in the movie that stands alongside [Robert Downey Jr.s'] Doctor Doom." Perez adds, "I heard rumors that his stint as Johnny Storm isn’t necessarily over."
As for how these Variants will factor into Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel Studios is said to be approaching them similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine, giving them an actual purpose in the movie rather than treating them like fan-service or throwaway cameos.
Expanding on that point about a Variant played by Evans standing side-by-side with Doom, it's said, "What I can tell you is that the secondary antagonists, whoever they may be, according to my sources, are going to be Variants. There is going to be an overwhelming number of variants in these movies, a lot more than the characters set to appear in these movies that from Earth-616."
"Some are going to be good, some are going to be bad, and some are going to be really worse," Perez concludes.
In other MCU news, it's mentioned that Hope Van Dyne will be referenced in Daredevil: Born Again and that she's busy running the Pym Van Dyne Foundation. It appears The Wasp, Hank Pym, and Janet Van Dyne have all been sidelined, though the "use and abuse" of Pym Particles is expected to be explored down the line.
As for Blade, work is progressing on the reboot as Marvel Studios continues searching for a director. Perez notes, "The story now has a modern time setting, but Lilith is still the main villain and she isn’t a one-and-done villain. Armor Wars hasn’t had any movement since I last spoke about it."
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.