Though several reliable scoopers have shared the same (or very similar) details on Doctor Doom's (Robert Downey Jr.) motivations in Avengers: Doomsday, there have been some conflicting reports relating to how the villain will actually go about enacting his plan.
This week, MTTSH posted the following: "Victor von Doom’s wife and son were killed in an accident, and Victor himself was injured and his body damaged. He traced the cause of the accident to Steve going back in time, and now he’s after him to avenge his family."
This wasn't the first time we had heard about Doom's family or his revenge mission, but there may be a little more to his "tragic" origin than we realized.
Josh from Den of Nerds has since responded by claiming that Doom will be "lying" about his backstory, with MTTSH clarifying that he will indeed be keeping certain things from Earth's Mightiest Heroes in order to gain their trust. It seems the powerful manipulator will attempt to convince the Avengers that he wants to help with the Multiversal incursions, when he is actually seeking vengeance against Rogers.
We also have some updates from the leaker who shared sketches of costume designs (this was not the actual artwork) for Mystique, Magneto and Cyclops, and is now claiming to have seen photos of most of the movie's heroes, including "four unannounced" Doom variants.
This could indicate that some of those surprise characters we've been hearing about will actually be alternate versions of Doom, and might well be played by some bigger names than we anticipated (at least two of the variants are believed to be female).
The first trailer for Avengers: Doomsday will be attached to Avatar: Fire and Ash next month, and could be released online before then, so we should hopefully find out whether at least some of these rumors are on the level fairly soon.
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