The recent concept art leak for Avengers: Doomsday has massively increased excitement for the movie and, while Doctor Doom remains a divisive choice of villain, many fans are now happy to sit back and let the Russo Brothers cook.
The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez has shared some exciting rumours about the movie today, starting with Doom's plan for the Multiverse.
He explains that the villain sets out to stop the incursions from happening, thereby avoiding a Multiversal collapse. Like Thanos, he sees himself as the hero and is likely on the warpath after He Who Remains silenced his and every other universe by creating a single Sacred Timeline. Now, Doom wants to "take the reins of his timeline and win his freedom."
Perez goes on to explain that, while the Council of Kangs has obviously been dropped from a movie originally titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, it's not as simple as Marvel Studios swapping Kang for Doctor Doom.
However, "It’s still a very similar story being told: and that’s that the remaining heroes of the remaining worlds of the Multiverse have to find a way to save their own universe and how they’d go about in doing that, even if it means the destruction of the other universe to save their own."
It's also revealed that those who side with Victor Von Doom view him as their saviour, with that just one of several key elements Marvel Studios is looking to pull from the Secret Wars comic. Others include the Multiverse's impending destruction due to incursions and heroes battling their Multiversal doppelgangers.
Doom is, unsurprisingly, expected to be Avengers: Doomsday's lead but the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Wong, Bruce Banner, and a "handful of mutants" will all be key.
As for Loki, he's described as the movie's "MacGuffin" as "the race against Doomsday will be a race to see who gets to Loki first." Don't forget, he's still at the centre of the Multiverse powering those infinite branching timelines.
Other tidbits in the report include certain characters being missing from the leaked concept art, the New Avengers not forming until Secret Wars, and a Sanctum Santorum set being built in London for Doomsday.
Finally, the scooper reiterates that the post-Secret Wars MCU will not be a full reboot; instead, "The idea is to essentially update the timeline/universe into one where the Fantastic 4 and X-Men characters exist."
So, there's a lot to digest here but it's all pretty exciting. In some respect, Doomsday does sound pretty similar to Infinity War, though the Multiverse being in play is bound to lead to some big surprises and a very different feel. Doom is also bound to be a very different big bad compared to the Mad Titan.
While Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic's Secret Wars is clearly a major source of inspiration, the Russo Brothers are known to be fans of the original crossover event by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, and Bob Layton. So, expect elements of that to crop up in these movies too.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.