Marvel Studios originally planned for Kang the Conqueror and his Variants to serve as the Multiverse Saga's main threat. Loki and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania laid the groundwork for that, only for Jonathan Majors' legal troubles to change those plans.
Marvel Studios could have recast the villain but the negative response to the Ant-Man threequel meant Kevin Feige was considering changing course even before Majors found himself in court on misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment charges.
According to The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez, the plan is still for a Multiversal War to play out in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. However, instead of Kang being front and centre, it will revolve around other heroes and villains from across the Multiverse.
He adds that at least four Anchor Beings will factor into these movies and elaborates on past claims that there will be something of a blame game when it comes to the current state of the Multiverse.
"[Avengers: Doomsday] will focus on who exactly is to blame for the current state of the Multiverse," Perez explains. "Was it Kang? Was it his variants? Was it someone else? What I’m hearing is that they’re going to try and shift the blame on Doctor Strange, and it’s a motif that’s been building up for a while now."
"[The] idea is to make Strange the common denominator when it comes to incursions. And a good part of these films is Strange trying to reject that notion that [all] Stranges are meant to doom the universe, by making him the one who chooses to save it."
On a particularly interesting note, it's said that the Incursion Clea wanted Strange's help with in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' post-credits scene was one caused by the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. It seems the stinger held more importance for the wider Multiverse Saga than first expected.
Other minor tidbits include Moon Knight not playing a role in the next Avengers movies and the Thunderbolts, Young Avengers, and Franklin Richards all being key to the story.
Between this and other recent updates, it sounds increasingly likely that Doctor Doom will set out to "save" the Multiverse, albeit in his typically arrogant, villainous way. Villains making a compelling argument is nothing new for the MCU, though, as it's something we previously saw explored through Thanos, for example.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.