As excitement surrounding Avengers: Doomsday builds, the rumour mill continues churning out some bold claims about Marvel Studios' plans for its biggest movie yet (well, until Secret Wars comes along next year).
Shortly before The Fantastic Four: First Steps was released, we heard about plans for Chris Evans to make a cameo appearance in the movie. We never did find out whether it was supposed to be an Earth-828 Steve Rogers Variant or something Doomsday related...until now.
According to The Hot Mic's John Rocha (who broke the news that The Punisher and Hulk will appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day months before it was made official), Evans was set to appear in a post-credits scene as the Steve we last saw in 2019's Avengers: Endgame.
"The Fantastic Four and Doom ask Steve Rogers to come with them to the MCU, Earth-616, to help them gain the heroes' trust," Rocha explained. "This was supposedly a post-credits scene in Fantastic Four that got removed. It could still be a scene in the movie."
He went on to theorise, "Maybe initially they're not enemies. Maybe they're working together because something Steve did caused a problem in their world. They're coming over supposedly to help fix it, but then Doom betrays everyone and backstabs them."
Rocha had another Avengers: Doomsday scoop to share, adding, "According to my sources, Doom has his own 'Black Order.' A group of witches and wizards working for him. I don't know how faithful that is to the comics, but that's what this person told me. So we're talking magic. Scarlet Witch could be involved, maybe others. Doctor Strange is very possible, too."
Jeff Sneider was also on hand to later back up recent reports that Captain America and Peggy Carter are on Earth-828, possibly because Loki moved them there after the TVA pruned the timeline he created in Avengers: Endgame.
We'll have to wait and see how this all pans out, because with so many bits of intel floating out there, it becomes increasingly difficult to piece them together and make sense of what's planned for Avengers: Doomsday as a whole.
It's also unclear whether this post-credits scene with Steve was shot on the set of the next Avengers movie. As for why it was replaced, we can only assume it was down to that Doctor Doom tease being necessary to at least hint at the villain before his big debut (unlike Thanos, he hasn't made cameo appearances across a few different movies).
Avengers: Doomsday officially stars Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Winston Duke, Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, and Robert Downey Jr. Wyatt Russell, Simu Liu, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Mabel Cadena, Florence Pugh, Danny Ramirez, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, and India Rose Hemsworth all make their Avengers franchise debuts.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn join them, as do X-Men franchise stars Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, with Deadpool & Wolverine star Channing Tatum. The trades have pointed to Ryan Reynolds and Hayley Atwell also appearing in Avengers: Doomsday.
The Russo Brothers direct Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars from a screenplay by Stephen McFeely, with whom they previously collaborated on the Avengers and Captain America franchises. Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness's Michael Waldron has also been enlisted to help.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.