Much has been said about Marvel Studios' plans for the Multiverse Saga, and we've heard on multiple occasions that Kang the Conqueror's time as the MCU's new big bad is winding down.
That's been blamed on the villain supposedly being an underwhelming successor to Thanos. However, it seems many people have forgotten about the Mad Titan only making blink-and-you'd-miss-them cameos in The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Guardians of the Galaxy before he finally made his mark in Avengers: Infinity War.
Thus far, we've seen much more from Kang thanks to Loki and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and outside of Jonathan Majors' ongoing legal issues, there's no obvious need to ditch him (especially when that can be solved with a recast).
Rumours continue to persist that Doctor Doom will usurp Kang, though The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez says otherwise.
He believes Kang will remain the Multiverse Saga's main antagonist, but suggests the time-traveller will be sidelined until Phase 6 in order to give Marvel Studios the time they need to figure out where to go next. Not making Kang a recurring threat acorss multiple MCU projects (why wasn't Rama-Tut in Moon Knight again?) still feels like a major missed opportunity.
Perez goes on to add that Doom is only expected to appear in Fantastic Four for a matter of seconds, a claim which lines up with reports of him only showing up briefly in a post-credits scene. As he correctly points out, going from that to him being the Multiverse Saga's lead villain makes little sense, even though Kang and Victor Von Doom are connected in the comics.
Ultimately, only Marvel Studios knows what it has planned, and a lot could change between now and the next two Avengers movies. Something we can be sure of, though, is that The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars are bound to be pushed further down the release calendar.
Stay tuned for updates.
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