Avengers: Secret Wars is still years away, and there's a good chance Marvel Studios' plans for what is undoubtedly shaping up to be the biggest MCU event movie yet are still very much in flux. Even so, Kevin Feige and co. likely have at least a few ideas in place, and some very interesting rumors have been doing the rounds online.
Based on how Phase 5 has been progressing and the title of the preceding Avengers film, The Kang Dynasty, we can safely assume that the Multiverse will factor into Secret Wars in a big way, and there's a good chance we will see the return of some familiar faces (Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., etc) along with a new line-up of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
It's also entirely possible that characters from the Fox era of Marvel movies (X-Men, Fantastic Four) will show up, along with the likes of Tobey MaGuire and Andrew Garfield's takes on Spider-Man.
Even if most of these rumors prove to be inaccurate, it's a given that the movie is going to spotlight an expansive roster of heroes, so it only makes sense that they'd be facing off against more than one villain.
Boss Logic has shared four fan-posters featuring some of the potential threats the Avengers could encounter in Secret Wars: Doctor Doom, Scarlet Witch, the Living Tribunal (usually depicted as more of a heroic entity), and what we assume is an interpretation of the Beyonder.
Out of these characters, we'd say Wanda and Doom are most likely to appear, although the others do play integral roles in the build-up to the Secret Wars events in the comics.
The studio has yet to announce a director for Secret Wars, but a previous report indicated that they may have been looking at tried and tested filmmakers behind some of the most popular and successful movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to ensure the hugely ambitious project is in safe hands, including Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and Ryan Coogler (Black Panther).
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton - who is set to helm Avengers: The Kang Dynasty - is also said to have pitched them on him staying on to handle the follow-up, and we've heard that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness helmer Sam Raimi is a "top Choice."
The Doctor Strange sequel's writer Michael Waldron was hired to pen the script late last year, but we have no idea how much - if any - progress has been made since then, and a recent rumor indicated that he'd actually parted ways with the project.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's Jeff Loveness is also said to have stepped away (or asked to step away) from The Kang Dynasty, so, if accurate, it sounds like the studio may be going back to the drawing board on both massively-scaled Avengers movies.