Marvel Studios was forced to pivot to a new villain and (one would assume) a very different story when Jonathan Majors' assault convictions led to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty evolving into Avengers: Doomsday, but it sounds like a few key plot points will remain - albeit with some significant tweaks.
We have heard that Multiversal Incursions would have played a big part in The Kang Dynasty, and are still expected to serve as the catalyst for the events of Doomsday and Secret Wars.
According to Alex Perez in the latest Cosmic Circus Q&A, the concept of the various realities in the Multiverse being "stuck on an endless loop" that Majors' He Who Remains outlined in the first season of Loki will be retained, but instead of Kang's variants wreaking havoc around the Multiverse in an effort to shake things up via various Incursions, the focus will shift to certain disruptors in the MCU who have been "interfering with the fabric of space and time."
"In Doomsday, the main incursion we’ll see at first revolves around Earth-616 and the universe Monica is set in, where the X-Men currently reside in the film. Other incursions will also be addressed, such as the one in No Way Home, caused by Spider-Man and Doctor Strange."
We assume Reed Richards' tampering with the fabric of his universe in The Fantastic Four: First Steps will also count!
Perez was also asked if he's "heard of any characters expected to appear in Secret Wars but not Doomsday," and responded: "Would Doom’s idealized versions of the characters we know count?"
Finally, Perez addressed the concept of "life rafts" from the Secret Wars comic, which prevent certain characters from falling under Doom’s spell on Battleworld.
"They’ve explored a couple of ideas. Reed building life-rafts, the use of the Quantum Realm to escape, escaping to the Void, just a couple of the things being thrown around."
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were recently hit with significant delays, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
You can check out the full (for now) Doomsday cast list below.
• Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki
• Lewis Pullman as Sentry
• Florence Pugh as Yelena
• Danny Ramirez as Falcon
• Ian McKellen as Magneto
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky
• Winston Duke as M’Baku
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Kelsey Grammer as Beast
• James Marsden as Cyclops
• Channing Tatum as Gambit
• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm
• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
• Patrick Stewart as Professor X
• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
• Letitia Wright as Black Panther
• Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor
• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards
• Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm
• David Harbour as Red Guardian
• Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing
• Anthony Mackie as Captain America