Post-Avengers: Secret Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will most likely be a very different place, and the long-running superhero franchise's next "Saga" is believed to be mainly focused on the mutant characters that will join the fray in the upcoming X-Men reboot.
But what about the next big Avengers event?
With rumors of a soft reboot being implemented after the Multiverse Saga concludes, it's fair to wonder whether Secret Wars will be the final Avengers movie for the foreseeable future, but Disney/Marvel is well aware of how profitable the Avengers brand is. It obviously remains to be seen now successful Doomsday and Secret Wars prove to be, but we're going to go out on a limb and say: Very!
According to Alex Perez in the latest Cosmic Circus Q&A, the Avengers brand will be "retooled" post-Secret Wars, and in addition to the "big, world-ending blockbuster team-up stories featuring different groups and factions, they’ll also use the Avengers title for Avengers adventures and stories with an actual group."
As for what the next Avengers movie will focus on, Perez believes it will be another cosmic event.
"One route they originally planned was the massive blockbuster team-up film tying into Judgement Day, featuring the Eternals, the Celestials, and the Horde. A newer route they plan to take features a smaller-scale story with Annihilus and the Annihilation Wave, who will serve as the main antagonist of the film and be introduced in an upcoming Disney+ project as a secondary antagonist for the Nova Corps. The villains of that show would be high-ranking members of his army, possibly Admiral Salo or one of his concubines, Eradica, Extirpia, or Extermina."
This isn't the first time we've heard that Annihilus might be a future MCU big bad, but a storyline based on Judgement Day would be a fairly surprising development.
A.X.E.: Judgment Day, aka Avengers/X-Men/Eternals: Judgment Day, was a 2022 Marvel Comics crossover event written by Kieron Gillen with art by Valerio Schiti. The story dealt with the discovery of the mutant resurrection protocols and the subsequent conflict between the Avengers, the X-Men and the Eternals.
It sounds like plans may have pivoted to an Annihilation Wave-based event, which would make sense now that the Nova series has been confirmed to be in development.
Perez was also asked if fans can expect any variants introduced in Doomsday and/or Secret Wars to carry over to the 616 post-SW timeline.
"Yes and no. It’s a very confusing circumstance. If the 616 universe post Secret Wars timeline we see is the “original version” of that timeline, so to speak, are any of those characters variants, or are the variants the characters we are seeing now in the MCU movies?"
What do you make of these post-Secret Wars MCU rumors? Drop us a comment down below.
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.
Doomsday will star:
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, and Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
Along with 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, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.