While Avengers: Doomsday is now a year away, there are still many things that need to be solved before the next crossover event of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Russo brothers were announced to be coming back to Marvel Studios to direct Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars following the removal of Jonathan Majors from the MCU, which made Avengers: The Kang Dynasty impossible. Scheduled to release on December 18, 2026, Doomsday is one of the MCU’s most highly-anticipated movies, but it also has major obstacles to overcome.
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In 2024, Robert Downey Jr. was announced to be joining Avengers: Doomsday’s cast, but not as Tony Stark, rather as Doctor Doom. This confirmation solved some of Doomsday’s problems, but not all of them, and many still need to be addressed either in the lead-up to the movie or during the actual story itself. The Multiverse Saga as a whole has put a lot of pressure on Avengers: Doomsday, presenting many obstacles that the Russo brothers need to overcome in their upcoming Phase 6 sequel and beyond.
7) The Multiverse Hasn’t Been Used Enough Before Avengers: Doomsday
Avengers: Doomsday is expected to focus intensely on the concept of the multiverse, as it will be the beginning of the end for the Multiverse Saga. Despite being named the Multiverse Saga, however, this era of the MCU hasn’t really explored the multiverse enough. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Marvels, Deadpool & Wolverine, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Loki have explored the multiverse, but Marvel Studios should have pushed this much further. Doomsday may now be limited by only being able to explore a few alternate realities—it could have been far more.
6) Doctor Doom Hasn’t Been Given Enough Foundation (MCU Has Continued to Focus on Thanos)
The idea of Robert Downey Jr.’s upcoming appearance as Doctor Doom is hugely exciting, but there hasn’t been a lot of set-up for his rampage across the multiverse. Instead, Marvel Studios has strangely been continuing to focus on the Mad Titan, Thanos, who posed a significant threat in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Thanos has appeared many times in the animated What If…? series, and Josh Brolin has teased his return to the MCU. It seems as though Thanos is likely to return in Doomsday, but we need Doctor Doom to take center-stage since Downey is coming back.
5) Avengers: Doomsday’s Stakes Have Been Too Rushed
Doctor Doom is expected to be traveling around the multiverse to kill variants and try to stop incursions in Avengers: Doomsday, but this mission seems much too large to cram into just one movie. By now, we should have seen some glimpse towards Doom’s mission, but we’ve only seen him once in an uncredited appearance in The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ mid-credits scene, just appearing to Franklin Richards. Doomsday must be gearing up to be jam-packed with Doom’s destructive conquest, which is exciting, but the lead-up has been rushed, so we’d love a bit more set-up over the next year.
4) Too Many MCU Characters in Avengers: Doomsday Have Been Missing for Too Long
Marvel Studios announced the first 26 actors joining Robert Downey Jr. at the end of March, including members of the Avengers, New Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and more. However, it’s a shame that we haven’t seen some of these heroes literally in years. We haven’t seen Shang-Chi since 2021, or the likes of Thor, Shuri, M’Baku, and Namor since 2022. With more Marvel characters expected to join Downey Jr. and others in Doomsday, we might revisit more heroes we haven’t seen in even longer, which underlines one of the biggest criticisms of the Multiverse Saga.
3) Steve Rogers’ Return in Avengers: Doomsday is Nothing But Fan-Service
For months, there has been speculation that Chris Evans will be returning as Steve Rogers in Avengers: Doomsday, and rumors surrounding the movie’s upcoming teaser have all but confirmed this. It’s widely regarded that Rogers got the perfect happy ending in Avengers: Endgame, however, so bringing him back for Doomsday is little more than unnecessary fan-service. Sure, his existence on an alternate timeline may be causing an incursion, making him a target for Doctor Doom, but it’s a shame Endgame’s emotional final moments are expected to be completely rewritten.
2) Avengers: Doomsday’s Cast Has an Impossible Task After Infinity War & Endgame
Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were the MCU’s biggest movies yet, involving almost every single superhero who had been introduced to the franchise. Doomsday and Secret Wars need to one-up these crossover movies, which poses a significant problem for the Phase 6 projects. Doomsday currently only has 27 confirmed cast members, but 60 or over have been teased in the past, so the cast could end up being monumental. Whether this leaves enough time for characters to actually get any meaningful development is yet to be seen, but Doomsday and Secret Wars need to be huge.
1) Kang the Conqueror Still Needs a Proper Ending
At the start of the Multiverse Saga, Jonathan Majors was introduced as Kang the Conqueror and his villainous variants, set up as the MCU’s new primary antagonist. Majors’ arrest and conviction in 2023, however, led to his firing from Marvel Studios and the MCU’s reshuffling away from The Kang Dynasty to Doomsday. While Kang’s story might be ignored in the MCU going forward, there are some pretty immense loose ends concerning the multiversal villain and his countless variants—the Council of Kangs—so it would be great for Avengers: Doomsday to somehow give Kang a satisfying ending, unless Marvel intends to revisit him in the future.
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Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
