Avengers: Doomsday is reportedly adapting one major Kang the Conqueror idea for its main villain, Doctor Doom. It’s probably the biggest pivot of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga; the replacement of Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom. Marvel and Disney parted ways with Major after he was convicted of assaulting his former girlfriend in December 2023, but the writing was probably on the wall because of Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania‘s poor box office performance.
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But it seems some Kang the Conqueror ideas are still being used by Marvel. According to industry insider Daniel Richtman, Avengers: Doomsday will feature multiple variants of Doctor Doom from across the multiverse. This will mirror the “Council of Kangs” introduced in Quantumania, although there may be one major difference. Majors played all the different Kang variants, but it’s currently unknown whether Downey will play all the Dooms; at the very least, there will reportedly be female variants of Doom who are portrayed by other characters too.
Doctor Doom’s Variants Raise Massive Questions for the MCU
Oddly enough, this doesn’t only riff on a Kang the Conqueror idea; it also subverts a concept from the comics, too. In the comics, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four joined his other selves from across the multiverse in the so-called “Council of Reeds,” all of whom sought to improve their respective worlds. Doctor Doom has always longed to outdo Reed, proving himself Mr. Fantastic’s better, so it’s rather amusing to see a Fantastic Four idea grafted on to Doom in such a way.
The interesting question, though, is whether this subtly changes Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ post-credits scene. This was technically the MCU debut of Doctor Doom, with the villain showing a concerning interest in Franklin Richards; but was this the main Doctor Doom, the one who will be the major character in Avengers: Doomsday, or was it a variant with another plan? Assuming the MCU’s Doctor Doom shares the same kind of ego as his comic book incarnation, a Council of Dooms is unlikely to be a cooperative affair.
Meanwhile, if Downey is indeed playing multiple Dooms, it’s possible this confirms that Tony Stark was the Doom of Earth-616 – or perhaps would have been, had he not died. This may hint that Iron Man and Doctor Doom are one and the same on the multiversal scale, a retcon that would certainly prove controversial. Only time will tell how Marvel intend to handle this report, should it be accurate.
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