The MCU Is Making This Major Mistake With Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars

The Marvel Cinematic Universe appears to be trying to replicate the emphatic one-two punch of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame with 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, but the upcoming movies lack what made the Infinity Saga work so well. As the conclusion to the Multiverse Saga, encompassing MCU Phases 4, 5, and 6, Doomsday and Secret Wars will see heroes and villains from numerous realities clash. While not much is currently known about the plot of Secret Wars, Doomsday‘s story involves the Avengers, the Thunderbolts/New Avengers, and several X-Men members converge to battle Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.). Following the release of Thunderbolts*, The Fantastic Four: First Steps remains the only MCU movie set to hit theaters before Doomsday commences the franchise’s next big two-part event.

Although there exists much fan hype surrounding Doomsday and Secret Wars, some of the excitement has been dampened by the MCU’s inconsistent quality in recent years, as well as the questionable decisions to bring back Downey Jr. and revive the original X-Men so many years later. These aspects of Doomsday could easily spell the movie’s downfall if not executed well, but a different problem serves as an even bigger threat. Since the onset of Phase 4, the MCU’s interconnectivity has declined, with not a single grand event to tie all of the story threads together. This lack of a clear buildup to Doomsday and Secret Wars presents an enormous obstacle to the success of both movies.

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Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars Lack the Buildup Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame Had

Avengers: Doomsday centers on a new group of heroes that hasn’t assembled yet and features a villain that has never even been teased in the MCU before. The Thunderbolts and X-Men are established separately, however, the Sam Wilson/Captain America-led version of the Avengers has gained very little ground since the start of Phase 4. Doomsday promises to incorporate dozens of heroes and introduce a new villain, and this massive group of characters seems vastly underdeveloped.

In the case of the Infinity Saga, Thanos was foreshadowed as a formidable threat before taking center stage in Infinity War, making small, yet ominous, appearances in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Additionally the Avengers, guided by Steve Rogers/Captain America and Tony Stark/Iron Man, first had the chance to flesh out their relationships and team dynamic in 2012’s The Avengers and Age of Ultron, as well as in other team-up films such as 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. These stories functioned as a prelude to the high-stakes narratives of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, providing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes the opportunity to live and learn together under less dire circumstances prior to facing their biggest adversary.

Some might argue that an equivalent to The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron isn’t necessary for the Multiverse Saga, given that the concept of the Avengers isn’t new to the MCU. Nonetheless, the franchise’s absence of a strongly connected universe in the leadup to Doomsday and Secret Wars really works against the next two Avengers movies. From nostalgia bait to the multiverse, the MCU is going all out in hopes of restoring fans’ adoration for the superhero franchise, but it’s missing the key ingredient that enabled Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame to enthrall viewers the way they did. 

The MCU’s Failure to Properly Preface Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars Threatens to Derail Both Movies

Due to the losses of Tony Stark/Iron Man, Steve Rogers/Captain America, and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, as well as the multitude of new characters introduced in Phases 4 and 5, the Avengers team headlining Doomsday will look drastically different from the group that battled Thanos in Infinity War and Endgame. The MCU should have prioritized developing the Avengers’ new leadership and roster of heroes in a smaller-stakes setting before moving on to the next big bad, and its failure to install a proper preface to the Multiverse Saga’s Avengers movies is a colossal misstep.

Moreover, the MCU’s last-minute pivot from Kang the Conqueror to Doctor Doom doesn’t help either. Recasting the villain of the now-defunct Avengers: The Kang Dynasty could have capitalized on Kang’s advancement as a big bad instead of throwing it all away for a villain completely devoid of buildup. Making matters even more convoluted, the Avengers are supposedly only a fraction of the focus in Doomsday. It’s hard to imagine how the film will establish the updated Avengers Squad while bringing in other teams of heroes and introducing a previously unheard of villain. As a result, Doomsday and Secret Wars by extension risk becoming overstuffed, underdeveloped messes of movies that could have been remedied by a more concrete preface.

In Phases 4 and 5, the MCU has beautifully expanded its world and web of characters, but it has come at the expense of the Avengers fading to an afterthought amid the various corners and coalitions of the franchise’s world. The Multiverse Saga needed at least one Avengers movie to properly re-introduce Earth’s Mightiest Heroes into the fold as a prologue to the highly-anticipated one-two punch of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.

Avengers: Doomsday will open in theaters on May 1, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars is currently scheduled to release on May 7, 2027.