Is Avengers: Doomsday Actually an Avengers vs X-Men Movie?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s relationship with the X-Men has been fairly frigid until Disney purchased assets from 21st Century Fox in 2017. Due to the X-Men franchise being under Fox’s control, along with the Fantastic Four and the similar situation with Spider-Man at Sony, the mutant team seemed to become a red-headed stepchild for the company, on and off the page. But now, with all of the characters under the MCU banner going forward, it’s fitting that the X-Men could be the unwitting villains of Avengers: Doomsday and possibly bring one of the 21st century’s most divisive Marvel Comics storylines to the big screen, as part of Doctor Doom’s big debut.

What Is Avengers vs. X-Men?

Avengers vs. X-Men pits the two superhero teams against each other over the fate of mutant messiah Hope Summers, after the Phoenix Force returns and seems to be headed toward Earth to merge with the young mutant. Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men are at their home base, Utopia, and are preparing to support Hope and allow the Phoenix to take over. Captain America and the Avengers stand opposing the mutants, wanting to take Hope Summers into custody and protect her from the Phoenix. This quickly devolves into a fight between both teams while other Avengers members are in space attempting to stop Phoenix from arriving on Earth. This includes another example of Iron Man making things worse, by splitting the Phoenix into five beings that bond to Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus, and Magik.

It plays out in three acts, with the two teams battling around the globe and on the Moon, and Cyclops becoming the Dark Phoenix, while Charles Xavier returns and dies. Then Hope rips the Phoenix from him to undo the damage, revive mutants worldwide, and finally wish the Phoenix away with help from Scarlet Witch. It was a final note in the storyline that started in Avengers Disassembled in 2004, and a financial success for Marvel, but it was a bit of a mess for fans. Not only do both teams come off as bad guys during the event, but they also seem motivated by plot forces instead of their established characterizations. It’s far from the worst Marvel has offered in recent decades, but it also represents a downtime for the mutant that would continue until 2019 in House of X.

Marvel followed this with Uncanny Avengers, showing Captain America’s efforts to mend relationships with the Mutants, and then the AXIS crossover, which saw Red Skull steal the brain of the deceased Charles Xavier to become Red Onslaught. The X-Men also had to fight the Inhumans during the period when Marvel tried to make them the MCU version of mutants, marking the 2000s as a horrible time for the team.

How Would ‘A vs X’ Fit Into the MCU?

So, where does Avengers: Doomsday come into play? We’ve seen a lot of the X-Men mixing with the MCU in recent years, including Patrick Stewart returning as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Kelsey Grammer’s Beast in the after-credits scene in The Marvels, and all those cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine. Now, with a lot of Fox X-Men actors returning for Avengers: Doomsday, folks immediately went to Avengers Vs. X-Men as an influence on the plot.

Little is officially known outside of the initial cast and the start of production, but there are a ton of storylines the MCU can pull from in creating the fifth Avengers movie and its follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars.

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My geeky assumption is that parts of Avengers vs. X-Men will be mixed with the opening issue of 2015’s Secret Wars. Incursions and the multiverse are established to this point in the MCU, already placing the MCU and the X-Men’s Earth (introduced at the end of The Marvels) on a collision course. In the Secret Wars comic book crossover, the Ultimate Marvel Earth and regular Marvel 616 Earth collided as the final two worlds, with the heroes on both sides fighting until the end.

This Is The End?

There has been some speculation that the original MCU Avengers will return as dark versions of themselves in Doomsday, but the X-Men talk seems to have more weight. There is also the fact that Doctor Doom, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four were all Fox’s Marvel properties before the Fox buyout. Having them be the personification of a world-changing invasion against the MCU and the lead-in to Secret Wars would likely work better than just bringing back Chris Evans. The MCU is likely heading to a soft reboot, too, so that’s just more fuel to the mutant fires.

Don’t expect a perfect adaptation of Avengers vs. X-Men or any of the stories influencing the next pair of Avengers movies. The Russo Brothers revealed a bit about their plans for the story, promising they’d borrow from the original 1980s Secret Wars comics, Hickman’s 2015 version, and everything else that could be roped into the mix.

“Well, we always create our own version of the story. So, we use the comics as loose inspiration,” Joe Russo said. “But, you know, I grew up on the original run. That’s something that got me into Marvel comic books. The Hickman run is also fantastic [and they’re] very different from each other in a lot of ways, so we’ll draw inspiration from both of them.”

One thing that is certain is the clock has started ticking for Avengers: Doomsday. Details and reveals can be expected through its release in May of 2026. The march to Secret Wars has begun and the speculation will be wild.

Do you think we’ll get an MCU mashup of several major crossovers in Avengers: Doomsday? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.