It is hard to believe that six years ago, Marvel Studios was on top of the world, dominating the box office and popular culture, with the air of a company that could not put a foot wrong. A lot can change in half a decade. It’s no secret that the MCU has been a shadow of its former self since “Avengers: Endgame” concluded the “Infinity Saga.” There have been bright spots, but overall, a myriad of issues that have always existed, like weak villains, have worsened, whilst embracing the multiverse has resulted in cheap, diminishing fan service. Add a deluge of Disney+ shows churned out for content, and the quality of the products overall has dipped at the same astonishing rate that the quantity increased. When “Avengers: Doomsday” releases in December 2026, few films will need to be as successful. And I have my doubts.
Of course, there have been factors outside of the studios’ control that have not helped the state they find themselves in. The tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, the Covid-19 pandemic halting production and causing massive rescheduling, and Jonathan Majors’s assault conviction leading to the removal of the Multiverse Saga’s initial main villain, Kang the Conqueror, were all impossible to expect. However, most films and shows have been in their creative control, and they failed to make them work.
Post-Endgame, the MCU had the chance to try something that would not work in the comics. Actors age out of the part, whereas in comics, they always stay around the same age. There was an opportunity to go back to basics with a new generation of heroes, whilst continuing to develop heroes such as Captain Marvel, who required the room to grow, before passing the torch on themselves. There has not been an Avengers film since “Endgame” in April 2019, a gap of seven years for “Doomsday.” None of the four released have grossed under $1.4 billion (“Age of Ultron” in 2015), so failure to cross that boundary is an easy gauge of the health and relevance of the MCU.
In many ways, “Age of Ultron” is the black sheep of the “Avengers” films, placed between the beloved original and the two that made the name synonymous with crossovers reaching every corner of the universe. But this will be a crossover reaching every corner of the multiverse, and the question remains if that is enough to draw audiences en masse. The whole discussion around the film seems to be excitement for the vast cast of characters who will be returning after years away, rather than the plot and stakes that will be created.
The newer characters: Sam Wilson’s Captain America, Shang-Chi, and the Fantastic Four seem irrelevant to the discourse, as speculation is around the returning Fox X-Men, AI-generated images posed as set leaks everywhere online for what they are supposed to look like. Tobey Maguire cannot escape rumours that he will return. Neither can Hugh Jackman. One of the few good jokes in “Deadpool and Wolverine” about being forced to play a role until you’re 90 is close to reality for Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
Joe and Anthony Russo have returned to the MCU to direct, Stephen McFeely has returned to co-write, and Robert Downey Jr has returned to star. They were all instrumental to the success of the MCU, especially “Infinity War” and “Endgame.” There is just one vital component missing: the decade of buildup preceding those films. The callbacks and resolutions do not carry the same weight if audiences did not spend a decade with the characters before Steve Rogers lifted Mjolnir or Tony Stark sacrificed himself.
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When these characters appeared around every two years, of course, there was going to be a connection. It is a connection Marvel Studios appears to have lost since, bar a handful of projects: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Wakanda Forever,” “Shang-Chi,” “Loki Season 2,” “Thunderbolts,*” and to an extent, “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Even these examples can devolve into a setup for later projects and standard end-of-the-world stakes, and to paraphrase Syndrome from “The Incredibles,” if everything’s the end of the world, nothing is. They have diluted the stakes and opportunities to connect to the characters in order to tease developments, many of which are yet to be resolved.
Even I, a long-time Marvel fan who might not have chosen the careers I wanted to explore if not for the films of the “Infinity Saga,” could not keep up with everything. “Secret Invasion” in the summer of 2023 was the final straw. This attempted return to the glory days has also been reflected in the marketing, with “Endgame” announced to be returning to cinemas in September 2026, this re-release providing another litmus test for the current health of the flailing studio. Everything seems focused on recapturing the magic of the glory days, rather than looking to the future.
By comparison, James Gunn’s DCU appears willing to be patient, putting in the work to build investment in its characters. We already know when we’ll see Superman again, and many other established characters seem to be featuring in 2027’s “Man of Tomorrow,” too. In one film, the DCU felt more alive than the MCU has in years. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” failed to utilise its futuristic 1960s setting, whilst other recent entries clearly take place on the same sludgy CGI soundstages.
Obviously, there is more than “Doomsday” on the horizon, as a year after its release will be the release of “Avengers: Secret Wars,” the conclusion to the Multiverse Saga. In the comics, there have been two events with this name, both taking place on a planet called Battleworld. The first ran from May 1984 to April 1985, created to sell a toy line in partnership with Mattel. The second, written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Esad Ribić, released between May 2015 and January 2016, is the more likely inspiration for “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
Doctor Doom is the main villain, the multiverse has collapsed due to incursion events, and many MCU characters have important roles. Other characters, such as Molecule Man, the being holding Battleworld together, could be replaced by Wanda Maximoff or Franklin Richards. The thing is, Hickman’s “Secret Wars” is the culmination of years of build-up from his time writing “Avengers” and “New Avengers,” and served as a potentially definitive conclusion of the rivalry between the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom.
As the FF’s film rights did not reside with Marvel Studios, and the higher-ups did not want a rival in 20th Century Fox gaining more characters and stories to adapt, they cancelled the book. As a result, “Secret Wars” wrapped up 60 years of stories in case they never returned. “The Fantastic Four” was relaunched with a new #1 in August 2018, but at the time “Secret Wars” was published, no one would have known. However, it shows the source material Marvel Studios will most likely pull from hinges on the same important component that made the “Infinity Saga” succeed and the Multiverse Saga fail in comparison. The component lacking is the return of actors, directors, and a screenwriter.
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Of course, there is also the casting of Doctor Doom himself. Robert Downey Jr returning to the MCU, as he said at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con: “New mask, same task.” When I first heard the news, I thought it was a joke. The casting felt like a desperate gamble, as discussed above, and as above runs into the same problems. The lack of build-up, including establishing his relationship with the most important characters to him, the Fantastic Four.
When the character with the most obvious connection to Doom is Spider-Man, something has gone catastrophically wrong. No matter Kevin Feige’s saying the plan to replace Kang with Doom happened before Majors’s conviction, it feels like a desperate course correction to move on from a villain whose introduction they had fumbled by allowing him to lose to Ant-Man and an army of giant ants. It is a move that feels desperate, a gamble that might pay off, but it would take a miracle to work.
Several important characters in the first wave of casting have been in a handful of MCU projects, but alongside them are outliers. Thor, Scott Lang, Loki. The first trailer for the film feels like a character trailer from the Super Smash Bros Ultimate marketing campaign, but with far less hype, revealing the return of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. If it had not leaked beforehand, it would have been an incredible, if unwelcome, surprise. Instead, it feels like more confirmation that the MCU’s out of ideas, so falling back on the characters that made them so successful.
The risk is now their desperation might undo a nearly universally agreed-upon ending for the character, and retroactively make “Endgame” a weaker film, or worse, irrelevant. If Steve Rogers could always return, what was the point of his ending? Even this first trailer – or in this case trailers – releasing in front of “Avatar: Fire and Ash” feels like a gimmick, a new trailer every week for the first four weeks. It seems like a stunt to get people talking, rather than creating an authentic conversation about the plot and how the characters will interact after years of wanting to see them together.
With the first announcing Steve’s return, the second leaked to be announcing Thor’s, the third introducing Doctor Doom, and the fourth presumably a proper teaser trailer, there seems to be little focus on why people should see this film, bar the actors reprising roles they were done with. Despite all I have said, I do not want “Doomsday” to fail, but the shaky foundations, lack of build-up, and marketing around gimmicks rather than the strengths of the story and characters have led me to have little faith it will succeed as a film. Which is a different metric from success at the box office. Despite everything, I would be astonished if this did not cross the billion-dollar threshold, although surpassing $1.4 billion is a question I can’t predict the answer to.
In some plot speculation, I assume “Doomsday” will be similar to “Infinity War,” nearly three hours long with Doctor Doom as the central character and different combinations of heroes fighting to stop him, and end losing as Battleworld is created and the multiverse implodes, segueing into “Secret Wars” with Doom as God Emperor of the survivors. Beyond that, in an MCU post-Secret Wars, who knows? Maybe the long speculated Mutant Saga is next, as the X-Men have characters and stories for decades of films. Rumour also has it that the Russo brothers will stay on to oversee the overarching story going forward, but at this point, we do not know, and despite all the speculation, we will simply have to wait and see on December 18th, 2026, when “Doomsday” arrives.
