Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel Avengers: Secret Wars have gone through some big changes in the last year. The accusations and trial surrounding actor Jonathan Major had Marvel Studio and Disney drop from the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, where he played Kang the Conqueror, who was (along with his many variants) the archvillain of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. Marvel has spent the rest of 2024 trying to pivot from all the plans they had in place for Kang – including giving Majors his own film to headline (Avengers: The Kang Dynasty).
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To offset the loss of Kang, Marvel announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 that Robert Downey Jr. was returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom, and that Avengers: Doomsday would be paving over The Kang Dynasty. Now, it’s been announced that Chris Evans is will be appearing in Avengers: Doomsday as well, adding to the rumors that many of the original Avengers actors are being locked down to appear in the Multiverse Saga climax films.
In many ways, Avengers: Doomsday is starting to feel like every other major project in the Multiverse Saga: an “event film” built upon high-profile crossover and cameos from legacy characters and/or actors. However, Doomsday and Secret Wars both need to learn some valuable lessons from the stumbles of recent years if they actually want to bring the Multiverse Saga to a meaningful end and make the journey worth something.
Deadpool & Wolverine Did It Right
The problem with most of the MCU Multiverse Saga has been the fact that the major cameos and/or crossovers have mostly been superficial gimmicks, used to draw a wider audience of fans across different character franchises (like The Marvels) – or even different eras of character franchises (like Spider-Man: No Way Home). Fans have responded in kind, calling out Marvel Studios for peddling lower-grade content, and selling hollow, disconnected storylines as major “events.”
The exception has been Deadpool & Wolverine. Marvel Studios allowed Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy to do an entire meta-minded retrospective about the highs, lows, and failed hopes of the Fox-Marvel franchise of the 2000s, and the parallel path of Hugh Jackman’s career, and his role as Wolverine.
And it worked.
Beautifully. Deadpool & Wolverine earned $1.34 billion at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, and is (as of writing this) launching one of the more serious awards season campaigns for a Marvel movie – including Golden Globes and Oscars pushes for Jackman and Reynolds.
Marvel needs to learn from what Deadpool & Wolverine did. Yes, the film was jam-packed with cameos and callbacks to past films, comics, and everything in between. And yet, Deadpool & Wolverine was always working on another level, where it was actually addressing the legacy of Marvel movies and those who made that history, and making the audience – even all those who were critical of those films in their time – appreciate what they meant to superhero movie culture, and the genuine efforts (if not perfect results) of the casts and crews of those films.
Doomsday & Secret Wars Need Camoes With Deeper Meaning
Avengers: Doomsday will likely be an event film that sells itself if it chronicles how RDJ’s Doom was created in an alternate universe and decides to make a play for Multiversal supremacy. However, Avengers: Secret Wars has to be more than just the biggest collection of current and former Marvel movie actors ever (though that is definitely on the wish-list): it has to top that feeling of deep, heartfelt payoff for fans’ years of investment in the MCU Multiverse Saga, and all the crazy times we went through during it.
In short: Avengers: Secret Wars needs to be as smart and resonant (and even funny) with its cameos as Deadpool & Wolverine managed to be. If Chris Evans comes back, no matter who he’s playing there’s got to be some kind of commentary on how iconic he was as Cap, and what it means that he left the franchise. Scarlet Johannson’s appearance would need to address Black Widow’s divisive death; Elizabeth Olsen’s chaotic road to a fully realized Scarlet Witch; all the confusion in the Spider-Man franchise; the true ending of the former X-Men movie universe before the MCU reboot; the original Avengers reluctantly suiting back up – and yes, even how ego isn’t just Doom’s hubris… but maybe (just maybe!) RDJ’s as well?
Whoever appears in Secret Wars (in whatever role they play) has to mean something deeper than a shock cameo – it has to be a reflection of how much that person has helped the larger Marvel Movie brand (MCU and beyond) entertain and inspire fans for generations – not to mention the comics and creators who created the source material.
There’s Only One Way to Top That Avengers: Endgame Payoff
Like Doctor Strange’s prediction in Avengers: Infinity War, there’s only one way for Avengers: Secret Wars to best Endgame: When Captain America finally said “Avengers Assemble” in Endgame‘s climatic moment, and the Marvel heroes ran into battle against Thanos, it was the epic payoff of a sprawling narrative, many years and films in the making. When Secret Wars inevitably has that money shot of an entire Marvel Cinematic Multiverse getting ready to throw down – each franchise universe possibly locked in a final fight for survival – fans need to be rooting for each one of those franchises as beloved pieces of a legacy – and feel every loss as Kevin Feige and the returning Endgame team of directors Joe and Anthony Russo and writer Stephen McFeely whittle down the cast of surviving characters and/or universes to reveal which pieces get amalgamated into a rebooted Marvel Cinematic Universe.
No matter who wins, loses, lives, or dies, Secret Wars needs to leave Marvel fans with both an all-encompassing and indelible sense of Marvel movie nostalgia – as well as hope for the new form of the MCU they’ll get going forward. Doing both will be an achievement that definitely tops what Avengers: Endgame did – and helps Marvel Studios finally clean off the gameboard and establish the MCU as the sole Marvel TV/Movie brand (by that time).
Avengers: Doomsday has a release date of May 1, 2026; Avengers: Secret Wars has a release date of May 7, 2027.
