Avengers: Doomsday is uniting five hero teams to battle Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom and his forces, which include three powerful Latverian witches. The hero roster consists of the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers, New Avengers, and Wakandans. Not only do these warriors come from different backgrounds and cultures, but at least two of the teams hail from entirely different universes. Five powerful teams, largely strangers to each other, will need a man with a strong personality to band them together and save the multiverse from the Latverian monarch who threatens the very fabric of their existence. Marvel Studios has revealed the man for the job, and he's a fantastic choice.
According to From Endgame to Doomsday: A Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary: Avengers, Allies, and Foes, Sam Wilson will lead all five Doomsday hero teams. The book, which serves as a visual guide for fans ahead of Doomsday, includes a character description for Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, noting that the new Captain America was "tasked with assembling a new team of Avengers" shortly after taking on the mantle. But his mission goes beyond that, as he will be "leading the most disparate group of heroes he's ever encountered":
"It wasn't long after assuming the mantle of Captain America that Sam Wilson was tasked with assembling a new team of Avengers. Now, with not only his Earth but two others in peril, he must put his sharply-honed diplomacy to work in leading the most disparate group of heroes he's ever encountered. Uniting old partners and new allies takes confidence, empathy, and a good plan-all of which Sam knows he needs to employ if they are to survive the greatest danger Earth has faced yet."
Sam Wilson has only led one movie as Captain America, last year's Captain America: Brave New World, and he's already been handed the extremely difficult job of leading the largest ensemble of heroes in Marvel Studios history in only his second film as Cap.
Even Steve Rogers was not burdened with this much pressure so early in the role. Still, Sam has plenty of experience, having spent years as Steve's sidekick, Falcon. He's one of the most seasoned heroes on the Avengers team and should be fine in his new position. Nonetheless, this will be the biggest challenge of Sam Wilson's career.
Does Avengers: Doomsday's Five-Team Alliance Stand a Chance Against Doom Under Sam Wilson's Leadership?
Doctor Doom is primed to be a bigger threat than Thanos and Galactus, two of the MCU's deadliest villains ever put on screen. The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and three other hero teams working together, with Sam Wilson in charge, sound like the ultimate defense, but will that be enough? Doom's power is unfathomable, and his plans against the heroes are more sinister than fans even imagined.
In the Avengers: Endgame rerelease, Avengers: Endgame Encore, Doctor Doom came for Bruce Banner, one of the Avengers' strongest members. The mid-credits scene picks up after Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with Bruce isolated in a bunker two miles underground, working on a gamma-suppression serum after Jean Grey's mind control forced him to Hulk out. Doom breaks in and tells him, "I'm here to collect you," snatching him away.
It is likely that Doom will not stop at just Bruce Banner, with other powerful characters like Loki potentially in danger. The three masked Latverian witches working alongside him are also suspected to be among the most powerful in the MCU.
The visual dictionary also revealed that Doom possesses a Book of Spells whose "secrets provide him with immense power," an artifact fans have likened to his own version of the Darkhold, the powerful book of magic Wanda Maximoff used to wreak chaos across the multiverse in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. A good number of Sam's forces barely fare well against magic at all, let alone sorcery on Doom's scale.
Almost the entire New Avengers team can be wiped out at the hands of magic. The Avengers roster itself is just as vulnerable, as shown in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where a budding Wanda tore through the team on her own and even turned the Hulk against them, leading to the famous Hulkbuster fight with Iron Man. It also seems Doctor Strange won't be in Doomsday, which is a serious problem, since he is Earth-616's most powerful magician and arguably their only chance at countering sorcery on this scale.
It's no surprise that Thor mentions in the trailer that they're going to need "a miracle." Things don't look too great for Sam in his first outing leading the Avengers against their biggest threat since Thanos. Chances are the heroes lose in Doomsday and regroup for Secret Wars, where other powerful allies like Spider-Man and Doctor Strange might join the fight. That is, if Strange doesn't end up working with Doom, as rumors suggest.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
