Avengers: Doomsday's latest Doctor Doom merchandise sets up a major MCU retcon that could benefit one forgotten Phase 4 movie. Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom is set to make his grand arrival in Doomsday on December 18, and marketing emphasized how powerful Doom is after easily withstanding Thor and his Stormbreaker in one pivotal moment in the trailer. While Victor von Doom has been at the forefront of Avengers: Doomsday's promotional wave, little is known about his origin story or exactly what makes him so formidable in the upcoming MCU crossover.
Marvel Studios and Iron Studios officially released a brand-new Doctor Doom 1/10th scale statue inspired by Avengers: Doomsday. The figure offers a stunning look at Robert Downey Jr.'s MCU villain holding an unnamed prop that could be crucial to his goal of reigning supreme over the Multiverse.
The statue depicts Doom seated on his runic throne, and the package includes three interchangeable arms. One of them shows a gripping hand holding a mysterious handheld device, described only in the official description as "an arm with the Key." This unnamed prop has sparked widespread online speculation about its importance, adding intrigue after the same statue featured a book that mirrors the Darkhold, which could rival Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet.
Some speculated that this "key" could be the Ultimate Nullifier from Marvel Comics, and the theory makes a lot of sense given its ties to the Multiverse.
In Marvel Comics, the Ultimate Nullifier (via Bleeding Cool) is one of the most dangerous weapons in existence, depicted as a small device created by a Watcher Emnu that can erase any target from reality. However, there's one catch: the user's mind must be strong enough to control it, or it erases them instead.
The Ultimate Nullifier was introduced in Fantastic Four #50, and it was the only object that ever made Galactus (the Destroyer of Worlds) back down. The Watcher Emnu created this device to stop the Prosilicans after they misused Watcher technology, which led to his accidentally wiping out nine-tenths of the universe.
While the Ultimate Nullifier's origin is tied to the Watcher, which is pure comic lore, the MCU has the golden opportunity to retcon its origin and make the Nullifier a technology of the Celestial or even linked to the Eternals. This strategy could instantly make Eternals, one of Marvel Studios' disappointments in the post-Avengers: Endgame era, something foundational rather than an afterthought.
The Celestials in the MCU already operate on a scale of creation and judgment that matches the Nullifier's power. It's possible that Doom's Nullifier is a form of residual Celestial tech, and he would've retrieved it in his own universe (possibly in Earth-828) or its Variant of Celestials. This would give Doom a weapon more closely tied to the MCU than to the comics.
Giving the Ultimate Nullifier a Celestial-centric origin would offer a chance for the MCU to "redeem" Eternals in the same way that Avengers: Endgame did with Thor: Dark World, a film that was regarded as one of the weaker MCU entries from Phase 1 of the Infinity Saga.
Avengers: Endgame's time-heist sequence returned to 2013 Asgard for the Reality Stone and gave Thor an emotional reunion with Frigga, which suddenly made the whole movie matter more than it ever had on its own. A Celestial-sourced Ultimate Nullifier in Avengers: Doomsday could do the same for Eternals, transforming its hidden history of Earth into an essential storytelling tool for the Multiverse Saga's own endgame.
Why Making Eternals Crucially Important to Avengers: Doomsday Should Be Marvel's Next Move
Banking on Eternals lore for a huge film like Avengers: Doomsday is perhaps one of the smartest moves Marvel Studios could make, given the vast lore surrounding the project and its many storytelling opportunities.
While a sequel to Eternals didn't see the light of day in the Multiverse Saga, a report from May 2026 claimed that the MCU's cosmic landscape will expand in the upcoming Mutant Saga, meaning that the Eternals and the characters associated with it could return at some point. Giving one of the important artifacts in Avengers: Doomsday its own ties to the Eternals would create significant continuity rather than a sudden reintroduction in the future.
This strategy would also reframe Eternals as a necessary setup rather than an isolated project, allowing fans to revisit the movie in the buildup to Avengers: Secret Wars. This move could allow Marvel Studios to include important Eternals heroes or Celestials in the Multiverse Saga capper, giving them a proper setup for their eventual return in the Mutant Saga.
Still, there may be risks in incorporating Eternals lore into an already crowded Avengers: Doomsday narrative, but one way to address this is to not overexplain Celestial lore and make it more understandable to viewers. In the end, Marvel Studios does not need to make Eternals the center of Doomsday. Instead, it needs to make the film's core ideas and ramifications matter.
