Doctor Strange’s Avengers: Doomsday Chances Just Got More Likely

Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange has one of the messiest roads to Avengers: Doomsday of any MCU hero. The Sorcerer Supreme was left off Marvel's March 2025 cast reveal entirely, a 27-name livestream that rolled out one director's chair after another, confirming everyone from Chris Hemsworth's Thor to the returning Fox-era X-Men. Strange's chair never appeared, to the dismay of fans. Cumberbatch then muddied the waters himself, telling Variety in January last year that the character simply wasn't "aligning with this part of the story" before walking that back later at Sundance, stating, "I got that wrong, I am in the next one."

The drama just got more interesting. A piece of Easter artwork posted by Robert Downey Jr. on his personal Instagram is adding more fuel to those Doctor Strange Doomsday rumors. The comic-style image shows Doctor Doom looming over a wicker basket filled with painted eggs, each carrying the logo of a different Marvel hero or team. Tucked toward the back of the basket, behind eggs representing confirmed Doomsday heroes, sits one marked with what looks like the circular window of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. 

The Sanctum window is one of the most recognizable symbols in the MCU. Its geometric, web-like pattern features prominently in the New York Sanctum throughout Strange's solo films and served as a key visual in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The egg in the artwork follows that design so clearly that MCU fans flagged it almost immediately after Downey posted the image. Another Doomsday-related photo had previously hinted at Strange's return with a similar window and other intriguing details worth checking out. 

The rest of the basket is full of references to the film's confirmed roster. Captain America's shield, the X-Men insignia, amongst many others, feature in the image. But while those match the roster of confirmed and widely expected Doomsday participants, the Strange egg stands apart because of the drama surrounding his involvement and what his presence means for the films.

Does Doctor Strange Belong in the Avengers: Doomsday Roster?

Strange's absence from the official Doomsday cast announcement was always difficult to explain. The end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness left him walking into an Incursion alongside Charlize Theron's Clea, the very type of multiversal catastrophe that Doomsday is built around. His connection to the problem is quite clear to see, so removing Strange from that story seemed like a strange choice (no pun intended). 

In the 2015 Jonathan Hickman Secret Wars comics, from which Avengers: Doomsday draws heavily, Strange played a critical role serving Doctor Doom on the resulting Battleworld. Whether the MCU version follows that arc directly or carves its own path, it's only fair that Strange features in some capacity. 

However, it also makes sense for Marvel to save him for Secret Wars alongside Spider-Man and a few other missing characters. Strange could feature at the saga's climax, serving as a secret weapon for the heroes when the chips are down. If that's the direction the film wants to take, it's also logical that Strange appears in Doomsday in a smaller capacity and builds towards a larger role in Secret Wars. 

Rumor has it, Avengers: Doomsday will actually deliver on the multiversal storytelling that Multiverse of Madness promised but failed to deliver. If that’s true, Doctor Strange is a must-have for the Doomsday roster.