Marvel Studios' biggest film to date arrives on December 18, with Avengers: Doomsday promising to bring together a cast unlike anything the franchise has assembled before. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the film reunites Earth's Mightiest Heroes alongside the Fantastic Four, the original X-Men, the Wakandans, and a new generation of Avengers who will face a threat even more formidable than Thanos.
That threat is Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr., a big change from his decade-long run as Tony Stark. As exciting as Doomsday's villain is, and of course, we all want to see how RDJ approaches the role, there's an even more intriguing aspect of the film: the multiverse being torn apart at the seams. Incursions have been confirmed as a major part of the Avengers crossover, which carries severe implications. For those not too familiar with multiversal shenanigans, incursions are basically collisions between parallel universes in the Marvel Multiverse. These turn of events will, as expected, alter the lives of many beloved heroes, some more than others. By the time the film's events unfold, the Marvel timeline as we know it will be completely different.
Avengers: Doomsday Characters Whose Lives Will Be Altered
Steve Rogers
Steve Rogers spent decades as a man out of time. He lost his era fighting in World War II, spent 66 years frozen in the ice, and dedicated his reawakened life to protecting a world he barely recognized. At the end of Avengers: Endgame, he finally got to stop. He returned to the past, married Peggy Carter, and grew old in the quiet life the MCU had always denied him. That was supposed to be the end, but unfortunately for poor Steve, there's bigger drama coming his way.
The first teaser for Avengers: Doomsday revealed that Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers, now a father and cradling a newborn child in a farmhouse, his Captain America suit tucked away in a box. The Russo Brothers confirmed on Instagram that they could not imagine telling this story without him, describing Steve as "the character that changed our lives" and saying "it was always going to come back to this."
According to rumors, Steve's presence in his chosen timeline, Earth-828, causes an incursion. Because he was never meant to be there, his staying in the past reportedly triggered a fracture in the Sacred Timeline, one that Doctor Doom, who has studied multiversal incursions more deeply than any other character in the film, has traced back to Steve's doorstep.
It's also rumoured that the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom will locate Steve, probably because of the part he played in the incursion. Steve would then agree to return to Earth-616 to help gain the trust of the other heroes. But unlike the beautiful goodbye he had in Endgame, this version of Steve Rogers is leaving behind a child and a wife, which is a big change for him. There's a chance that he and the Fantastic Four initially work with Doom and are ultimately betrayed.
The Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four arrived in The Fantastic Four: First Steps as the first family of a different Earth entirely. Their universe, Earth-828, is an alternate 1960s-era world where science advanced faster; they're the universe's primary heroes, and Reed Richards was already the most brilliant mind alive. That film ended with the team surviving Galactus's attack, and all was well until its mid-credits scene dropped its heaviest reveal. The scene shows a cloaked figure bending over infant Franklin Richards, removing his mask just as the baby reached up to touch his face. A figure who happened to be Doctor Doom, and he has a keen interest in Franklin.
By the end of Thunderbolts, the Fantastic Four's ship was shown entering Earth-616's atmosphere, a tease of a full crossing into the main MCU, and Doomsday will show what comes next. Franklin Richards is a big part of the conflict because he was born with reality-warping abilities so powerful that Galactus originally came to Earth-828 specifically because of Franklin's cosmic energy signature. He is the most dangerous infant in the multiverse, and Doom wants his hands on that sweet power.
This doesn't come as much of a surprise, given Doom's history in Marvel Comics. In the Secret Wars storyline, for example, he used a reality-warping conduit called the Molecule Man to seize power from the Beyonders and reshape what remained of the multiverse into his own personal domain, Battleworld, naming himself God Emperor. Franklin Richards's powers map almost perfectly onto that role, making him the MCU's most likely candidate to serve as Doom's conduit if the villain's ambitions follow a similar arc.
The fourth Doomsday teaser confirmed the Fantastic Four's presence on Earth-616, showing Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Ben Grimm meeting Winston Duke's M'Baku and the Wakandans. The Fantastic Four have already arrived in 616 and are already making allies. They're in a universe completely different from theirs, preparing to fight their worst enemy, who is targeting their child. It's hard to think of a life-altering change bigger than this.
Professor X and Magneto
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen first shared the screen as Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr in 2000's X-Men, and their dynamic defined the franchise for more than a decade. The third Doomsday teaser confirmed their return, and the drama is immense. The footage opened on a ravaged Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the mansion's courtyard in ruins, before cutting to Xavier and Magneto sitting together, reaching out to hold each other's hands as Magneto delivers a monologue about death in the background.
His words hit even harder when that scene follows with James Marsden's Cyclops, face caked in mud and blood, tearing off his visor and unleashing a full-force optic blast while a Sentinel behind him. It's safe to assume that Doctor Doom is likely behind the destruction and intends to use Sentinels as a secret weapon against the X-Men in Doomsday.
For the first time in cinema history, the X-Men will share the screen with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. However, from the looks of the teaser, this unprecedented team-up won't be for the fun of it and will put the X-Men, especially, to the test. Doctor Doom's reach has already extended to their reality, and they're going to need all the help they can get if mutant-kind is to survive.
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.
