The MCU confirmed it will introduce its next evil genius supervillain in its biggest 2026 blockbuster, Avengers: Doomsday. Across the last 37 movies and over a dozen Disney+ shows, Marvel Studios has delivered a wide variety of villains, from planet-conquering supervillains to extremist activists to geniuses who have used their gifts to inflict chaos, cause harm, and go toe-to-toe with MCU superheroes.
Avengers: Doomsday recently received an official new synopsis that declared Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom to be an "evil scientist." In turn, Doom will become Marvel Studios' 16th central evil genius foe in its 18-year history.
Those familiar with Victor von Doom's game will be more than aware that his scientific genius comes close to Reed Richards, but that isn't the end of his talents. Doctor Doom is also one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Marvel universe, and he is expected to bring both skill sets to the MCU in Avengers 5.
Recent leaks confirmed that Doom's agenda may not be entirely evil, as it was one of his better-natured experiments going wrong that sparked his downfall.
After the Incursions began to threaten his universe (The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Earth-828), Doom reportedly began experimenting to fix it, until things literally blew up in his face, scarring him and killing his family. That tragedy may also be behind his feud with the MCU's Steve Rogers in Doomsday.
Every Other Evil Scientist Villain In the MCU So Far
Justin Hammer
Justin Hammer, military contractor and former Hammer Industries CEO, is, in many ways, the anti-Tony Stark, offering a dark mirror of his life had he not turned his life around to become the Armored Avenger. Hammer has mostly been absent in the MCU since RDJ's Iron Man thwarted his jealousy-driven endeavor to create deadly armored drones for the military, but Sam Rockwell seems eager to reprise his role.
Whiplash
Mickey Rourke's Ivan Vanko, better known as Whiplash, was a Russian physicist who sought revenge against the Stark family in Iron Man 2, as Tony's father, Howard, was indirectly responsible for his disgraced scientist father's death. Due to his father's role in creating the Arc Reactor, he was able to power his own Whiplash armor with the same tech, taking on Iron Man with electrified whips.
Armin Zola
Toby Jones' Armin Zola, a Swiss scientist, is up there with the MCU's most evil, as his resume only begins with studying the Tesseract and making advanced weapons for Red Skull and the Nazis. He went on to play a key role in rebuilding Hydra inside SHIELD, turning Bucky Barnes (whose MCU tenure may be ending soon) into the Winter Soldier, and creating Project Insight.
Aldrich Killian
Iron Man 3 villain Aldrich Killian (played by Guy Pearce) was left jaded when Tony Stark refused to join his research, leading him to found Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) and work with Maya Hansen to create volatile Extremis-enhanced soldiers. That said, Killian masked his illegal antics under the guise of the Ten Rings and the Mandarin, impostered by Trevor Slattery, whose MCU storyline continued this year.
Darren Cross
Ant-Man brought in yet another evil scientist with Corey Stoll's Darren Cross, the protoge of Hank Pym, who aimed to load his legendary Pym Particles into Yellow Jacket suits and sell them off to the military. After Paul Rudd's Scott Lang sent Cross packing into the Quantum Realm, he returned years later as Kang's strange-looking accomplice MODOK in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
The Tinkerer
Spider-Man: Homecoming brought a host of the web-slinger's villains into the mix for his MCU debut, masterminded by Michael Keaton's Vulture, but technologically led by the Tinkerer. Phineas T. Mason's current whereabouts in the MCU are unknown after the former salvager put his gift for engineering to evil use in adapting stolen Chitauri technology to create and sell powerful weapons.
Mysterio
Having entered Spider-Man: Far From Home as a supposed superhero from another dimension looking to save Earth-616 from powerful Elementals, Jake Gyllenhaal's Quentin Beck turned out to be nothing more than a disgruntled Stark employee using deceptive drone tech. The Infinity Saga-capping villain left a lasting impact on Peter Parker's life after exposing his secret identity to the world.
Norman Osborn
Spider-Man: No Way Home brought five Marvel Legacy foes (four of whom are evil scientists) across the Multiverse thanks to Doctor Strange's spell-gone-wrong. The chief of the group was Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, the founder of Oscorp, who went mad after taking a Super Soldier Serum, leading to a manic rampage culminating in his murdering Marisa Tomei's Aunt May.
Doc Ock
Alfred Molina's Doc Ock was a genius scientist in Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man 2 who built four mechanical extra arms and aimed to create "everlasting energy." Otto Octavius' descent into villainy was not the result of bad intentions, but rather his malfunctioning mechanical arms that seized control of his mind and led to his death in Spider-Man 2, although he was seemingly saved after No Way Home.
Curt Conners
Rhys Ifans' Curt Conners was the first to antagonize Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man, with the desperate Oscorp genius hoping to recover his missing arm with cross-species genetics, which ultimately turned him into the Lizard. Alike other past web-slinger villains, he boarded the MCU, albeit with a minor role, in No Way Home, where he was cured and returned home.
Electro
Completing No Way Home's roster of evil geniuses (that were joined by Sandman) is Jamie Foxx's Electro, an Oscorp engineer who fell into a batch of electric eels in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and gained the powers to manipulate such energy. That led him to clash with his hero, Spider-Man, and eventually land on Earth-616, where he was cured and sent home with his fellow reformed supervillains.
Kang the Conqueror
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania's Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, is one of the most villainous scientists to enter the MCU, and many of his Kang Variants are still out there. The 31st Century genius discovered the Multiverse and joined a council of his Variants, only to be exiled to the Quantum Realm after sparking a Multiversal War in his efforts to conquer other worlds.
High Evolutionary
There isn't much as evil in the realm of science as animal experimentation and mutation, placing Chukwudi Iwuji's High Evolutionary from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as one of the most villainous foes in the MCU. The OrgoCorp founder sought to develop the perfect lifeform and house his creations on Counter-Earth, with Bradley Cooper's Rocket being one of his earlier experiments.
The Leader
Tim Blake Nelson's Samuel Sterns was introduced in Phase 1 as an ally to Bruce Banner, going by Mr. Blue, who aimed to find a cure for his gamma-infused anger problem. It took 17 years to resolve The Incredible Hulk's cliffhanger that teased Sterns' transformation into the Leader, executing a plan in Brave New World to incite a global conflict and destroy Harrison Ford's President Ross.
Mole Man
Fans only spent a few minutes with Paul Walter Hauser's Mole Man in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, during which he teamed up with Marvel's First Family to offer New York citizens refuge underground in Subterranea. That said, before First Steps' events, Harvey Elder's actions were more villainous, stealing the Pan Am Building and forming a heated rivalry with Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards.
