2025's Fantastic Four ending may have spoiled Doctor Doom's secret plan in Avengers: Doomsday. Robert Downey Jr.'s Doomsday big bad finally made his on-screen debut to close Matt Shakman's Fantastic Four movie, appearing in the film's post-credits scene. This after-action stinger saw Downey's Doom looming over the young Franklin Richards, seemingly indicating the villain would kidnap the young ultra-powerful hero.
Recent rumors suggested as such. In mid-August, it was reported that Doomsday would be centered on Doom stealing Franklin away and using him to power his plan to "put a stop" to rogue incursions around the Marvel Multiverse.
It is unclear what exactly this means for the super-powered sequel, but whatever it does, Doom sees himself as the hero of this story. Franklin is seemingly key to whatever he has planned for the MCU's ever-branching timelines.
Avengers: Doomsday will see Earth's Mightiest Heroes contend with a threat unlike any before, as the villainous Doctor Doom tries to lay the hammer down from across the Multiverse. The superhero team will traverse multiple realities, coming across other groups similar to theirs, like the Fantastic Four (as seen in Fantastic Four: First Steps) and the classic Fox X-Men characters.
Doomsday is due out in theaters on December 18, 2026. Directed by the Russo Brothers, the upcoming Avengers film will be led by Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, and Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova will also be ready to do battle with the classic comic book villain.
How Does Franklin Richards Factor Into Doctor Doom's Avengers: Doomsday Plan?
Doctor Doom sees his mission in Avengers: Doomsday as a truly altruistic cause. According to all reports, his aim is to restore the balance of the Multiverse by eliminating incursions in which two universes collide, leaving one destroyed.
Despite his self-description as a hero, it is easy to see how this plan from Downey's Doom would make him the antagonist of an Avengers story. With each branch in the timeline clipped, Doom would be killing billions of life forms that never got a chance.
To do this, he seemingly needs the help of one Franklin Richards, at least that's what the Fantastic Four: First Steps ending leads one to believe.
Doom kidnapping Franklin also provides a reason for the 2025 Fantastic Four movie team to get in on the action, as the powered-up pickney's disappearance would send his parents on a tear to find their lost child.
But why exactly does Doom need Franklin specifically? And what are his plans?
In the comics, Franklin Richards is one of the most powerful beings in the entire Marvel canon. He grows up to become the superhero Powerhouse, whose power set allows him to manipulate the very fabric of reality and create new dimensions at will.
It seems that the MCU version of the young hero sports many of the same powers. He is one of the few characters with the ability to traverse and fashion the Multiverse in any way he feels fit.
That is why he is so valuable to someone like Doctor Doom. If these rumors hold up and Doom is ultimately on a mission to snuff out any incursions across the Multiverse, then someone like Franklin becomes an immensely valuable resource to the masked villain.
Perhaps Doom will use Franklin as his own form of Multiversal travel, taking advantage of the character's Multiverse-bending powers to hop from reality to reality. This would allow the Doomsday villain to easily travel between universes, pruning what he needs to as he goes (like a revenge-driven TVA).
Or maybe this jumping from Earth to Earth could potentially see the character travelling to specific points where (or slightly before) an incursion occurs, doing what he can to stop these two planes of reality from breaching containment.
This would justify the character's self-described heroic title, as he sees his work as saving these seemingly 'doomed' alternate Earths. However, as teased in Doomsday's recently released synopsis, his meddling with these incursions will likely "unleash a cascading crisis across the entire Multiverse."
Doom may also use Franklin's powers as a way to amass followers as well. While every other Avengers villain to this point has only had access to the allies contained in the universe they currently occupy. Doom, however, has the benefit of Multiversal travel now with the young Richards kid at his side.
That could mean he uses the child to traipse across multiple realities, finding notable variants to join his cause of Multiversal liberation.
With rumors of evil versions of several notable MCU characters/actors appearing in the film (similar to Robert Downey Jr. coming back as Doom), this could be how these broken bad Marvel Studios mainstays make their way into the film.
Perhaps he takes this team, preventing incursion after incursion and continually being framed as the hero as he "makes the Marvel multiverse great again," only for it all to fall apart in the end with all of reality unraveling heading into the ensuing Avengers: Secret Wars (which comes to theaters on December 17, 2027).
And it all traces back to this summer's Fantastic Four ending, as Doom enacted his plan to steal away Sue Storm and Reed Richards' toddler.
