San Diego Comic Con’s Marvel Studios panel certainly sent shockwaves running throughout the fandom.
Yes, Robert Downey Jr is set to return to the MCU but not as Tony Stark.
This time, the actor will don the mask of Victor von Doom, perhaps better known as big bad Doctor Doom.
Doctor Doom is set to cause a ruckus for the Avengers in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday which is scheduled to launch in May of 2026.
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This will be followed by Avengers: Secret Wars in May of 2027.
A masked Downey Jr took to the famous Hall H stage hidden behind a Doctor Doom mask before revealing his identity to a stunned crowd.
It’s a move that’s split the fandom.
People seem to think that it’s either a terrible idea and a desperate attempt at ‘saving’ the MCU or they like the idea of the person who saved the universe wanting to destroy it in another reality.
I fall into the latter camp. The films are in the safe hands of the Russo brothers who have only ever delivered with their MCU entries. Why should we not believe in them?
But what does this mean for Kang?
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Kang was originally supposed to be The Multiverse’s Saga big bad, just like Thanos was in The Infinity Saga.
The problem is that many of us found the character to be lacklustre.
Given that there are so many Kang variants, Marvel quickly introduced us to several of them in both Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
None of these variants were the all-powerful Kang The Conqueror we expected the Avengers to face off against in The Kang Dynasty, now titled Doomsday, but even still, the tease of something worse to come still didn’t quite feel like enough of a draw.
Of course, there’s also the allegations against actor Jonathan Majors to consider.
The question became: is Kang a character worth recasting?
Seemingly, Kevin Feige answered that with a resounding no. Doctor Doom will replace Kang as the Saga’s big bad.
Given that we’ve spent multiple films and TV series building the character’s variants up as a major threat though, we can’t now simply sweep Kang under the carpet.
We all saw that arena scene in Quantumania.
Well, insiders claim that the character’s storyline will be wrapped up in Doomsday.
To me, that sounds like Doctor Doom will rapidly put a stop to the character.
Could Doomsday open with Doom walking through the aforementioned arena, surrounded by fallen Kangs? It would be a startling introduction.
It’s a shame because Kang could’ve been a stellar villain but I fear Marvel totally fumbled this one. Let’s hope Doctor Doom is the menacing threat we’ve been craving.
Topics: Marvel, TV And Film, Disney