The directors of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday explained that the next gathering of Marvel’s superheroes will feel like a reset button for the (overly) sprawling universe.
Until now, the potential of an Avengers film was rarely, if ever, in doubt. From the first crossover in 2012 to the climactic Endgame, Marvel’s four superhero-team-ups have consistently outperformed at the box office: more than a billion dollars for the first two, and over two billion for the last two. And then came the Multiverse Saga, the pandemic, and Disney+ entering the equation. Since 2019, the extended universe has been nursing a hangover, and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday doesn’t necessarily promise to act as a cure.
The Infinity Saga is a distant memory and the MCU no longer has a clear North Star. The universe has scattered in every direction by flooding Disney+ with content and teasing characters the public will likely never see again (RIP Black Knight, the Eternals, Clea, Hercules…). Yet directors Joe and Anthony Russo have made a point of reassuring the audience that may have drifted away.
“Forgotten”
As a reminder, before scrambling Robert Downey Jr. back into the role of Doctor Doom (Doctor Doom in VO), the next Avengers was supposed to center on Kang the Conqueror, whose variant was introduced in the series Loki. The one who was billed as the new Thanos later appeared on screen in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where he was defeated by an army of giant ants, though the post-credits scene featured a gathering of different Kang variants and suggested a massive multiversal war on the horizon.
But the actor playing the villain, Jonathan Majors, was found guilty of domestic violence and was consequently dropped by Marvel. Plans had to change, even if Kevin Feige tried to make it sound like the shift wasn’t tied to the actor’s conviction nor the critical and commercial flop of Ant-Man 3. After all, bigger is better, in theory. The marketing push for the upcoming Avengers, now renamed Avengers: Doomsday, began after a few stumbles, and without necessarily thrilling fans.
But the post‑release push continues, this time with the Russo brothers, who promise that the film will reset everything after the missteps of recent years:
« I think you’ll see a lot of changes [with Doomsday]. So brace yourselves. We were with Robert [Downey Jr.] earlier in the day and talked about returning to zero. We’re starting from scratch. We want to make sure everyone feels that this film does not rely on any element of the past.»
That sounds like a full-on reset for a movie that brings back so many players — Shuri’s Black Panther, Sam Wilson’s Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the old X‑Men, and America Chavez — and presents it as something of a reboot for the universe… Unless we should expect a cosmically magical moment at the very end, one that wipes the slate clean with a snap, not to mention a slew of post‑credit scenes that may be moot.
The verdict arrives December 16 in theaters.
