Marvel Is Officially Introducing A New Avengers Team To Fight Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom

Marvel is currently preparing for its next big crossover event since Avengers: Endgame, and it will have a new Avengers team facing Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom. Despite recent disappointments on the big screen, the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues its expansion both in film and TV. The MCU’s biggest movie to date has been Avengers: Endgame, which completely changed this connected universe, but it’s time for another massive event that brings all heroes together.

After Spider-Man’s return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the MCU will see another massive reunion of characters, though now from different parts of the multiverse, in Avengers: Doomsday. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Doomsday is set 14 months after the events of Thunderbolts*, and it will see various superheroes, including the original X-Men from another part of the multiverse, teaming up to stop Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom. Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled for a December 18, 2026, release.

Avengers: Doomsday has an extensive confirmed cast that includes some of the MCU’s Phase One heroes as well as more recent ones, with more expected to show up. Doomsday is bringing back original Avengers Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth), along with newer characters like the Fantastic Four and more, thus forming a never-before-seen Avengers team with a variety of powers and abilities to face a threat of Doctor Doom’s level.

Avengers: Doomsday Will Have A Mostly New Avengers Team

Credit: MovieStillsDB

Avengers: Doomsday is the first massive crossover event in the MCU since the multiverse was confirmed. The multiverse was teased in Doctor Strange, but wasn’t fully confirmed until Avengers: Endgame created new timelines, and it was later explored more deeply in the TV show Loki and the movie Spider-Man: No Way Home. The latter confirmed that Marvel’s Sony and Fox universes are part of the MCU, allowing it to include characters from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man.

Since then, the MCU has brought characters from those worlds into the MCU as well as other versions of the characters that have appealed to fans’ desires, most notably Henry Cavill’s Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine. Avengers: Doomsday will be no exception, and it’s finally bringing back Fox’s original X-Men lineup, including Ian McKellen’s Magneto, Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, and James Marsden’s Cyclops.

In addition to them and the above-mentioned original Avengers, the Doomsday team will also include the official New Avengers (who were initially known as Thunderbolts), Shuri’s Black Panther (Letitia Wright), the Fantastic Four, Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Sam Wilson’s Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Gambit (Channing Tatum), and M’Baku (Winston Duke). This is a lineup not seen before in the MCU, and powerful enough to face Doctor Doom and whichever allies he brings with him.

It’s worth noting that it’s still possible that other superheroes and allies will join the fight, such as Spider-Man, Hulk, characters from the MCU’s TV shows, and street-level heroes, so the Doomsday team could be even bigger and more powerful than it already is.

A New Avengers Team Has Been Teased Since Phase 2

Captain America and Thor in Avengers: Age of Ultron

The concept and lineup of the New Avengers in the MCU have been in constant change since Phase Two. At the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the MCU introduced a new Avengers lineup that, at the time, was referred to as the New Avengers, consisting of Black Widow, Sam Wilson, Vision, Wanda, and War Machine, with Steve Rogers’ Captain America as the leader. However, this team was only seen in action once, and they all went their separate ways after that.

Thunderbolts* surprised the audience by revealing at the end that this team is now the New Avengers, with them mentioning that Sam is fighting them for the name of the team. The original Avengers team has been over for years, and the entire MCU teamed up as one massive team in Endgame, but the MCU hasn’t had a proper Avengers team, regardless of its name, in years. It’s to be seen how Avengers: Doomsday changes the Avengers and New Avengers lineup, and which heroes will make it into the MCU’s next phase.