Avengers: Doomsday, the thirty-ninth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will open in theaters on December 18, 2026. It is hotly anticipated and heavily rumored—once typical for an MCU film. But seven years after Avengers: Endgame closed the Infinity Saga and began the Multiverse Saga, the MCU has struggled to maintain its cultural cachet. The market is saturated and what was once event filmmaking has felt formulaic and tedious.
Marvel movies cost upwards of a quarter-million dollars and need to earn twice that amount to break even. It's a high-risk strategy that only the Disney corporation would have the largesse to sustain, and it yields a narrow profit margin if the film is anything less than a smash.
This is why Avengers: Doomsday has so much riding on it. The filmmakers are pulling out all the stops to attract lapsed fans, who stopped watching MCU movies after Thanos' defeat. Will the casuals return to the theater? And more importantly, will they stick around for the next installment? The success of this movie determines the success of the next decade and whatever saga follows.
Here is everything we know about Avengers: Doomsday, so far.
The Original Idea
In 2022, Marvel announced Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. This was to be the first of two Avengers movies that would conclude the Multiverse Saga, which began in Phase 4.
But then, Jonathan Majors, who was to play the main villain Kang the Conqueror, got himself into a mountain of legal troubles. Majors was eventually convicted of misdemeanor assault and harassment, and he had to complete a domestic violence intervention program in lieu of jail time.
Disney had already introduced Kang in the MCU—most notably as He Who Remains in the TV show Loki and as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But Quantumania received a lukewarm reception, and Disney used Majors' legal troubles as a pivot point to change course.
Disney fired Majors from the franchise. And instead of finding another actor to play Kang, Disney changed the entire movie. It was no longer Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. It was now Avengers: Doomsday. Robert Downey, Jr., who played Tony Stark/Iron Man in the first three Phases, would play Viktor von Doom.
Was it a bit of stunt casting just to give the movie a jolt of nostalgia? Or is Doom a Tony Stark variant from another multiverse, which will figure into the plot? We'll find out by the end of the year.
The Current Directors
Anthony and Joe Russo, the brothers who directed Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, will be directing Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars.
They replace director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), who left the Kang Dynasty project in 2023 to work on other Marvel films, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Shang-Chi 2.
The Current Screenplay
Michael Waldron and Stephen McFeely wrote the screenplay. Both men are experienced, successful screenwriters. Waldron was a screenwriter for Season 4 of Rick and Morty and wrote Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. McFeely co-wrote the first three Captain America films, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
They replace Jeff Loveness, who wrote Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He also left the Kang Dynasty project in 2023.
The Current Composer
Alan Silvestri is composing the film's score. He also composed for The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. He is responsible for the famous "Avengers Assemble" theme that recurs in numerous MCU films.
Legacy Characters (Introduced in MCU Phases One through Three)
Note that these characters have all been officially confirmed to be returning for Doomsday by Marvel. There are numerous other characters rumored.
Steve Rogers / Captain America (Chris Evans), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Winter Soldier / Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Falcon / Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Black Panther / Shuri (Letitia Wright), and M’Baku (Winston Duke).
Multiverse Saga Characters (Introduced in MCU Phases Four through Six)
Note that these characters have been officially confirmed for Doomsday by Marvel. There are numerous other characters rumored.
Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Yelena Belova / Black Widow (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker / U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Falcon / Joaquín Torres (Danny Ramirez), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), Sentry (Lewis Pullman), Gambit (Channing Tatum), Sue Storm / Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Ben Grimm / The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Johnny Storm / Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), and Victor Von Doom / Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.).
Third-Party Characters (Introduced in 20th Century Fox X-Men)
Note that these characters have been officially confirmed by Marvel. There are numerous other characters who have been rumored
Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Beast (Kelsey Grammer), , Cyclops (James Marsden), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), and Magneto (Ian McKellen).
The Rumored Plot
On the sub-Reddit r/MarvelStudioSpoilers, Cryptic4KQual is one of the most trusted leakers; according to the community, he has a current accuracy of 91.2% out of 108 Marvel-related leaks.
He claimed in a recent tweet that the plot (which he described as amazing) is "J. Hickman's New Avengers/Secret Wars Run with the MCU's mainline story weaved in." He's referring to the 2014-2015 comic storyline "Time Runs Out," which deals with multiverse incursions and the ethics of destroying one reality in order to save another. This later leads into the 2015-2016 comic storyline Secret Wars, in which Doom merges multiple realities into one planet called Battleworld.
There are additional plot spoilers (including character deaths, surprise cameos, and descriptions of entire action setpieces) floating around on X and Reddit. Look for them at your own risk.
The First Trailer
As of March 2026, there are four official teaser trailers for Avengers: Doomsday.
The first trailer revealed Steve Rogers with a baby. Rumors indicate that his decision in Endgame—to stay in the past with Peggy—may have helped to destabilize the Multiverse.
The Second Trailer
The second trailer features Thor, praying to his father for protection and victory in battle. We see scene clips of him with his daughter, Love, who first debuted in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Fans praised this trailer for highlighting Thor's more serious side, which has been in short supply for the past two Thor solo movies.
The Third Trailer
The third trailer features the 20th Century Fox X-Men, re-canonized as belonging to Earth-10005. We see an aged Magneto and Xavier in a broken-down X-Mansion. We also see Cyclops, in a comic book-accurate costume, firing a fully-powered Optic Blast
Many fan theories interpret this trailer as evidence of an incursion, which is currently destroying Earth-10005. Perhaps this will eventually force the X-Men into Earth-616.
The Fourth Trailer
The fourth trailer features the Fantastic Four meeting up with the Wakandans, including Shuri and M'Baku. We also see Namor with the rest of the Talokan kingdom.
We can assume that this is a follow-through from the Thunderbolts mid-credits sequence, in which the Fantastic 4's ship came through a dimensional portal to Earth-616—presumably from the Earth-828 multiverse we saw in Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Trailer Clues
The Russo Brothers posted on Instagram that the four teasers contain "clues," and to "pay attention." The leading theory is that the numbers and letters that pop up at the end of each trailer correspond to key timestamps in Avengers: Endgame. The first timestamp, for example, corresponds to the scene in which The Ancient One warns Hulk about the dangers of time travel, which might suggest that Avengers: Doomsday addresses the consequences of Endgame's time-travel shenanigans.
Release Date
Avengers: Doomsday will open on December 18, 2026. Its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, will open on December 17, 2027, and bring the Multiverse Saga to a close.