Warning: this article contains spoilers for the most recent MCU projects, including Captain America: Brave New World, Daredevil: Born Again, and Thunderbolts/The New Avengers.
With the release of Thunderbolts - or should we say, The New Avengers - the Marvel Cinematic Universe is at a critical point. The upcoming Ironheart series officially caps off Phase 5 of the MCU, while The Fantastic Four: First Steps kicks off Phase 6. We’re now entering the climax of the Multiverse Saga, with all eyes looking ahead to 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and the debut of Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom.
With that in mind, and with the release dates of both Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars recently being pushed by about a half year each, it’s a good time to take a step back and examine just where the MCU is at right now. Who are the key players and teams in the Multiverse Saga? Why are there apparently two Avengers teams, and who’s on each one? Why has Tom Hiddleston’s Loki become the most important character in the Marvel multiverse? Why has the MCU pivoted from Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror to Downey’s Doom? Here’s everything you need to know heading into Phase 6.
The Avengers vs. The New Avengers
Avengers: Endgame ended with Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers passing the torch (or the shield, rather) to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson. Steve made it clear that he views Sam as the rightful heir to the Captain America mantle and the man best suited to lead the Avengers.
In practice, though, it’s been an uphill battle for Sam in getting to a place where he’s willing to shoulder that massive responsibility. 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showed Sam’s struggle to embrace his new identity as Captain America. 2025’s Captain America: Brave New World did the same for Sam’s role as Avengers team leader. Only now, in the aftermath of Brave New World, is Sam actively working to reassemble Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Exactly which heroes made the cut is still to be revealed, with only Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres (the new Falcon) confirmed to be joining. But based on the cast member chairs featured in Marvel’s bizarre teaser video, we can make some assumptions. We’re expecting Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, and Letitia Wright’s Black Panther to assemble, as they’ve all been featured prominently in the Multiverse Saga so far.
The problem for Sam is that he has some competition now: There’s another Avengers team out there. 2025’s Thunderbolts brings together a team that includes Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent, and Lewis Pullman’s Sentry. The film ends with this ragtag team confronting their self-serving handler, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (who’s really become the shadowy Nick Fury figure of the post-Endgame MCU), only to stumble into a press conference introducing them as “The New Avengers.” That’s why Marvel changed (or at least updated) the movie’s name from Thunderbolts* to The New Avengers only days after its release.
The post-credits scene in The New Avengers reveals that there’s some major tension between the two teams. Set 14 months after the New Avengers made their public debut, this scene reveals that Sam is suing the team for trademark infringement. We can probably expect Sam’s Avengers to butt heads with the New Avengers in Avengers: Doomsday. Which, while sure to be entertaining, can only mean bad things for the world at large. 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War already established how badly things can go wrong when the Avengers aren’t united. And there’s definitely a huge threat looming over their heads once more.
The State of the Marvel Multiverse
As the name suggests, the Multiverse Saga has been dedicated to introducing MCU viewers to the larger Marvel multiverse. Films like 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine have all dealt with the idea that there are other universes, each with their own heroes and villains.
No MCU project has been more integral to establishing the nature and scope of the multiverse than the Loki series. Loki follows the version of Tom Hiddleston’s character introduced in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame - the Loki from 2012 who escapes with the Tesseract. As the series reveals, Loki is summarily arrested by the Time Variance Authority, a police force who guard against abuses to what they dub “The Scared Timeline.” Despite himself, Loki winds up joining the TVA and contributing to their mission.
However, what Loki and his variant, Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie, eventually discover is that the TVA is controlled by a being called He Who Remains, a variant of Kang the Conqueror. Following a devastating war between Kang’s many variants, He Who Remains created the TVA to suppress alternate timelines and prevent his other selves from coming into existence. Only after Sylvie kills He Who Remains does the Marvel multiverse flood back into existence.
Loki Season 2 deals with the continued fallout of that act, as it becomes clear He Who Remains sabotaged the multiverse so that Loki would have no choice but to undo his death. But instead, Loki himself becomes the savior of the multiverse. He now sits on a throne at the center of all reality, literally holding the strands of the multiverse in his hands and observing everything. A buit ironic, considering how he always coveted his father’s throne. It’s a crowning act of heroism that cements Loki’s status as the best character in the MCU.
What Are Incursions and Anchor Beings?
Unfortunately, though Loki saved existence, the multiverse is still in dire shape. A phenomenon known as Incursions is currently rippling across universes. Incursions occur when breaches form between worlds and two universes begin to collide. If the Incursions aren’t stopped, both universes risk being annihilated. Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau narrowly prevented one such Incursion from destroying the MCU (Earth-616) and what appears to be Fox’s X-Men universe (Earth-10005), leaving her stranded in the latter universe. But Incursions are happening more and more frequently, meaning it’s only a matter of time before Earth-616 is threatened once again.
The Multiverse Saga has also introduced the concept of Anchor Beings. As revealed in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, an Anchor Being is a person whose very existence determines the health of a universe. When an Anchor Being dies, their universe eventually withers and collapses. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is the Anchor Being of Earth-10005, which creates a problem when he dies in 2017’s Logan. Of course, this doesn’t really make sense given that Logan never really felt like it was taking place in the Fox X-Men universe, but then again, this universe’s continuity has never made sense. In any case, thanks to Deadpool, Earth-10005 now has a new Wolverine variant calling it home, thereby restoring the natural order of things.
The question is who serves as the Anchor Being of the MCU. Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark would be the obvious choice, but does his death mean the MCU is also doomed? Could that have something to do with the Incursion problem and the worsening state of the multiverse? We’ll find out.
Marvel’s New Young Heroes
If there’s been any one mission in Phases 4 and 5 of the MCU apart from fleshing out the multiverse, it’s introducing a new generation of heroes to replace the Avengers of old. It’s worth taking a look at the key players and what they’re up to leading into Avengers: Doomsday.
2022’s Ms. Marvel series introduced Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan, a Captain Marvel fangirl whose mystical bangle unlocks incredible super-powers. Kamala is also revealed to be a mutant in the final episode, making her one of the MCU’s first mutant characters alongside Tenoch Huerta Mejía’s Namor and the version of Wolverine teased in the She-Hulk series (a news ticker makes mention of a clawed man instigating a bar brawl). These days, Kamala seems to be on a recruiting drive, reaching out to other like-minded teen heroes to form a team, meaning the MCU could very well introduce the Young Avengers soon.
Kamala’s first recruit is Hailee Steinfeld’s Hawkeye, who has inherited the mantle from Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton. We see Kamala recruit Kate in the post-credits scene to 2023’s The Marvels.
Marvel has introduced other key members of the Young Avengers from the comics over the course of the Multiverse Saga so far. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier not only introduced the aged super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) but also his grandson Eli (Elijah Richardson). Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) officially became the superhero Stature in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. We’ve seen various versions of Kang the Conqueror already, meaning it wouldn’t be difficult for the MCU to introduce Iron Lad, a young version of Kang who rebels against his older self. (Because of his younger age, this would also mean the character could be recast, leaving any Jonathan Majors baggage behind.)
And then there are the sons of Vision and Scarlet Witch. We first met these characters as children in 2021’s WandaVision series, as Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff conjured them into being to complete her idyllic nuclear family. Even though the twins were wiped from existence along with the rest of Wanda’s sitcom-inspired fake reality, their souls have since been reincarnated in new bodies. Billy (Joe Locke) played a major role in 2024’s Agatha All Along, where we saw just how powerful this budding magician is growing, and speedster Tommy was also teased in that series.
At this point, we may very well see the Young Avengers come together for the first time in Avengers: Doomsday. And even if not, it seems only a matter of time before Marvel greenlights an actual Young Avengers movie or series.
It’s also worth pointing out that we’re seeing another, entirely separate batch of young heroes start to emerge in the Multiverse Saga. We like to refer to this group as the Next Avengers, as, like in the 2008 animated film, these characters are mainly descendants of iconic MCU heroes. So far, we’ve met Tony Stark’s daughter Morgan, T’Challa’s son Toussaint, Thor’s daughter Love, Bruce Banner’s son Skaar, and the orphaned Phyla-Vell, who’s effectively been adopted by Dave Bautista’s Drax. These characters are mostly a little young to be forming their own super-team just yet, but we suspect Marvel is arranging the pieces for a big payoff further down the line.
Where Are the Classic Avengers?
Marvel has been busy establishing a new generation of heroes in the MCU, but what about the old one? Where are all the classic Avengers? Will any of these characters return for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars? Let’s break down all the big names and recap what they’ve been up to lately.
Iron Man
Of course, Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark sacrificed his life to restore the countless souls snapped by Thanos. We don’t picture Marvel ever undoing that sacrifice. Plus, the MCU has a new Iron Man in the form of Dominique Thorne’s Ironheart. That said, Downey is returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom, and that leaves the door open for him to play other versions of Tony Stark from across the multiverse.
Steve Rogers
Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers is happily retired these days, having traveled back in time to settle down with Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter. In the present, Steve is an elderly man and has passed the Captain America mantle onto Sam Wilson. But in the comics, Steve went through a period where he lost his powers and served the Avengers in more of an advisory role. Could something similar happen in Avengers: Doomsday?
Thor
Chris Hemsworth’s Thor has been keeping pretty busy since Endgame, shedding all that extra weight and somehow becoming even more buff than ever. Thor briefly served as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but his attention soon turned to dealing with the rise of Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder. These days, Thor is happily playing single father, raising Gorr’s daughter Love as his own, and continuing to protect the MCU from evil.
Hulk
Of all the original Avengers, Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner has played the most direct role in protecting Earth since the events of Avengers: Endgame. Banner has popped up in several places, studying the mysterious Ten Rings in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and mentoring his newly Hulk-ified cousin Jen (Tatiana Maslany) in 2022’s She-Hulk series. At the end of that series we saw that Banner has his own issues to deal with, as he’s been reunited with his son Skaar, an unexpected development from his days exiled on the world of Sakaar.
Hawkeye
Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton would be all too happy to retire if the universe would just leave him alone. We last saw Clint dragged back into the fray in 2021’s Hawkeye series, where he dealt with his Thanos-induced PTSD and mentored his young replacement, Kate Bishop. Somehow, we doubt Clint will be able to sit out the events of Avengers: Doomsday. But don’t hold your breath for a Hawkeye Season 2. Renner confirmed he’s turned down Marvel’s lowball offer.
Black Widow
Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff was another tragic casualty of Avengers: Endgame, and like Tony Stark, we don’t envision Marvel resurrecting the dead. Johansson recently reiterated her belief that Natasha should be allowed to stay dead. Still, never say never when the multiverse is in play.
What About Spider-Man?
Tom Holland’s Peter Parker has really been through the wringer since the events of Avengers: Endgame. He had to deal with reintegrating into high school life after being snapped for five years. Then he faced having his secret identity outed to the world and mourned the death of Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May at the hands of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. These days, Peter is enjoying being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man again, even if regaining his secret identity has required him to sacrifice his friendships with Jacob Batalon’s Ned and Zendaya’s MJ.
It’s still an open question as to whether Holland will return for Avengers: Doomsday. Given the nature of Doctor Strange’s identity-restoring spell, the Avengers may have trouble tracking him down. But Holland is set to star in a fourth solo movie called Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is rumored to take place alongside the events of Doomsday. We’ll see if Doomsday’s delay means Brand New Day will move into 2027.
The Fallout of Secret Invasion and Daredevil: Born Again
While some Disney+ series like Moon Knight and She-Hulk have been mainly dedicated to introducing their respective heroes, others have proven to have a more far-reaching impact on the MCU. We’ve already covered why Loki is one of the most important projects in the Multiverse Saga, but what about 2023’s Secret Invasion and 2025’s Daredevil: Born Again? Both series speak to the steadily worsening state of affairs in the MCU.
Secret Invasion follows Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos as they unravel a deep conspiracy involving a rogue band of Skrulls kidnapping and impersonating key political figures. Don Cheadle’s Jim Rhodes turned out to be one of those replaced, with the series hinting Rhodey has actually been a Skrull since shortly after the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.
Though Fury ultimately prevents the rogue Skrulls from poisoning Earth and making it their new home planet, the damage has been done. There’s a new wave of anti-alien xenophobia sweeping the globe. The public, still reeling from the traumatic effects of the Snap, is no longer willing to tolerate aliens in its midst.
As for Born Again, the series is effectively Season 4 of Netflix’s Daredevil show, firmly planting characters like Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle, and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk in the wider MCU. The series explores what happens after Fisk is elected mayor of New York, as Matt is reluctantly drawn back into his vigilante role.
Born Again Season 1 could have interesting ramifications for the MCU. In the finale, Fisk imposes martial law on the city and outlaws all costumed vigilantes. The situation is reminiscent of what happened with the Sokovia Accords in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, albeit limited to those heroes operating in New York. It should be interesting to see if this development will be referenced in other MCU projects like Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The Debut of the Fantastic Four and X-Men
The MCU has built up a massive cast of heroes and villains over the years, but two groups have always been conspicuous by their absence. The MCU has no Fantastic Four and no X-Men, a holdover from the days when both franchises were locked up by 20th Century Fox. But thanks to the Multiverse Saga, that’s been slowly changing.
While we’ve still only met a handful of mutants living on Earth-616, several movies have featured characters that we recognize from Fox’s X-Men universe. 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness included Patrick Stewart’s Professor X among the members of Earth-838’s Illuminati. 2023’s The Marvels ends with Monica Rambeau being rescued by Kelsey Grammer’s Beast. 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine is a direct sequel to the previous two Deadpool movies, as Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson runs afoul of the TVA and teams up with a variant of Hugh Jackman’s Logan.
It’s clear from the currently announced cast for Avengers: Doomsday that the Fox X-Men are going to play a big role in the film. Everyone from James Marsden’s Cyclops to Ian McKellen’s Magneto to Channing Tatum’s Gambit is returning (though, strangely, Jackman himself has yet to be confirmed). We’ve speculated before that Doomsday is essentially an Avengers vs. X-Men movie, with both teams battling it out when an Incursion threatens their respective universes. And we’ll be very surprised if Jackman’s Wolverine isn’t among those heroes fighting to restore the multiverse in Avengers: Secret Wars.
Ultimately, we’re expecting Doomsday and Secret Wars to serve as the swan song for Fox’s X-Men characters, whether or not these characters actually survive the inevitable death and rebirth of the Marvel multiverse. But as we head into Phase 7, Marvel will start introducing the MCU’s version of the X-Men. Some fans are even speculating that Phase 7 will kick off “The Mutant Saga.” At the very least, Deadline is reporting that Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier is being eyed to helm the rebooted X-Men movie.
As for the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness featured a cameo of John Krasinski’s Mister Fantastic (a nod to a popular fan casting choice), but we’ll soon be meeting an entirely new version of the team in 2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. First Steps stars Pedro Pascal as Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing. These characters aren’t residents of Earth-616, however, but rather dwell in an alternate universe that exists as a retro-futuristic 1960s version of our world. First Steps will chronicle the birth of Reed and Sue’s child, Franklin Richards, and pit the team against Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson’s Galactus.
If the post-credits scene to Thunderbolts is any indication, that fight may not go well for the FF. Thunderbolts shows the team fleeing to the MCU ahead of some unknown disaster in their universe. Presumably, either their world was just consumed by Galactus, or their universe is being threatened by an Incursion. Perhaps Galactus’ arrival is somehow connected to the Incursion phenomenon? Whatever the case, the FF will be in the MCU in time to join the cast of Avengers: Doomsday and battle Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom. Speaking of which…
From Kang the Conqueror to Doctor Doom
When Marvel kicked off the Multiverse Saga, this overarching storyline originally hinged on Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, a time-traveling tyrant with the power to kill even mighty heroes like Thor with ease. Again, as established in Loki, one version of Kang was responsible for suppressing the existence of the multiverse in order to halt a destructive war with his alternate selves. Now that the multiverse is back, that war now threatens all of existence. Or it did, until Marvel’s Kang plans hit a roadblock.
Majors played another version of Kang in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This Kang was marooned in the Quantum Realm by his other selves, and he nearly succeeds in escaping before Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man seemingly kills him. Scott is vexed by the idea that Kang may not be gone for good, and that their showdown is the start of a bigger war. The post-credits scene bears that out, as it becomes clear the many variants of Kang are now united in their desire for revenge.
But in the wake of Majors’ legal troubles and subsequent firing, not to mention the tepid response to Quantumania in general, Marvel is pivoting in a very different direction for the Multiverse Saga. The climax of this ongoing storyline will now hinge not on Kang, but Doctor Doom. And for some reason, Doom is being played by Downey. Does that make him a Tony Stark variant rather than Victor von Doom? Is he from The Fantastic Four: First Steps universe? We’re not sure, but you can learn more about the shared history between Doom and Iron Man here.
It remains to be seen exactly how this pivot will be handled in Doomsday (which was originally titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty), and whether Marvel will acknowledge the loose end that is the Council of Kangs or charge straight ahead with Doom. But it is clear that Marvel is looking to draw heavily from the 2015 Secret Wars comic by making Doom the linchpin of the Multiverse Saga.
The comic chronicles the destruction of the Marvel multiverse and the creation of Battleworld, a hodgepodge planet composed of fragments of dozens of dead universes. As its creator, Doom rules over Battleworld as God Emperor, with each territory being governed by a baron who answers only to Doom. It’s a very Game of Thrones/Dune-esque scenario. Only a handful of refugees from Earth-616 and Earth-1610 (aka the Ultimate Universe, where Miles Morales hails from) remember the multiverse as it was, and they set out to make things right again.
Presumably, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars will follow some basic version of that plot, with Doomsday showing the final collapse of the multiverse and Secret Wars taking place on Battleworld. That opens the door for Secret Wars to bring back pretty much anyone who’s ever appeared in a Marvel movie or show, from obvious candidates like Jackman’s Wolverine and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man to more oddball choices like Nic Cage’s Ghost Rider and David Hasselhoff’s Nick Fury. Secret Wars could make Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s cameos seem small by comparison.
That’s everything you need to know about the state of the MCU heading into The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday. Look for First Steps to hit theaters on July 25, 2025, while Doomsday was recently delayed until December 2026.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
