Doomsday’ Is Missing A Key Avenger — But There’s A Silver Lining

When Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and directors Anthony and Joseph Russo announced that Doctor Doom would be the main villain of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, fans were surprised. But what was truly shocking was who would bring the baddie to life: the late, great Iron Man himself, Robert Downey, Jr.

This wasn’t just a shock to Marvel fans, as even Downey’s colleagues weren’t in on the secret. In a recent interview with Variety, Doctor Strange star Benedict Cumberbatch revealed he texted Feige as soon as he heard. “I texted, ‘What the f*ck?’ and then quickly added, ‘Good what-the-f*ck. I mean, good what-the-f*ck,’” he said.

Despite Cumberbactch’s excitement at Downey’s return, this won’t be the reunion fans are hoping for… but it does promise a bigger development down the line.

In that same Variety interview, Cumberbatch revealed that after the MCU pivoted away from Jonathan Major’s Kang in the wake of the actor’s assault conviction, Doctor Strange was written out of the next Avengers movie due to “the character not aligning with this part of the story.” However, after Avengers: Doomsday comes Avengers: Secret Wars, and Cumberbatch suggests Stephen Strange will appear in much of it and is “quite central to where things might go.”

It’s not an unprecedented move for the MCU. As the Marvel Universe continually expanded and added more and more characters, fitting in every single hero became increasingly difficult. Ironically, leaving a character on the bench for a while can actually make a story more cohesive. Back in 2018, Ant-Man didn’t appear in Avengers: Infinity War, but his knowledge of the Quantum Realm proved essential to the events of Avengers: Endgame, allowing the Avengers to pull off a “time heist” and undo the Snap.

Doctor Strange riding the pine for Doomsday probably signals something similar. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduced “incursions” to the MCU, and those links between realities will be a key part of the Secret Wars storyline. That means Doctor Strange would be positioned to teach the other Avengers about the inner machinations of the multiverse in Secret Wars after Doomsday establishes just how huge the stakes for that follow-up movie are.

Not every Avenger has to be in every Avengers movie, and keeping the more mystical heroes in reserve for Secret Wars makes sense. Maybe, while everyone else is busy with Doctor Doom, he can take up a hobby like solving crime or stealing Christmas.

Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on May 1, 2026.