Marvel Studios is assembling the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four for Avengers: Doomsday, but with the movie just two months away, we have some concerns about the MCU's next big-screen event.
From some glaring omissions in the cast and rumoured plans for Spider-Man and Wolverine to unresolved Multiverse Saga storylines, there are a few things that could stop this movie from being truly great. We're also worried that the team-ups won't quite live up to our expectations and that Doctor Doom's apparent victory could feel a little too familiar.
We're still hopeful that the Russo brothers have some surprises up their sleeves, but here are five of our biggest concerns about Avengers: Doomsday ahead of its December 18 release...
5. The Heroes Who Are Missing
Marvel Studios has enlisted an impressive cast for Avengers: Doomsday, but clearly lacks some big names. We have the X-Men, but no Jean Grey or Storm, and an Avengers lineup that's somehow missing Hawkeye, Doctor Strange, and Vision, for example.
Unfortunately, after such a hit-and-miss Multiverse Saga, it's hard not to feel that Marvel Studios is leaving some of its biggest guns on the sidelines. We have some heavy-hitters like Steve Rogers, Thor, Cyclops, and the Fantastic Four, but some absences are hard to ignore.
We're expecting to be surprised, and there are already compelling hints that the Scarlet Witch and Hulk will factor into proceedings. Still, between the Infinity Saga and Multiverse Saga, it's hard not to notice that The Wasp, Star-Lord, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and more are all MIA.
4. That Big Spider-Man/Wolverine Rumour
If you were wondering why we didn't mention Spider-Man and Wolverine above, it's because of persistent rumours that the Tobey Maguire and Hugh Jackman Variants of those characters will kick off Avengers: Doomsday alongside Deadpool.
To show the consequences of the Incursions ravaging the Multiverse, we'll reportedly see a collision between the home of the X-Men and this web-slinger's world. The mutant team will reportedly destroy Spidey's world to save their own, leaving him to die alongside Logan.
There's chatter about them returning for Avengers: Secret Wars, but as cool as this battle will be, how much cooler would it be to see Wolverine teaming up with Captain America and for Spidey to fight alongside Thor and Mister Fantastic? This feels like a misstep, honestly.
3. The Team-Ups We Wanted May Not Happen
We're getting a movie that brings together the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four, so it almost feels ungrateful not to be more hyped about seeing them standing side-by-side. However, Steve Rogers as "Regular-Dude" won't lead to the Captain America/Cyclops team-up we wanted.
With Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom instead of Iron Man, that means no Tony Stark and Reed Richards using their brain power together. We're also unlikely to see the Scarlet Witch cross paths with her father in the comics, Magneto, or a fun Spider-Man/Human Torch meeting.
These could all be to come, and there are bound to be some surprises. As we alluded to above, something is missing, whether it's Thor and Storm unleashing their combined powers or the original six Avengers meeting the "classic" X-Men roster from the 2000 movie.
2. Unresolved Multiverse Saga Plot Threads
We didn't expect Avengers: Doomsday to reveal what happened to the Eternals or what Moon Knight being Jake Lockley means now, but one of the Multiverse Saga's biggest problems has been its abundance of dangling plot threads, and this movie can't possibly resolve all of them.
Jonathan Majors' time as Kang has ended, but are we really not going to touch on what became of the greatest threat to the Multiverse? Will the Scarlet Witch's fate remain unresolved? Are we moving on from Doctor Strange's Third Eye and America Chavez's ability to traverse dimensions?
It was never going to be possible to wrap everything up here, which speaks volumes about what has been a fairly messy era of storytelling. This jarring shift to focusing on Doctor Doom is going to lead to some inevitable frustrations, which hopefully don't derail the movie.
1. Do We Already Know The Ending?
Putting aside all the plot leaks and potential spoilers, it's hard to shake the feeling that we know exactly how Avengers: Doomsday will end. Avengers: Infinity War shocked us all when Thanos won, but if Doom ultimately wins and creates Battleworld, well, it already feels a little familiar.
The bad guy winning again to set the stage for the next Avengers movie is basically what Marvel Studios and the Russos did with Infinity War and Endgame. It's a formula, and as excited as we are to explore Battleworld, this story is arguably coming a Saga too soon.
It's hard to criticise Marvel Studios for following the comics and adapting Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic's Secret Wars, but this feeling of predictability could diminish an otherwise great movie. We can only hope that Marvel Studios has found a compelling way to get us there.