Marvel fans were excited to catch what they assumed to be a first glimpse of some promo art for Avengers: Secret Wars doing the rounds online late last night, but the hype was short-lived.
It seems Disney used a fan-made Secret Wars poster featuring Captain America, Miles Morales and The Beyonder to promote the highly-anticipated MCU movie during an official upfront event at São Paulo, Brazil.
We've seen Marvel/Disney use promo/merchandise artwork as placeholders in the past, but, as far as we can recall, this is the first time some fan-art has slipped through. Can we read anything into characters like Morales and The Beyonder appearing on this poster?
There's been some speculation that this particular image was mistakenly used because it resembles official Secret Wars art that has yet to be released, but that's probably a stretch. We'd say the local organizers needed to include something Secret Wars-related, and simply didn't realize that this was a fan-made poster.
We have heard that Marvel is attempting to keep quite a few characters under wraps in the build-up to the release of Doomsday and Secret Wars, so there's always a chance The Beyonder and Morales will appear.
The Studio was forced to pivot to a new villain and (one would assume) a very different story when Jonathan Majors' assault convictions led to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty evolving into Avengers: Doomsday, but it sounds like a few key plot points will remain - albeit with some significant tweaks.
We have heard that Multiversal Incursions would have played a big part in The Kang Dynasty, and are still expected to serve as the catalyst for the events of the upcoming Avengers films.
According to a recent rumor from The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez, the concept of the various realities in the Multiverse being "stuck on an endless loop" that Majors' He Who Remains outlined in the first season of Loki will be retained, but instead of Kang's variants wreaking havoc around the Multiverse in an effort to shake things up via various Incursions, the focus will shift to certain disruptors in the MCU who have been "interfering with the fabric of space and time."
"In Doomsday, the main incursion we’ll see at first revolves around Earth-616 and the universe Monica is set in, where the X-Men currently reside in the film. Other incursions will also be addressed, such as the one in No Way Home, caused by Spider-Man and Doctor Strange."
We assume Reed Richards' tampering with the fabric of his universe in The Fantastic Four: First Steps will also count!
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were recently hit with significant delays, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
You can check out the full (for now) Doomsday cast list below.
• Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki
• Lewis Pullman as Sentry
• Florence Pugh as Yelena
• Danny Ramirez as Falcon
• Ian McKellen as Magneto
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky
• Winston Duke as M’Baku
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Kelsey Grammer as Beast
• James Marsden as Cyclops
• Channing Tatum as Gambit
• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm
• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
• Patrick Stewart as Professor X
• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
• Letitia Wright as Black Panther
• Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor
• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards
• Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm
• David Harbour as Red Guardian
• Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing
• Anthony Mackie as Captain America