- Primary Subject: Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Key Update: Disappointment with the rushed and underdeveloped introduction of Dr. Doom in the MCU.
- Status: analysis
- Last Verified: 2026-07-22
- Quick Answer: The MCU is mishandling of Dr. Doom's introduction and it could have terrible implications for the franchise's future direction.
I’ve tried to rationalize why I felt no excitement watching the first proper Avengers: Doomsday trailer. Is it because I’ve outgrown comic-book movies? Not really; I enjoyed last year’s Superman. Maybe I don’t care about Marvel like that? Can’t be; X-Men 97 season 2 has been stellar.
Then it simply clicked. They’re fumbling Dr. Doom, one of the biggest, most iconic threats in the entire Marvel pantheon of villains. He’s one of the very few supervillains you can build a cinematic universe around, and seeing Disney, Kevin Feige, and all the higher-ups rush to get him out the door is painful to see.
To me, Dr. Doom deserved a treatment similar, if not more methodical than the one Thanos got. The seed was planted in 2012, and while the character itself did not show up all that much, he had an active presence in key moments during the Infinity War saga. The Infinity Stones were treated with reverence, the perfect McGuffins that, once Infinity War rolled around, fans understood why it was imperative that Thanos didn’t get hold of them.
We got to understand Thanos’ ruthlessness through Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy. Each of the Infinity Stones had a very particular role to play in the films in which they were featured. It was by no means perfect, with duds and forgotten storylines tossed by the wayside or reworked to have very little impact in Infinity War/Endgame, but everything was pointing to the cataclysmic event that would end up being Thanos wiping out half of the universe.
With Doom, everything feels shallow. None of it makes sense, because it wasn’t meant for Doom to become the villain of this era of Marvel films. I won’t dwell too much on Kang, but simply recasting him would’ve been the better choice. Now, whether there was a contractual thing in which Jonathan Majors was the only one allowed to play the character, Marvel being stubborn in its ‘mantra’ of not recasting characters, or simply seeing an opportunity to pivot away from a villain that had a disastrous reception following Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania is still a mystery. But pulling the trigger on Doom this fast? Really?
Sure, the whole Multiverse side of things is somewhat clear if you’ve followed a few of the projects, if not the entirety of the now-convoluted Marvel Cinematic Universe, which spans films and plenty of live-action and animated TV shows nowadays. The incursions, this, the anchor beings that. My issue is how they will use this to contextualize Doom’s power.
The only semblance of buildup is what Thor said in the trailer, stating that Doom is a threat far more serious than anything he’s faced before. Then, seeing him stop Stormbreaker with two fingers falls flat. It only serves to diminish Thanos as a threat, not to elevate Doom as one, because we simply don’t know anything about this incarnation of the Latverian ruler.
I do hope Doomsday is not all nonsensical action and dedicates a huge chunk, if not all of the movie, to give Doom a compelling backstory. Otherwise, wasting such an iconic villain in a rushed storyline will make me finally stop caring about the MCU.
And that’s it. Stick with us at EpicStream.com: your go-to source for all things Marvel.