Is Avengers: Doomsday Secretly an Avengers vs. X-Men Movie?

Will Doctor Doom preside over the cinematic battle of the ages?

We learned a lot more about the future of Marvel Studios at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, especially with the surprise announcement that Robert Downey, Jr. is returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom. Doom is going to have an integral part to play in the climax of the Multiverse Saga, anchoring both 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars.

But is it possible there’s even more to this equation than we realize? Is Avengers: Doomsday secretly an Avengers vs. X-Men movie? There’s growing reason to suspect that might be the case.

But would the Avengers and X-Men be fighting? Didn’t they learn anything from Batman v Superman? Let’s take a look at Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men storyline and how that epic crossover comic could be adapted for the MCU.

What Is Avengers vs. X-Men?

The Avengers and X-Men have been crossing paths almost since the two teams debuted in the early 1960s. They’ve teamed up to help save the world countless times in stories like 1984’s Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars and 2008’s Secret Invasion. But 2012’s Avengers vs. X-Men stands out because it’s not a story about the two teams working together for the greater good. Instead, they’re at each other’s throats.

Why the sudden bad blood? AvX takes place at a particularly dark time for the X-Men. Thanks to Scarlet Witch’s actions in 2005’s House of M, the mutant race has been reduced to a couple hundred members and faces the threat of extinction. There’s also a schism among the X-Men themselves, with Wolverine and Cyclops having a major falling-out and forming rival schools. Into this chaotic landscape comes the Phoenix Force, which makes a beeline for Earth from the depths of space.

This is where the feud between the Avengers and X-Men forms. The Avengers see the Phoenix as an urgent threat, one with the power to annihilate Earth if left unchecked. Cyclops, meanwhile, sees the Phoenix as mutantkind’s last, best chance for salvation. When the Avengers hatch a plan to destroy the Phoenix Force before it reaches Earth, the X-Men take that as a declaration of war.

Part of the fun with AvX is that not every hero joins the side you’d expect. We mentioned that Wolverine and Cyclops had a falling-out, and Logan - who had been serving alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for years at that point - finds himself among Team Avengers as the story begins. Storm is also torn between the two teams, as she’s both an Avenger and a teacher at Logan’s mutant school. Even Professor X is less supportive of Team Cyclops than you might expect.

AvX is broken into three distinct acts. In the first act, the X-Men are the underdogs battling to prevent the Avengers from destroying the Phoenix Force. At the end of Act 1, the playing field shifts when Iron Man’s Phoenix-killing weapon winds up splitting the cosmic entity into five pieces, which then go on to empower Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor (who is a mutant, don’t forget), Colossus and Magik.

Now dubbed the Phoenix Five, these all-powerful mutants put the Avengers on the defensive in Act 2. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are forced to retreat to the relative safety of Wakanda, which proves to be less than safe after Namor leads Atlantis to war and floods the entire country. The Avengers put all their hope in Hope. That is, Hope Summers, the first mutant born since Scarlet Witch decimated the mutant race, and the Phoenix’s original target. Their plan is for Hope to absorb the Phoenix Force and bring an end to the reign of the Phoenix Five.

The crossover culminates in one final battle in Act 3, as Cyclops is possessed by the various fragments of the Phoenix Force and becomes the new Dark Phoenix. The combined forces of the X-Men and Avengers stop him, but not before Cyclops kills Charles Xavier, the only father figure he’s ever really known.

Fortunately, AvX still ends on a relatively happy note. Hope is able to bond with the Phoenix and, with Scarlet Witch’s help, wipe the cosmic entity out of existence. But not before they use the power of the Phoenix to restore the mutant gene. Even Cyclops, now locked away in a maximum security prison, sees this outcome as an absolute win.

How the MCU Is Adapting Avengers vs. X-Men

We don’t know a great deal about Avengers: Doomsday right now apart from the title, and even that’s been in flux. Marvel originally announced the film as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, back before the studio cut ties with Jonathan Majors and the focus of the Multiverse Saga shifted from Kang to Doom. The MCU doesn’t even have an official Avengers team right now. However, that may change when Captain America: Brave New World comes along in 2025.

The MCU is even less organized on the X-Men front right now. To date, we’ve only met a handful of mutant characters in the MCU, including Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan and Tenoch Huerta’s Namor. As for the classic X-Men, we’ve only met versions from other universes, like Patrick Stewart’s Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Kelsey Grammer’s Beast in The Marvels and Hugh Jackman’s many Wolverines in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Here’s a quick rundown of every mutant character confirmed to exist in the MCU so far. Note that we’re only counting those characters who live on Earth-616, not alternate universes like Earth-838 or Earth-10005.

It’s also worth noting that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are traditionally portrayed as mutants, but it remains to be seen if they’ll eventually be revealed to be carrying the mutant gene in the MCU.

Why exactly would Marvel Studios attempt an Avengers vs. X-Men movie right now when one team is in disarray and the other doesn’t even exist (as far as we know)? These two teams have never met before (again, as far as we know), so why would they fight? The answer, as is so often the case these days, has to do with the multiverse.

We’d guess that the MCU’s version of Avengers vs. X-Men would, itself, be a multiverse story. The idea isn’t to suddenly introduce the MCU’s version of the X-Men and immediately pit the two teams against each other, but instead to chronicle a war between the MCU and the heroes of another universe. Specifically, the X-Men of the Fox universe. Forget Deadpool & Wolverine; this battle, if it happens, would be the real last hurrah for the Fox X-Men characters.

Our theory is that Avengers: Doomsday builds on the aforementioned post-credits scene from The Marvels, where Grammer’s Beast is shown to be caring for Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau after she heroically stopped an Incursion between universes. Monica appears to be trapped in Fox’s X-Men universe now (or one very much like it). That’s a loose end with major ramifications for both worlds. Based on what we know about the Incursion phenomenon, it’s only a matter of time before another rift forms between the MCU and the X-Men’s Earth-10005. And at that point, the countdown to the destruction of both Earths begins.

The idea here is that Avengers: Doomsday’s take on AvX may be inspired as much by the first chapter of the 2015 Secret Wars series as it is the AvX comic. Secret Wars opens as the Marvel multiverse is in its final death throes. The classic Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe are the last two universes left standing, and an Incursion between the two puts the survival of both at risk. As we’ve already seen in MCU movies like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Marvels, Incursions are breaches between universes that, if left unchecked, can wind up destroying both. The only way to stop an Incursion from eventually consuming both universes is for one of the two Earths to be destroyed.

In Secret Wars #1, the Avengers and the Ultimates go to war, both teams knowing that one Earth has to die if the two universes are to live. That may well be the source of the conflict between the Avengers and the X-Men in the movie. An Incursion opens between Earth-616 and Earth-10005, forcing the Avengers and X-Men to battle for the fate of their respective worlds. With so many lives at stake, there’s no time for the two teams to play nice.

In the process, we’ll finally get all those big-screen superhero match-ups of our geeky dreams. Can Captain America’s vibranium shield stand up to Wolverine’s adamantium claws? Who’s stronger - Colossus or Hulk? Who truly commands the lightning - Thor or Storm? Heck, the X-Men might even be so desperate they’ll let Deadpool join the fight. There’s no telling how wild this battle could become.

And as in the AvX comic, we may see some characters torn between conflicting loyalties. Ms. Marvel may hail from Earth-616, but what happens when she meets others of her own kind? Being an Avenger was once Deadpool’s greatest aspiration. How would he react to being forced to fight them? This war could get very messy very quickly.

Do you think Avengers: Doomsday is secretly an Avengers vs. X-Men story?

How Doctor Doom Fits In

We’ve explored how the MCU seems to be setting up a big conflict between the Avengers and X-Men, but where does Doctor Doom come into the equation? Does Avengers: Doomsday even need him as a villain if the two teams already have a reason to fight?

Doom is nothing if not an opportunistic villain. He’s always scheming for more power and isn’t above flat-out stealing the abilities of his enemies, such as Silver Surfer or the Beyonder. Doom is also infamous for manipulating heroes from behind the scenes. For example, Doom once attempted to assassinate Black Panther and take control of Wakanda’s vibranium, and he was also revealed to be the secret hand behind Scarlet Witch eliminating the mutant gene in House of M.

Doom is exactly the sort of villain who would see a growing conflict between heroes and decide to play that to his advantage. Perhaps he sees the X-Men of Earth-10005 as a convenient way of weakening the Avengers of Earth-616, leaving the world more vulnerable to his machinations. If Doomsday is the Captain America: Civil War of the Multiverse Saga, then Doom is the Zemo figure plotting behind the scenes.

But let’s not forget that Doom is a central figure in the build-up to Secret Wars in the comics. The multiverse is collapsing precisely because of Doom’s war with the all-powerful Beyonders. We assume Doomsday will feature a similar reveal, showing fans that the rapidly worsening state of the Marvel multiverse is the fault of Doom himself. For him, a war between the Avengers and X-Men is just one more step on the march to the inevitable end of all things and the creation of something new.

How Avengers: Doomsday Leads Into Secret Wars

Back when Marvel first announced Avengers 5 as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, the understanding was that the film would lead directly into Avengers: Secret Wars in the same way Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are two sides of the same coin. This sequel may be getting a major rework now that it’s become Avengers: Doomsday, but it’s still shaping up to be an important lead-in to Secret Wars.

Again, we’re expecting Doomsday to take its cues from the first chapter of the 2015 Secret Wars comic. That’s important, because there is no winner to the battle that unfolds in Secret Wars #1. Neither side is able to prevent the collapse of the last two branches of the multiverse. Ultimately, the multiverse is destroyed while its heroes are too busy fighting one another to find a solution.

We can only assume Doomsday will end in a similarly tragic way. Just like in Infinity War, this is a movie where the Avengers are doomed to fail because they aren’t united. They aren’t prepared for the overwhelming threat posed by the collapse of the multiverse. And rather than pool the mental resources of super-geniuses like Letitia Wright’s Shuri, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, and Grammer’s Beast, the X-Men and Avengers squander what little time they have left punching each other.

If Avengers: Doomsday ends in the same way Secret Wars #1 does, the multiverse will be obliterated. All that remains is Battleworld, a patchwork reality forged from the fragments of dozens of dead universes. In the comic, Doctor Doom is the one who forges Battleworld out of sheer willpower and a little help from his buddy Molecule Man. We assume Doomsday will also position Doom as the God Emperor of Battleworld for Secret Wars. Pitting the Avengers of one world against the X-Men of another may be all part of Doom’s larger plan to attain godhood.

There’s a good chance that Avengers: Doomsday is a loose adaptation of Avengers vs. X-Men. This crossover movie can help pave the way for a dark status quo where the multiverse is gone and existence has been reduced to one hodgepodge planet called Battleworld. In Avengers: Secret Wars, we’ll probably see a who’s who lineup of past and present Marvel stars - from Anthony Mackie’s Captain America to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man - team up to find a way to bring back the multiverse and overthrow Doom. Just like with Infinity War, things have to get a whole lot darker before a new day can dawn for the multiverse.

For more on the future of the MCU, find out why Secret Wars finally has the villain it needs in Downey’s Doom, and brush up on every Marvel movie and series in development.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.