A familiar pattern is emerging at Marvel Studios — one that tends to surface when the stakes are at their highest.
Large-scale productions, shifting expectations, and a growing list of characters have become hallmarks of the studio’s recent output. Behind the scenes, the process has grown more fluid, with scripts evolving deep into production and beyond.
That approach, once credited with keeping the Marvel Cinematic Universe agile, has increasingly come under scrutiny. The Multiverse Saga, in particular, has faced criticism for lacking the cohesion that defined earlier phases.
Now, as Avengers: Doomsday (2026) moves closer to completion, that tension is coming into sharper focus.
Seven years after Avengers: Endgame (2019), Marvel is once again attempting to unify its sprawling universe. The upcoming crossover is positioned as a central pillar of the Multiverse Saga, bringing together legacy heroes, newer additions, and characters pulled from across timelines.
At the center of it all is Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr. His introduction has so far been minimal, limited to a post-credits tease in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), leaving the film with the task of establishing a major villain in relatively little time.
The confirmed cast reflects that scale. Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, Simu Liu, and Florence Pugh are all set to return, alongside Fantastic Four stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. The film also pulls in legacy X-Men actors, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer, Alan Cumming, and Rebecca Romijn, underscoring its multiversal scope.
That compressed setup has raised concerns among fans and analysts alike. Unlike Thanos, whose presence was built gradually across multiple films, Doom enters a narrative that is still defining its core team and overall direction.
Reports that the project began filming without a locked script have only added to that uncertainty. Ongoing rewrites and shifting story elements have fueled speculation that Marvel may have moved too quickly to bring the film into production.
Marvel Refocuses Its Strategy Ahead of Release
Marvel is now taking steps to address those concerns.
Reshoots for Avengers: Doomsday are expected to begin imminently, with some filming potentially already underway in London. The additional photography comes as part of a more targeted effort to refine the film rather than overhaul it entirely.
According to insider Daniel Richtman (via Comic Book Movie), the focus will be on character-driven material. The goal is to strengthen emotional beats, clarify motivations, and ensure that relationships land effectively across an unusually large ensemble.
This approach suggests that the film’s broader structure is already in place. The Russo Brothers are said to have locked in the major set pieces, with reports indicating that concerns over an incomplete ending have been overstated.
Instead, the emphasis appears to be on cohesion — a recurring challenge for the Multiverse Saga. With multiple timelines, variants, and intersecting storylines, ensuring narrative clarity has become increasingly critical.
Marvel’s reliance on last-minute adjustments is not new. The studio has long used reshoots to fine-tune its films, from refining character moments to adding or reworking key scenes.
The Avengers (2012), for example, filmed its now-iconic shawarma post-credits scene just one day after the film’s world premiere. More recently, Thunderbolts* (2025) reportedly shot one of its post-credits scenes only weeks before release.
Multiverse Stakes Expand Beyond a Single Film
Attention is also beginning to shift beyond Avengers: Doomsday.
The film is expected to function as the first half of a larger narrative, setting up Avengers: Secret Wars (2027). That structure mirrors the relationship between Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame, where the story unfolded across two installments.
Early reports suggest that Secret Wars will place greater emphasis on characters who play smaller roles in Doomsday, particularly Multiversal Variants positioned to challenge God Emperor Doom.
At the same time, speculation around Doomsday continues to build.
One widely circulated rumor claims the film will open with a large-scale Multiversal battle featuring Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. The sequence has been described as one of Marvel’s most ambitious, though it remains unconfirmed.
Other reports suggest that Doom may initially align with the Fantastic Four to combat Incursions, only for his true intentions to emerge later. Such an arc would position him as both a protector and a looming threat.
The potential involvement of legacy X-Men characters, including Ian McKellen’s Magneto and Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, has also fueled discussion about how deeply the X-Men universe will factor into the next phase of the story.
Notably, several major figures remain absent from confirmed casting announcements. Characters such as Spider-Man, played by Tom Holland, and Captain Marvel, portrayed by Brie Larson, have yet to be officially tied to the project.
That absence has led to theories that Marvel is deliberately holding back key players for Avengers: Secret Wars, where the full scope of the Multiverse Saga is expected to come into focus.
Do you think Avengers: Doomsday will compare to Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame?
