Doomsday Feels Like A Very Drawn Out MCU Epilogue

Marvel released a teaser for Avengers: Doomsday recently, announcing that the film was in production. It opened to a slow crawl of numerous chairs, all against the backdrop of a gradually building superhero theme. Disney was probably counting on it being an epic, thrilling hint at things to come. But was this the starting gun Kevin Feige was hoping for? Marvel is certainly pulling out all the stops to help forget the pitfalls of recent years.

The MCU has suffered since Avengers: Endgame in a post-Infinity War saga to find a purpose for its wide-ranging, interconnected cinematic lineup. The Multiverse Saga of Phases 4-5 failed to engage viewers on multiple fronts. COVID-19 damaged Marvel’s ability to fill out theaters, but their production strategy has been anything short of simple. The overwhelming number of Marvel projects released in Phase 4 alone dwarfed the entire MCU release slate from Phases 1-3. Not only did audiences have to stay up to date with the MCU’s theatrical releases, but now key plot details and character moments were happening on a variety of Disney+ TV shows, increasing the watch time for dedicated Marvel fans tenfold.

This action plan of increased quantity led to an immediate drop in consistent quality across the board, with many key tentpole films, like Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, flopping hard as box office bombs. These stories were essential to setting up Kang the Conqueror’s appearance in the next Avengers outing, and audiences weren’t taking to them. Marvel has felt less like an exciting yearly event and more like an overwhelming all-you-can-eat buffet.

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Ultimately, what was this era of Marvel all about? The multiverse saga collapsed after Kang the Conqueror’s actor, Jonathan Majors, was dropped due to a whole bunch of legal issues. His career fell apart, along with Feige’s dreams of seeing the overarching story of Phases 4-5 to completion. Marvel’s creative vision entered a period of freefall. Regardless of this, the Multiverse Saga felt extremely disconnected, unable to recapture the magic of the Infinity Saga’s grand, universal narrative. Only a handful of films or TV shows included character interactions that carried over to the next. The passing of the end of Phase 4 into Phase 5 came and went without much fanfare.

With the MCU’s future set adrift after Majors’ downfall, the heads at Marvel decided that their only option was to go back to where it all began. Robert Downey Jr., who spent over a decade as the MCU’s frontman in the role of Tony Stark, was recast as a parallel-universe version of Doctor Doom, the new archvillain of the MCU. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty was retitled to Avengers: Doomsday, and Feige even convinced the Russo brothers to return, who had directed the previous cultural phenomenons, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Recently, in an interview with Omelete, the Russos discussed how they felt that Doomsday was “a new beginning.” A slightly perplexing way to phrase the conclusion to what has been the MCU’s most expansive couple of phases, just in terms of the sheer number of projects.

Is This A New Beginning? Or Just A Very Slow March To A Drawn Out MCU Epilogue?

Phases 4-5 at a glance have a very confused tone across the board. As the Multiverse Saga was being jump-started with breakthrough popular shows like Loki, many trilogies and storylines were being carried over from Phase 3, yet to receive their conclusion. The Guardians of the Galaxy still had to finish their third act together in Vol. 3, and Peter Parker had one more outing as Spider-Man in No Way Home.

No Way Home is an interesting cross-section of many battling Phase 4 themes. It was a jumping-on point for the idea of a wider Marvel multiverse, a conclusion to Parker’s first trilogy, the end of a Tony Stark-funded Spider-Man, a soft reset for Tom Holland’s portrayal, and a setup for Doctor Strange’s interdimensional escapades in The Multiverse of Madness. It was juggling a lot of spinning plates, pulling them in many directions, and perhaps slightly confused as to what it wanted to be. All of these underlying problems were masked with a heavy layer of nostalgia, seeing returning actors like Andrew Garfield coming back to the role of the web-slinging hero. But these red flags were present earlier on.

Some of the more successful projects to come from this Marvel midlife crisis were all endings or continuations to the stories of a lot of pre-existing MCU characters. Origin flicks post-Endgame like Eternals bombed hard, whilst sequels like Deadpool & Wolverine saw great success, ending not just Deadpool’s trilogy, but also honoring the entire 20th Century Fox superhero legacy.

Can Marvel Studios And The Russo Bros. Stick The Landing?

So, how does Avengers: Doomsday hope to give this period of mixed results and confounding Marvel projects closure? It seems like the Russo brothers are more interested in wiping the slate clean completely and starting fresh, almost treating Phase 4-5 as a bad memory or in-between period for Marvel’s next, huge overarching storyline. During their interview, the Russo brothers admitted that they had outright refused to return to direct until writer Stephen McFeely suggested a series of story ideas for subsequent Avengers films after Doomsday. This built the road map that the directing duo have now set themselves upon. Joe Russo described his relief and excitement at McFeely’s intervention:

“We went, ‘That’s the story!’ That story has to be told; it’s a really powerful story!”

To be honest, their forward-thinking attitude is exactly what the MCU needs right now. Doomsday’s recent teaser read as desperate, not confident. The trailer’s showcase of all the returning Marvel alumni from the MCU or Fox’s X-Men catalog felt less like an exciting celebration and more like a run of Marvel’s greatest hits. Imagine a burned-out rock star at the end of their career, and you’ll get the idea.

The high rate of returning Fox X-Men could suggest that the Russo brothers are gearing up for a more Mutant-focused direction going forward. After Deadpool & Wolverine closed the chapter on the former X-Men franchise, and with characters like Beast making a cameo at the end of The Marvels, now would seem like the right time to shift the MCU towards its own take on Xavier’s students. After audiences have seen the MCU lurch from one flop to the next, securing a confident, bold, and consistent creative vision going forward is one of Avengers: Doomsday’s most essential tasks. Without that, the MCU could continue to spiral into a very slow, depressing epilogue that continues to struggle to gain traction as audiences leave the superhero genre behind for other emerging film trends.

Avengers: Doomsday

Release Date

May 1, 2026

Director

Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Writers

Stephen McFeely

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  Vanessa Kirby

  Sue Storm / Invisible Woman

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  Joseph Quinn

  Johnny Storm / Human Torch

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  Ebon Moss-Bachrach

  Ben Grimm / The Thing

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  Pedro Pascal

  Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic