Latest news with #SecretWars
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Robert Downey Jr may return as Doctor Doom after Avengers Secret Wars
Marvel Studios may not be finished with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom after the upcoming Avengers films, according to a new report. According to scooper DanielRPK, Marvel is considering extending Downey Jr.'s involvement as Doom beyond Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027). Marvel's decision to cast Downey Jr.—famously known for his portrayal of Iron Man—as Doctor Doom marks a bold creative shift as the studio repositions itself following the Infinity Saga. While Thanos was teased over several years and gradually built into a franchise-defining villain, Doctor Doom will have a much shorter runway, having only recently been teased in newer films. Originally, Kang the Conqueror was expected to serve as the next central antagonist. However, behind-the-scenes challenges and lukewarm audience reception reportedly led to Marvel rethinking its long-term narrative plans. Now, with Doctor Doom set to debut in Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel is already weighing the potential of keeping Downey Jr. in the role for future projects beyond Secret Wars. If true, this could suggest the character survives those events or returns through a multiverse scenario—a tactic common in comic adaptations but sometimes criticized for reducing narrative stakes. If Doctor Doom remains central to the MCU, it raises questions about the financial sustainability of continuing with Downey Jr. The actor is reportedly earning over $80 million for the two Avengers films, with total compensation potentially exceeding $100 million. Keeping him on board would require a substantial ongoing investment. Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled for release on December 18, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on December 17, 2027. Whether Downey Jr. stays on long-term could significantly influence the future tone and structure of Marvel's next saga.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Robert Downey Jr. reveals another Marvel comic in his Avengers: Doomsday reading material, and this one could be teasing a Doctor Doom vs. Iron Man showdown
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Robert Downey Jr. has teased yet another Marvel comic in his collection of Avengers: Doomsday reading material – and this one is even more wild and cryptic than the last. On his personal Instagram, Downey posted another video that shows him listening to a song titled 'Change of Scenery' by his son, Indio Downey, before panning over to a table that shows the comic Secret Wars #1 by Jim Shooter as well as Iron Man: Legacy of Doom by Bob Layton and David Michelinie. Legacy of Doom, which hit shelves in 2008, sees Iron Man team up with Doctor Doom as part of a deal to save the world... until Doom sells Iron Man to Mephisto in exchange for an enigmatic artifact. In Secret Wars, in which the story is told over the course of 12 issues, a villain called The Beyonder sends the Avengers to a planet known as Battleworld, in which they are trapped and locked into (seemingly) eternal battle with other villains. Of course, this is seemingly the basis of Avengers: Secret Wars, which will follow Doomsday. It's worth noting that this is the comic book arc where Spider-Man receives his famous all-black costume that ends up being a living alien symbiote – which attempts to take over Peter's mind before attaching itself to Eddie Brock and becoming Venom. Yesterday, Downey posted himself reading West Coast Avengers # I took as an unofficial confirmation that the long-rumored West Coast Avengers debut will indeed come to fruition in Avengers: Doomsday. But will we see Downey return as Iron Man for a brief moment, or is this just a cheeky tease for hardcore Marvel fans? Either way, I'm very down to watch him battle himself, if that's where this is all going. Avengers: Doomsday is set to hit theaters on May 1, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars will release on May 7, 2027. For more, check out our list of all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows you need to know about. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
X-Men and Tony Stark will be recast, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige reveals
Halle, Hugh, Robert — it's been a honor, but all good things must come to an end. Following 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars, several key characters in the MCU will be recast, including Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and the full team of X-Men, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced during a Friday press event, Variety reported. Feige said the company is "utilizing" Secret Wars "not just to round out the stories we've been telling post-Endgame, just as importantly — and you can look at the at the Secret Wars comics for where that takes you — it very, very much sets us up for the future... Endgame, literally, was about endings. Secret Wars is about is about beginnings." Marvel has slowed the pace of MCU releases from the franchise's point of greatest saturation, the mid-to-late 2010s, in which three, even four films were released per year. The company released only one film in 2024, Deadpool & Wolverine, and though three are slated for this year — Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*, both previously released, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, coming next weekend — there's just one film apiece pegged to 2026 and 2027: Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Secret Wars represents a critical reorienting juncture for the franchise, Feige indicated, but hesitated to call it a reboot. "'Reboot' is a scary word... Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people," he explained, describing the film instead as a "reset" for the MCU. "Reset, singular timeline — we're thinking along those lines." "X-Men is where that will happen next," he added. It's no surprise that Feige is is pegging a "reset" to the X-Men, given the company's years-long effort to buy the characters back from 21st Century Fox, which finally came to fruition in 2019 when Disney, Marvel's parent company, acquired Fox. In 2024, Feige teased "a new age of mutants and of the X-Men," and this past March, Marvel finally announced that after a smattering of X-Men teases in MCU films — the original films' star Kelsey Grammer appeared as Beast in The Marvels, while Patrick Stewart's Professor X showed up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — Avengers: Doomsday will officially mark the MCU's first full showing of X-Men Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden have all been confirmed to reprise their roles in the MCU. Channing Tatum, who finally brought X-Men fan-favorite character Gambit to the big screen in Deadpool & Wolverine, will also join them. "There've been more X-Men movies than there were Spidey movies or Fantastic Four movies, so a lot has been done," Feige noted, while speaking at a recent Fantastic Four roundtable, ScreenRant reported. "But again, because it's almost a comic legacy unto itself, there's so much more to tap into it and there's so many sagas within sagas for X-Men." The last time the X-Men franchise saw a major cast overhaul was for 2011 prequel film X-Men First Class. The new cast included James McAvoy as Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, and Nicholas Hoult as Beast. Old then met new in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, in which Hugh Jackman's Wolverine from the original films goes back in time to collaborate with the prequel films' stars, while the film cuts between the two timelines and their different casts, including Halle Berry as Storm, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, among other stars of the original films. X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016 and Dark Phoenix in 2019 also starred the McAvoy- and Fassbender-led prequels cast, though the later films did not enjoy the same enthusiastic critical reception the first two films featuring the prequel cast did. Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
X-Men and Tony Stark will be recast, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige reveals
"'Reboot' is a scary word," Feige told journalists while promoting "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." Halle, Hugh, Robert — it's been a honor, but all good things must come to an end. Following 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars, several key characters in the MCU will be recast, including Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and the full team of X-Men, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced during a Friday press event, Variety reported. Feige said the company is "utilizing" Secret Wars "not just to round out the stories we've been telling post-Endgame, just as importantly — and you can look at the at the Secret Wars comics for where that takes you — it very, very much sets us up for the future... Endgame, literally, was about endings. Secret Wars is about is about beginnings." Marvel has slowed the pace of MCU releases from the franchise's point of greatest saturation, the mid-to-late 2010s, in which three, even four films were released per year. The company released only one film in 2024, Deadpool & Wolverine, and though three are slated for this year — Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*, both previously released, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, coming next weekend — there's just one film apiece pegged to 2026 and 2027: Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Secret Wars represents a critical reorienting juncture for the franchise, Feige indicated, but hesitated to call it a reboot. "'Reboot' is a scary word... Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people," he explained, describing the film instead as a "reset" for the MCU. "Reset, singular timeline — we're thinking along those lines." "X-Men is where that will happen next," he added. It's no surprise that Feige is is pegging a "reset" to the X-Men, given the company's years-long effort to buy the characters back from 21st Century Fox, which finally came to fruition in 2019 when Disney, Marvel's parent company, acquired Fox. In 2024, Feige teased "a new age of mutants and of the X-Men," and this past March, Marvel finally announced that after a smattering of X-Men teases in MCU films — the original films' star Kelsey Grammer appeared as Beast in The Marvels, while Patrick Stewart's Professor X showed up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — Avengers: Doomsday will officially mark the MCU's first full showing of X-Men Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden have all been confirmed to reprise their roles in the MCU. Channing Tatum, who finally brought X-Men fan-favorite character Gambit to the big screen in Deadpool & Wolverine, will also join them. "There've been more X-Men movies than there were Spidey movies or Fantastic Four movies, so a lot has been done," Feige noted, while speaking at a recent Fantastic Four roundtable, ScreenRant reported. "But again, because it's almost a comic legacy unto itself, there's so much more to tap into it and there's so many sagas within sagas for X-Men." The last time the X-Men franchise saw a major cast overhaul was for 2011 prequel film X-Men First Class. The new cast included James McAvoy as Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, and Nicholas Hoult as Beast. Old then met new in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, in which Hugh Jackman's Wolverine from the original films goes back in time to collaborate with the prequel films' stars, while the film cuts between the two timelines and their different casts, including Halle Berry as Storm, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, among other stars of the original films. X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016 and Dark Phoenix in 2019 also starred the McAvoy- and Fassbender-led prequels cast, though the later films did not enjoy the same enthusiastic critical reception the first two films featuring the prequel cast did. Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Kevin Feige Says The MCU Will Recast Iron Man, Captain America, The X-Men
Avengers Endgame I'm not sure just how many comic book-based news stories you can extract from Kevin Feige recently deciding to become a James Gunn-level chatterbox in a recent Variety story, but there are a few that stand out. Namely, the idea that Avengers: Secret Wars is going to be a 'reset' for the MCU in some ways, with some individual storylines specifically being affected or culled as we move past the 'multiverse.' Feige also talks about the current plan for the MCU being about seven years out right now, but he says he wants to do this job really forever. But continuing the MCU will come with challenges, and one is continuing to lose big characters to plot points, often involving dying, for the foreseeable future. But that can't last forever. Feige addresses this, viewing these roles like how other famed parts get new actors in time: 'Amy Pascal and David Heyman are now searching for a new James Bond,' Feige said. 'David [Corenswet] 'I think it's hard for anybody to do that when an actor has done such a great role,' he said. 'How are they going to ever replace Sean Connery [as James Bond], right?' Captain America It does make sense, it just…hasn't really happened in the MCU for almost 20 years now, so it's a bit of a tough concept to wrap fans' heads around in this context. With DC doing this with Superman, for instance, that's launching an entire new universe that is not connected to the last Henry Cavill universe almost at all. Marvel doesn't want MCU 1 and MCU 2 totally cutting off continuity, so it will be a bit weird. That said, it does not seem viable to simply lose these core characters forever, to be without Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Black Panther and many others for another decade or more. Recasting does make sense, but how it's executed is going to be a lot trickier than Batman, Superman or James Bond, which he's not quite acknowledging. Separately, Feige talks up the big new era after Secret Wars, which will be heavily focused on the X-Men. This confirms the long-running idea that no, the FOX X-Men are simply not going to be ported over to the MCU. However, that was very much complicated by the fact that most of the FOX X-Men are now in Doomsday and Secret Wars. Plus we already just saw Hugh Jackman in Deadpool and Wolverine. Feige also says they're exploring more with those characters, so that's going to be…double Wolverines? And that's a role that seems almost impossible to recast when Jackman is literally still playing it. Deadpool and Wolverine This time around, Feige says they'll be starting with young mutants, as opposed to the FOX ones where all these actors are over 50, not over 80 in some instances. Again, that makes sense, though we did have a whole FOX 'First Class' series of movies. But here it was just inevitable that the MCU was going to do its own slate of X-Men. It's just sort of weird that this is going to happen right after this big farewell tour to all the FOX X-Men who have been associated with these roles for 25 years now. It's a strange new era, but one that the MCU has to face forever. So, who will be taking Stark and Rogers' shoes, and when? Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
