Avengers: Doomsday
Release Date: December 18, 2026
Directors: The Russo Brothers
Writers: Stephen McFeely and Michael Waldron
Cast:
• Chris Hemsworth – Thor
• Pedro Pascal – Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards
• Vanessa Kirby – Invisible Woman/Sue Storm
• Robert Downey Jr. – Doctor Doom/Victor von Doom
• Anthony Mackie – Captain America/Sam Wilson
• Sebastian Stan – Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes
• Letitia Wright – Black Panther/Shuri
• Paul Rudd – Ant-Man/Scott Lang
• Wyatt Russell – U.S. Agent/John Walker
• Tenoch Huerta – Namor
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach – Thing/Ben Grimm
• Simu Liu – Shang-Chi
• Florence Pugh – Black Widow/Yelena
• Kelsey Grammer – Beast/Hank McCoy
• Lewis Pullman – Sentry/Robert Reynolds
• Danny Ramirez – Falcon/Joaquin Torres
• Joseph Quinn – Human Torch/Johnny Storm
• David Harbour – Red Guardian/Alexei
• Winston Duke – M’Baku
• Hannah John-Kamen – Ghost/Ava Starr
• Tom Hiddleston – Loki
• Patrick Stewart – Professor-X/Charles Xavier
• Ian McKellen – Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr
• Alan Cumming – Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner
• Rebecca Romijn – Mystique/Raven Darkholme
• James Marsden – Cyclops/Scott Summers
• Channing Tatum – Gambit/Remy LeBeau
Ever since Marvel dropped Jonathan Majors, there has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding the fifth Avengers’ movie, which was previously called The Kang Dynasty. Major’s behavior in his private life has led to him losing out on the role of a lifetime and the MCU has pivoted away from Kang-centric storylines. This giant hole will now be filled by Doctor Doom.
The shocking announcement surrounding the movie is that Robert Downey Jr. will portray Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will be the ultimate Avengers antagonist for the foreseeable future. Will Downey Jr. strictly be depicting the character as Victor von Doom or could his history as Iron Man factor into the narrative? With the multiverse still dominating the franchise, Doctor Doom as an Iron man variant from another universe would be a logical potential plot point.
And of course, Doctor Doom will have to face off against actual heroes. 26 actors have been officially named to match up against Robert Downey Jr’s Doom. They are composed of two factions of “New Avengers” – one led by Sam Wilson’s Captain America, with the other being the Thunderbolts team. They will mix with the Fantastic Four, a few Wakandans, and a pair of Asgardians. Surprisingly, the X-Men actors form the largest collective on the cast list, and they are the ones who will have spent the least amount of time in the MCU when Doomsday hits big screens.
The Batman - Part II
Release Date: October 1, 2027
Director: Matt Reeves
Writers: Matt Reeves and Mattson Tomlin
Cast:
• Robert Pattinson – Batman/Bruce Wayne
• Colin Farrell – Penguin/Oswald Cobb
• Andy Serkis – Alfred Pennyworth
• Jeffrey Wright – Commissioner Gordon
While the DCU will be making a mark with James Gunn’s new trajectory, Warner Bros.’ DC division will still be producing unrelated DC superhero movies, that they have calculatingly called DC Elseworlds. The Joker and Batman franchises fall under the purview of this extrinsic universe.
The Batman was slightly divisive among hardcore DC fans, but in the end, it earned enough revenue to warrant a sequel for the studio. The strangest part about this Batman series is how Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne revival in The Flash is still fresh in viewer’s memories, while Ben Affleck ended up hanging around for longer than expected, and someone new may even sign on for the DCU. One of Gunn’s projects in the pipeline is The Brave and the Bold with Bruce Wayne and his son, Damian. So, we will have four different actors playing Bruce Wayne in DC films this decade.
There are still a lot of unknowns about The Batman 2, however we returned to the Matt Reeves' universe via the award-winning HBO show The Penguin. While that limited series bridges the gap between the two cinematic features, the show is more of a deep character study for Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb. One could also surmise that the Joker (not Joaquin Phoenix’s version) will be involved in the sequel; he was teased at the end of the original, so perhaps Barry Keoghan’s Joker will be promoted to lead villain for Part II.