When you look at the cinematic landscape, villain stories are all the rage right now. Joker gets a lot of the credit for this, and why not? It was a smaller film on Warner Bros.’ DC slate that nearly came from out of nowhere to stoke unexpected controversy and make a killing in the middle of it all. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance earned him an Oscar, and the film got a sequel, which wasn’t nearly as successful, but it still arose from a billion-dollar hit.
The Penguin and Colin Farrell followed to receive their flowers, and soon Clayface will leave its mark like a boot in wet mud. Joker and its sequel, Folie à Deux, are part of the puzzle, but their tormented wannabe antihero Arthur Fleck isn’t the spark that lit the fuse. That honor, if you want to call it that, belongs to Thanos. A year earlier, the space tyrant took the film world and pop culture by storm with a snap of his fingers.
And he stole the spotlight. As stacked and busy as Avengers: Infinity War was, it was Thanos’s movie through and through. He got the plot moving every step of the way, and ultimately won. His victory consequently raised the bar for the MCU, which turned up the pressure for the payoff in the smash denouement that was Endgame. Marvel hasn’t quite seen the same heights since, outside things like Deadpool & Wolverine, but you know they want to.
According to Earth 616 on X, early reports suggest Doom will receive more screen time than Thanos had in 2018. That says a lot when the Mad Titan had more than any of the heroes (even Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America), meaning Doom is going to eclipse all of them to become the new “Final Boss” of the MCU.
Getting back there won’t be easy as a lot has changed and so much has happened in the world; still, they have the template, and they know how to use it. Marvel sees the trend mentioned above unfolding around them; there is little doubt. So they are driven to raise the stakes with the best hand they have.
The centerpiece of that hand is Doctor Doom, a wildcard played by an even bigger wildcard in the bold casting of Robert Downey, Jr. As such, they are reportedly giving Doom (and Downey with his endless charisma) all the space and time in the multiverse he can handle to surpass Thanos and The Infinity Saga’s apocalyptic chaos.
Seeing as Doom already is that in the comics tenfold, it’s only fitting he gets to be on the big screen even more so, especially with his old enemy, Reed Richards, around. Both of them and everyone in between – except Thanos – will return in Avengers: Doomsday this December.
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