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Doctor Strange from Multiverse of Madness imposed over the Avengers: Endgame poster
Photos via Marvel Studios

Benedict Cumberbatch says he isn’t in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ — and he might’ve spoiled something even bigger

Leave some secrets for Mark Ruffalo to spill, Ben!

Who watches the Watchmen? Although this phrase is more typically associated with an iconic DC story, it’s a question that’s now haunting the Marvel universe after one of its best secret-keepers just let out a whopper of a spoiler himself. Benedict Cumberbatch — the man once employed to be Tom Holland’s babysitter during the Avengers: Infinity War press tour — has said something he really shouldn’t have done about 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday.

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In an in-depth chat with Variety, a curiously candid Cumberbatch came clean that he won’t be appearing in next year’s MCU team-up event, which will bring back a recast Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. “Is that a spoiler?” the Doctor Strange star asked himself, once it was too late. “F**k it!” 

Having let one cat out the bag, Bandersnatch Cummerbund decided to dump all the kittens loose. Variety notes that the 48-year-old actor revealed the plans for his character’s Avengers comeback changed after Jonathan Majors’ Kang was removed from the franchise and the whole conclusion to the Multiverse Saga was retooled. Stephen Strange supporters don’t need to worry, though, as Cumberbatch confirmed the sorcerer surgeon will be back in 2027’s Secret Wars instead.

“He’s quite central to where things might go,” the star hinted, regarding how his fan-favorite hero will factor into that film, the Endgame to Doomsday‘s Infinity War, also directed by the Russo brothers. As for why exactly Strange won’t be in next year’s effort, Cumberbatch may have told us all we need to know.

Why won’t Benedict Cumberbatch be in Avengers: Doomsday?

Scene from Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness
Image via Marvel Studios

Benvolio Cabbagepatch made clear that his absence from Doomsday wasn’t due to any problems with his availability or, heaven forbid, a lack of interest in reprising his role. He told Variety that Strange won’t be in it because of “the character not aligning with this part of the story.”

From that, we can perhaps infer a fair amount about the plot. Given how Strange is often treated as Marvel’s multiverse guy, considering he’s the key to the plots of both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness, it’s likely that Doomsday will mostly be set in the MCU’s Sacred Timeline before the Master of the Mystic Arts joins the fray and things get really crossover crazy in Secret Wars.

Last time, the Russos got around the problem of having so many characters to balance by stuffing everyone in Infinity War and then focusing in on a select few in Endgame. Thanks to Cumberbatch’s admission, it seems the directors are switching this trick this time around, with Doomsday perhaps having a slightly smaller cast ahead of everyone joining the party in Secret Wars. And given the unlimited playground of the multiverse, I do mean everyone.

At least we can rest assured Strange will survive Victor Von Doom’s wrath. Bensimon Cucumbermatch couldn’t resist spoiling just one more thing — he also announced he’s definitely back for Doctor Strange 3, with the studio currently quizzing him on who he’d like to direct it. There’s living dangerously and then there’s breaking your iron-tight Marvel NDA by spoiling 75 secrets at once.


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Christian Bone
Editor and Writer
Christian Bone is a Staff Writer/Editor at We Got This Covered. Since graduating with a Creative Writing degree from the University of Winchester, he has been cluttering up the internet with his thoughts on movies and TV for over a decade. The MCU is his comfort place but, if you asked him, he'd probably say his favorite superhero film is The Incredibles.