Avengers: Endgame brought an end to the Infinity Saga and also concluded Thanos’ reign of terror as the big bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As such, the studio now needs to find a new mega villain and so far, it’s looking like Doctor Doom is going to be the one to take on the role.
Indeed, Kevin Feige has made it clear that Marvel has big plans for the character and we know that he’ll likely be showing up in the franchise as soon as Phase 5. But the question of who might bring the part to life and where he’ll first appear still looms large for MCU fans.
Unfortunately, we still don’t have any concrete answers on either of those fronts just yet, but we did receive some interesting intel this week which could point to Ant-Man 3 being the movie to introduce us to the MCU’s next big bad. And given that it comes to us from the same sources who said Daniel Radcliffe was being eyed for Moon Knight back in September, which was confirmed earlier today, we have no reason to doubt it.
If you’ll recall, last night we told you that the villain of the aforementioned threequel will be a character known as the Benefactor, who was Sonny Burch’s mysterious boss in Ant-Man and the Wasp. It seems he’ll step out of the shadows in Scott Lang’s next solo film but his identity is currently being kept under wraps. According to our sources, though, he’ll end up being either Norman Osborn or Doctor Doom. And if it’s the latter, then that means the film will be our first introduction to the big bad.
Now, we’ve heard that Doom might appear in Black Panther 2 as well, and our sources say that’s still an option but like this Ant-Man 3 intel, it’s not set in stone. Right now, it seems that Marvel hasn’t decided on where they want the villain to show up first and we’ve heard that it’s a possibility that he could even be in both movies. Again, things are still up in the air, but if indeed Kevin Feige and co. choose to make him the mysterious Benefactor, then Ant-Man 3 might be a far more important film for the franchise than you’d think.
In any case, we have no doubt Marvel fully intends to use Doom in a way befitting his status as an iconic big bad, and no matter which film he makes his debut in, it seems like his presence is going to be felt in the franchise sooner rather than later.