Avengers: Doomsday rumor: Tobey's Spider-Man vs the X-Men

A rumor I received several requests and questions about claimed that Avengers: Doomsday opens with a battle between universes: the Fox X-Men universe against the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man universe. According to the rumor, Tobey's Spider-Man doesn't fight alone. He has help from Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, while the X-Men work together against him. I don't know if it's real, but if it is, I think it would be brilliant.

The rumor goes further. It says the X-Men universe destroys Tobey's universe and that Tobey dies. There's a lot to unpack, including how a moment from the Doomsday trailer featuring James Marsden's Cyclops could fit into this exact scene.

Insiders had already been raving about the Avengers: Doomsday opening scene

Before this rumor surfaced, we had already been hearing that the opening of Avengers: Doomsday is unbelievable, something that's never been done before. The talk was that the movie hits the ground running and plants a flag with something enormous right away.

John Campea and Robert Meyer Burnett, who both say they know the entire plot of Doomsday, had been raving about how awesome the opening scene is. Rob said he doesn't even know how they are going to accomplish what he has read. If it turns out the scene is Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man fighting the Fox era X-Men, that is awesome on so many levels.

Why the Fox X-Men and Tobey Maguire Spider-Man universes are the right pair for an incursion

There's a meta level here. There's Blade, of course, but the two big original Marvel movie universes were the Tobey Spider-Man universe and the Fox X-Men universe. Getting to see those two worlds collide is exciting, and I've talked before about how exciting it would be to see Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man share the screen.

Using two universes that are so well established, known and loved by audiences would be a smart way to introduce the concept of an incursion, two universes colliding into one another. That reminds us of what we learned in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and from the comics: an incursion can result in one or both universes dying, but if one universe can destroy the other before both are destroyed, that universe can be spared.

If the movie sets itself up by showing a huge incursion between those two original universes, I think that's awesome and brilliant at the same time, because everybody knows Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and everybody knows Patrick Stewart's Professor X. We might get James Marsden's Cyclops in there too, and I think the shot of him we saw in the Doomsday trailer could actually be from this rumored scene.

Doc Ock and Norman Osborn could help Tobey's Peter understand what's happening

I'd love to see Tobey, Dr. Octavius and Norman Osborn working together, because they're the smartest people from their universe, realizing that an incursion is happening. If Tobey went back to his universe after Spider-Man: No Way Home and met up with the same Otto Octavius and Norman Osborn, now redeemed and living very different lives, they would know from their shared experience of multiversal travel that they are in a predicament where universes are colliding.

Why it would be happening between the Spider-Man universe and the Fox X-Men universe is an open question. The Spider-Man universe did have some crossover with the MCU's 616, so we'll just have to see. But I love the idea of either seeing it or getting a line from Tobey, if he survives the fight, saying that he, Dr. Octavius and Dr. Osborn were working to make it stop but couldn't.

On the other side, you could learn that Beast has been working on the same problem. With Monica Rambeau there and him learning about the multiverse, that could be their connection to it. The X-Men could have been prepping, and they might attack Tobey's universe because they know the only way to save their own reality from an incursion that will end with both dying is to destroy the other one.

I don't think that's something Tobey would be willing to do. And now that Doc Ock and Green Goblin are redeemed and good guys, maybe they're not willing to do it either.

Professor X and Magneto could be arguing a trolley problem

In the Avengers: Doomsday X-Men trailer, Magneto has a line about how it isn't about how you die, but who you are when you close your eyes. I had previously suspected that Magneto might be his true isolationist self, pushing for destroying the other universe as the only way out. Now I wonder if it's Professor Xavier who is the more logic driven one.

Xavier could be treating it like a trolley problem: a train is about to hit three people, so pull the lever and it only hits one person on the other track, which is better because fewer people die. The counterargument is that it wasn't good to interfere in the first place, and by pulling that lever you're killing the other person.

So Xavier could be saying they will either see both universes die or kill the other universe first and save their own. Magneto could answer by asking if that's who he wants to be when he closes his eyes. If both universes die, that's tragic, but if the way to prevent it makes you question who you are, is saving your universe worth going down that dark path? We could see that conversation, and possibly the fight itself, play out in the X Mansion.

Is the Cyclops visor moment from the Doomsday trailer part of this scene?

I wonder if the moment in the Doomsday trailer where Cyclops rips off his mask belongs to this scene. He looks distraught, as if he doesn't want to do it. What if that's him delivering the final blow? His optic blasts come from a different dimension that his mutation gives him access to, and they come from his eyes.

What if ripping off that mask is the nail in the coffin, closing the tear between these realities and killing the Tobey universe for good? He'd hate it because he's a good guy and a hero who doesn't like what he has to do, but he's willing to do it. And what if the Sentinels are there, not attacking, but under X-Men control by that point and used to kill the other universe? That all sounds insane to me.

Where the rumor came from and why I'm not sure it's real

Is it real? I don't know. I saw it come up on Twitter, and many people were running with it. They were citing a commentator who says he has been told this. He does have a big following, and I'm sure he has some connections or people in the know who might whisper things to him, so it could be the real deal.

I'd be anxious to hear whether John Campea comes out and says no comment, or says that's not how it opens. Campea has been willing to respond when certain rumors come out, sometimes saying that something isn't in the movie or doesn't happen that way, so I'd be curious to see how he responds to this one.

DanielRPK says Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man is returning in Avengers: Doomsday

Separately, DanielRPK, a somewhat reliable leaker, says Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man is 100% returning in Doomsday. Someone posted that it was 11 months until we potentially see the return of Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man in Doomsday, and he quote tweeted it saying "not potentially 100%."

I'm very excited that Tobey's returning, and I think it's smart to have him back. I've said Spider-Man was always going to be in Doomsday. I wasn't sure which Spider-Man, but it would be insane, given how important this movie is for Marvel, not to use its heaviest hitter. With the movie leaning into nostalgia and the multiverse, with universes crashing into each other, bringing back Tobey checks both boxes.

His solo films were a long time ago, but everyone has seen them, and everyone saw No Way Home. That puts him on the same level as Chris Evans' Steve Rogers, so he can carry this scene where it's rumored he might die. I've said I do think we could see Tobey die in the movie, but I don't think they kill him at the very opening. It would be emotional and would really plant a stake, but do we see Cyclops rip off the visor and kill Tobey's Spider-Man? I don't know.

A Spider-Man and Doc Ock team up against the X-Men would scratch a childhood itch

The idea that Doc Ock is there helping Peter, not only to figure out what's going on with the universes colliding but to fight the X-Men, is exciting to me. A scene of Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and Alfred Molina's Doc Ock in a battle with the Fox X-Men "was every play session I had with my action figures when I was a kid." I had the Spider-Man 2 action figures and the Fox era X-Men figures, and they would always cross paths.

Being a fan since I was a kid and seeing this possibly happen in Doomsday, "it's scratching an itch that has never been scratched," even after Infinity War and Endgame. If Avengers: Doomsday opens not in the MCU but with those two original universes and their classic characters, known and loved by fans new and old, fighting each other to establish the stakes of the movie, I think that would be absolutely brilliant.