Avengers Doomsday Leak Hints Dr. Doom Could Build His Own Avengers Team

A new Avengers Doomsday leak claims concept art shows Sam Wilson, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Gambit and Clea inside Dr. Doom's castle in matching costumes. From what the leaker understands, the others besides Strange and Clea have switched sides and joined Doom. If that holds up, it sounds more than ever like Doom will have his own Avengers team. The hard part is figuring out where in the film those heroes could possibly turn, especially given what we have found out about Doomsday only being about two and a half hours long.

Usual spoiler warning: if you do not want to know this stuff, now would be the time to back out.

Dr. Doom's followers already go beyond the sorcerers we have seen

Pretty early on, we could tell Doom would already have a number of followers by the time we got to Avengers Doomsday. We knew that because he was manipulating the Fantastic Four at the very least, presenting himself as an ally trying to save the multiverse when his whole plan is really to make the multiverse collapse so he can rule over Battleworld.

Over the last two months, Marvel Studios has shown us some of those followers. It has gone beyond a quick frame in a recent trailer to costume reveals at San Diego Comic Con, a recent poster, and a group of different coloured, cloaked Latverian witches. Credit where credit's due: Daniel RPK absolutely nailed that scoop in January of this year. The early leaks and rumours said these characters were witches, or probably a better term, sorcerers. That is why we have all pegged one to be Clea, one to maybe be Scarlet Witch, and the one with the third eye and his mask draped in black to be, for sure, Doctor Strange.

Then came the post credits scene for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, followed by the clarification in the post credits scene for Avengers Endgame Encore. With Doom "collecting" Hulk and now probably Spider-Man as well, you have to imagine the followers he is amassing go way beyond magic users. The latest leak suggests that by the end of Doomsday, he is apparently going to do just that.

From what the leaker understands, Sam Wilson, Black Panther and Gambit join Doom

These details were reposted to Reddit from the original Russian Telegram account that leaked footage earlier this year of Doom raising the Sentinels and fighting against the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four. I often remind you to stay skeptical and take everything with a grain of salt, but this source has basically proven their track record as of late. Take that as you will.

The leaker says they have seen concept art featuring Sam Wilson, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Gambit and Clea inside Dr. Doom's castle, all wearing identical black costumes with gold stripes similar to the ones Strange wears in the Secret Wars comics. They then add: "From what I understand, the others besides Strange and Clea have switched sides and joined Dr. Doom." The final detail is that Charlie Cox's Daredevil and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man apparently have concept art showing them interacting, which I will come back to further down.

Doomsday's timeline leaves little room for heroes to change sides

It is hard to tell where and when a side switch would take place. From what we have seen already, I think it is pretty clear Doom will present as an ally through the first act. By the time we get to the X-Mansion, when Reed asks Victor, "Did you do this?", it will be revealed that Doom is behind the collapse of the multiverse. Somewhere in or towards the second act, Doom will raise the Sentinels in the courtyard of the X-Mansion and there will be an all out battle.

That will not be the final battle. Later, in the Baxter Building, we see Sue Storm explaining what happened with Doom to a Magneto with a broken arm, with Gambit sitting in the living room. That has to come after the reveal, because she says, "I didn't know he was broken." Then we head into the third act where, if the rumours are true (and most of the rumours up till now have been true), there is going to be a major march on Latveria.

Somewhere along that timeline, Steve Rogers is apparently kidnapped and taken to Doom's castle, where it is revealed that Peggy Carter is one of the witches, which is probably just shapeshifting manipulation, and they might actually kill his son in front of him. So when are heroes like Gambit and Sam Wilson supposed to switch sides? Or does it happen right at the end of the film? Following the official trailers and promo plus the rumours, there does not seem to be an instance where Doom has even offscreen time to convert major characters who are fighting alongside the other Avengers and X-Men for a majority of the film.

My theory: the heroes are taken alongside Steve Rogers

The only place I can see this happening is when Doom apparently kidnaps Steve Rogers, after all the cards are on the table and the heroes know he is not the ally he presented as. Perhaps Doom also takes Sam Wilson, Gambit and a couple of other characters, kidnapping them from the battle after they are wounded or knocked out. They get taken to Latveria and are not part of that final march. Some of the Avengers and X-Men then have to fight against them in the third battle instead of alongside them.

It would make for quite the mixup. I think this could also be where it is revealed that Doom has Hulk, maybe even Spider-Man, and who knows who else. The window would be after the second act battle, while our heroes are regrouping and getting ready to march on Latveria, with Doom converting the captured heroes offscreen.

The deck is stacked in Doom's favour

Sam Wilson is not the most powerful pickup to throw on your squad, but Gambit is pretty strong, and so is Black Panther. If you think about who would be left on the hero side, aside from Sentry and Thor, "the deck is stacked and definitely heavy in Dr. Doom's favor."

A majority of the Thunderbolts are enhanced super soldiers or less. A lot of the strongest magic wielders, like Clea and Doctor Strange, are on Doom's side, and there is no Scarlet Witch on the hero side to even it out. Rocket, Star-Lord and some of the other characters rumoured to show up in the third act can help in the battle, but Doom is going to have a majority of the heavy hitters, especially if he can pick up and convert extra followers along the way.

The old Captain Hydra rumour may be coming back around

There is a rumour from almost two years ago that started to look less and less likely but may be coming back around to have been mostly right, save a couple of details. When it was first scooped that Chris Evans was returning as Steve Rogers, the rumour was that he was coming back as Captain Hydra, an evil variant of Captain America, alongside Doom. That turned into the rumour that Doom would have an evil version of the Avengers from across the multiverse to fight the conglomerate of the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Avengers.

Again, that looked less likely as we learned more about the film. But imagine the third act if Doom truly has Doctor Strange, Gambit, Black Panther, Sam Wilson, Spider-Man, Hulk and who knows who else fighting by his side. That would essentially be Doom's own Avengers fighting against the heroes. So while that rumour may have had one or two things wrong, it sounds like more now than ever, Doom will have his own Avengers team.

Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man and Charlie Cox's Daredevil feel more like Secret Wars

I am very skeptical about the concept art of Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man and Charlie Cox's Daredevil, but it also sounds like something Marvel may choose to do, because they have shown a propensity to work in cameos that have not always served the plot. The Avengers Endgame Encore scene showed the multiverse seemingly collapsing down to three timelines: 10005, 616 and 828. Presumably we will see some of the lead up to that. Unless every plot leak for the last six months has been wrong, we will at least see 10005 battling against Tobey Maguire's universe early in the film, which you could argue makes a Garfield and Cox interaction even less likely.

If Marvel goes further and shows us other dimensions as incursions are going off, who knows what variants we may see. It would be very easy to bring those two actors in, have them film on a green screen, probably even separately, and cobble together a quick scene. Still, I do not think that is going to happen in Avengers Doomsday. To me, it more likely sounds like something for Secret Wars.

If you listen to Andrew Garfield talk about Marvel recently, he seems a couple of degrees disconnected, with Spider-Man: No Way Home very much in his rearview mirror. I do not put it past any actor right now to pick up a check from Marvel and Disney for a cameo, but I think it is unlikely we will see his Spider-Man in Doomsday. Secret Wars could be a whole different thing. Charlie Cox's Daredevil has definitely earned his time on the silver screen, and of all the characters who seem like they should not have a place in Doomsday, he is the one I would most like to see get a shot, although I find it pretty unlikely.

Doom may be installing these heroes as enforcers across Battleworld

Much in the way Doom is going to make Doctor Strange his sheriff in Battleworld, I think he may be installing these recruited heroes as his enforcers or overseers in the different zones of Battleworld. Peter Parker could be in Spider Island. Maybe Hulk becomes his enforcer in the remnants of the Planet Hulk zone we have seen in concept art, which is part of the 2015 Jonathan Hickman realm, though we do not really have enough Hulks to fill that out.

Who do you think will end up on Doom's side by the end of Avengers Doomsday, and which Multiverse Saga character are you most hoping to see?