Avengers Doomsday Reshoots Reportedly Focused on the Witches of Latveria, Not New Cameos

The reshoots for Avengers Doomsday have reportedly concluded, and a new insider update changes how I am reading everything that came before it. About a month ago, industry insider Daniel Richtman said cameos were being added during the reshoots. Around the same time, a plot leak described a chaotic third act built around something called a Tony Stark protocol, supposedly summoning a wave of heroes who had been mostly absent from the film to march on Doom's castle and fight off the incoming incursion.

Those two reports were never confirmed to be connected, but they landed close together, which fed the idea that Marvel Studios was piling new characters into the finale at the last minute. Now industry insider Caleb Williams has offered a different explanation in his latest update.

In his own words, Williams said, "The additional filming for Avengers Doomsday, was for the Witches of Latveria, not brand new characters."

Why a Scarlet Witch Cameo Still Lines Up

There is an important distinction to make here. Richtman, the insider who first reported the cameo additions, only ever named one character specifically, and that was Scarlet Witch. So even with Williams now saying the added filming was for the witches of Latveria rather than brand new characters, it is still very congruent that Scarlet Witch could have been one of those additions.

What I take from this is that Williams is describing the overall focus of the reshoots, not ruling out Scarlet Witch specifically. The reshoots were centered on the witch scenes rather than on adding major new characters or wild cameos for the third act battle. That is still a major reveal given everything the plot leaks have suggested about this part of the story over the last two years.

What the Plot Leaks Say Happens at the Witches' Castle

I want to issue a light spoiler warning here in case anyone has avoided this story or is just catching up before Doomsday. According to plot leaks from the last two years, when the witches at Doom's castle begin revealing themselves one by one, it is supposed to be the crux of a major revelation in the movie. One of them reportedly takes the form of Peggy Carter in order to torture Steve Rogers.

By the time the story reaches this point, Doom is said to have Steve Rogers kidnapped and held. As the witches reveal themselves, Doom reportedly reveals Steve Rogers' son, James, and kills him in front of Steve Rogers. Insiders have described this as a scene that maybe even went too far for Disney.

Why I Don't Think Anything Is Off the Table for This Film

If you have been paying attention to what the Russos and Kevin Feige have said about Doomsday, this is being described as the most serious Avengers film, maybe one of the more serious Marvel films made. I don't think anything is off the table for Marvel at the moment.

Part of the reason is the shadow this film is working under. They are trying to live up to the expectation set by Infinity War and Avengers Endgame without repeating those films, and that is a very high bar. Anything that pushes the film's boundaries further, even something insiders have suggested may be out of bounds for Disney, seems to be on the table as a way to go further than what came before.

The Family Theme Running Through the Trailers

A lot of the preview footage has focused on the children of Thor and Steve Rogers, highlighting the importance of family in this story. That tracks with what we already know is coming in Avengers Secret Wars, where Sue Storm and Franklin Richards, when reincarnated or transported to Battleworld, will reportedly be part of Dr. Doom's family rather than Reed Richards.

Given all of that, I am not shocked the reshoots ended up focusing on the scene with the witches. It arrives at such an important point in the film that as the script continued to evolve, there may have been important lines the writers needed to work into that scene to set up what is coming in the sequel.

Why Filming Happened in Two Separate Sections

Filming this movie in two major sections was originally planned as a follow-up round rather than a last-minute scramble. I think this is probably the Russos definitely learning from their own process on Infinity War and Endgame, making sure they gave themselves enough time to figure out the changes they needed and then enough additional time to actually film them.

That extra round of filming appears to have been used specifically to refine the witches' scene, which lines up with how central that sequence is supposed to be to the plot.

How Big a Role Will the Witches Actually Play?

I don't suspect the witches are going to play an entirely huge role in the film overall. Think about the Black Order in Infinity War and, to some extent, Endgame. They had something to do with the story, but they were not an integral part of it.

My theory is that when we pick up with Dr. Doom in Doomsday, he will already be well into his plan, with the incursions serving as just the final stage. Along the way, he may have decided that assembling the most powerful sorcerers to his side was the only way to bolster his own magic enough to take on someone like Loki, steal his magic, and become God, Emperor Doom.

Going one step further, since Doctor Strange has also used the Darkhold, it is possible Doom is specifically compiling Darkhold users rather than sorcerers generally, given how useful their established dreamwalking ability would be for a version of Doom who is recruiting across the multiverse.

The bridge footage to Doomsday is now screening alongside the Avengers Endgame Encore, and I am hoping they really swung for the fences with it. What do you think the witches' true role in Doomsday will turn out to be?