Is Doctor Strange Doom's Masked Sheriff? A Possible Leaked Avengers: Doomsday Costume Fuels the Theory

A new Avengers: Doomsday costume that might be fake has surfaced, and if it is real, the most obvious explanation is that it belongs to Doctor Strange serving as Doctor Doom's sheriff. It joins several new updates about the Latverian witches displayed at San Diego Comic-Con, along with some confirmations from Chris Evans at Boston Fan Expo and some details from San Diego that a lot of us overlooked.

A possible leaked Latverian costume with a third eye slot may point to Doctor Strange

The costume was shared by an account on social media, and we have not been able to confirm its authenticity. It is worth noting that Disney has not issued a takedown notice. What we see is a metal mask with a hole in the forehead, and robes draped over armor in a dark brown or dark bronze color.

Based on the full body angle, I would say this character is male, or at least not gender specific, compared with the three Latverian witch costumes displayed at Comic-Con, which were green, brown and purple. There is also some speculation that this figure might be named Boris. That could be a reference to the Latverian man of that name who belonged to a Latverian clan and was close friends with Victor von Doom's parents. He took in young Victor after the parents died, but was always afraid of the boy as his powers increased.

If this is real, the most obvious explanation would be that Boris is actually Doctor Strange, given the way Strange was left in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with a third eye in his head.

Hickman's Secret Wars gives God Emperor Doom a sheriff in Doctor Strange

Doomsday and Secret Wars are confirmed to be adapting Jonathan Hickman's Time Runs Out and the Secret Wars 2015 crossover event, and in that story God Emperor Doom uses Doctor Strange as his sheriff in Battleworld. Concept art from 2025 seemed to point in that direction. We are still looking for answers as to what happened to Strange and Clea in the Multiverse of Madness post credit scene.

We also don't quite know why exactly Strange formed that third eye. It was really just believed to come from his experiences with Sinister Strange, who also had one, and from our Doctor Strange dreamwalking into the corpse of Defender Strange from the 616 universe and forming that unholy alliance with the souls of the damned. A line from Wong, asking how he was feeling after he used the Darkhold to dreamwalk into his own corpse, seemed to precede the opening of the third eye.

Then earlier this year, scooper Daniel RPK reported that in Avengers: Doomsday, Doctor Doom's right hand man will be a wizard who uses a sling ring and wears a mask similar to Doom's, but with a slot for a third eye on the forehead. This image seems to perfectly line up with that. Again, since we cannot confirm it, it could also just mean that someone out there used AI to make a depiction of a fan theory that many believe to be true.

While Benedict Cumberbatch has not yet been confirmed to be in Avengers: Doomsday, we very much expect him to be in the movie. Robert Downey Jr.'s Easter post included Easter egg designs in Doctor Doom's basket for every character in the team confirmed for Doomsday, and it included designs for Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, even though Tom Holland and Benedict Cumberbatch haven't yet been confirmed for the film.

I think Doctor Strange glimpsed Doctor Doom back in Infinity War

Some of the images of this Boris figure show his arm outstretched in a way that does look like the framing of Doctor Strange holding out his hand to retrieve the Time Stone and surrender it to Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. I do think Avengers: Doomsday will establish that the visions Doctor Strange had in that movie included some of the stories glimpsed in the first four teasers for the film.

I think Doctor Strange saw Victor von Doom when he did that, even if he thought at the time that the base he saw really belonged to Tony Stark. That could be why Strange was so shaken when he got out of those visions and looked directly into Tony's face.

I also think that when the Ancient One spoke to Bruce Banner in Avengers: Endgame, she was really referring to a possible future with Doom. She warned that removing one of the stones would split the flow of time, leaving a branch reality overrun, with millions suffering. Right after that, she asks, "But tell me, Doctor, can your science prevent all that?" Her mind may have been dwelling on another doctor who tried to apply science to prevent the suffering of millions.

Anthony Russo calls the Latverian witches an elemental part of Doctor Doom

When I reported on the three Latverian witches I saw at San Diego Comic-Con, I speculated that they might be masked in order to hide the identities of known Marvel figures. Asked by Extra about the witches, Anthony Russo said that we are just getting to know the world of Doom, and that the witches are a sort of elemental part of everything he is.

So what does that mean? For the purple one, I actually joined in the speculation that it could be Charlize Theron as Clea. I really like the idea that after the post credit scene in Multiverse of Madness, Doctor Strange and Clea end up as part of an order of priests or witches who serve Doctor Doom, similar to the Black Swan priestesses who serve Rama-Tut before we realize he's actually Doctor Doom in Hickman's comic storyline.

There has been a lot of speculation that the Green Witch could be Sylvie from Loki and that the Brown Witch could be Wanda Maximoff, or just variants of these women, but I'm not so sure. I prefer the theory that the Green Witch could be a variant of Susan Storm. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say it was actually the Green Witch whose face Franklin Richards was looking into in the Fantastic Four post credit scene, with his mother's face under that mask. I only doubt that because Matt Shakman confirmed to Brandon Davis that it actually was Robert Downey Jr. on set for that scene.

I do like the theory that the Brown Witch could be a variant of Peggy Carter, with brown being a reflection of the type of clothes she wore in the '40s in Captain America: The First Avenger.

Hayley Atwell confirms Peggy Carter shares scenes with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom

Technically, Hayley Atwell was not even confirmed to be in Doomsday until she was brought out on stage at Comic-Con, and she dropped some details in interviews after the panel that a lot of us overlooked. Speaking with Collider's Steven Weintraub, she described Downey's presence as Doom on set. Between takes, she said, he invites people to eat lunch with him and is open and fun, but when he's Doom it is enigmatic and domineering, really intimidating and very powerful. She said she didn't want that illusion broken for her in scenes, so she kept the feeling of not knowing who he really is or what he's capable of, only that there is a darkness there.

Atwell confirmed right there that she will be in scenes with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom, which isn't the case for all of the characters in this cast. Tenoch Huerta, for example, indicated that Namor won't share any actual scenes with Doctor Doom. Atwell also offered a cryptic statement, calling it "sort of an existential crisis of a movie" where the whole world is turned on its head and we don't even know who we are anymore.

That sounds to me like she could be playing an alternate version of Peggy Carter who is in service to someone else, someone she's now describing as enigmatic. She did keep using the term existential in all of these interviews, as if to say maybe Victor von Doom is going to make the case that Steve's life with Peggy shouldn't even exist.

So maybe with these witches, he's making them out of the life partners of the three heroes who pose the biggest threats to him: Peggy Carter, the partner to Steve; Susan Storm, the partner to Reed Richards; and Clea, the partner to Doctor Strange. Taking their wives and making them his own. Make of that what you will.

Chris Evans says Doomsday puts Steve Rogers through something brutal

Either way, it's certainly going to get personal between Doctor Doom and Steve Rogers in this movie. At Boston Fan Expo, Chris Evans talked to a friend of ours about his return to the Avengers franchise. He said none of the stories had felt worth compromising the legacy of the character they worked hard for, until Downey came back and the Russos gave him the pitch for Doomsday.

Evans said the Russos love to beat up Steve Rogers, because to them a hero is "not someone who never gets punched, but someone who gets punched so many times who still gets up." He said they keep finding new ways to beat him down, that this one was brutal and a really good examination of his nature and his values, and that it's probably something fans haven't seen yet.

I think the new brutality Evans is talking about when it comes to Steve is Steve having to watch horrible things happen to Peggy.

Do you think the witches are variants of Clea, Susan Storm and Peggy Carter, and is the masked Boris really Doctor Strange?