Avengers: Doomsday theory: does Doctor Strange serve Doom?

I think we've figured out how Doctor Strange fits into Avengers: Doomsday: as a lieutenant, or sorcerer in chief, to Doctor Doom himself. The seeds were already planted in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), and I think they could connect to the four teasers, the concept art and everything we've been told about this movie.

There are 14,000,605 ways this movie could go, but I believe there's one way all of these dots will connect. It starts with what we knew for sure about Doctor Strange and Avengers: Doomsday, and it ends with why Stephen Strange looked so afraid when he saw those 14,000,605 futures.

Benedict Cumberbatch was not confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday

At the time, Benedict Cumberbatch still had not been confirmed to be in Avengers: Doomsday. In January 2025, he went back and forth on whether he would even be in the movie. At first he said he would not be in it and would only be in Secret Wars. Then he corrected himself to say he would be in both Doomsday and Secret Wars.

Cumberbatch was still expected to appear in Doomsday, as he had indicated in other interviews about his involvement in the next Avengers movie. But in the March 2025 set chair announcement, his name was not listed among the actors in the cast. Since then, though, Chris Evans showed up in the first teaser for the film despite also not being listed on those set chairs. So that door remained wide open for other Marvel actors to return beyond the names on the chairs.

Daniel RPK claims Doctor Doom will be flanked by a wizard sidekick with a mask slot for a third eye

Any Marvel production in the UK that spring would be for Avengers: Doomsday, because the latest rumors at the time were that production for Secret Wars would not begin until August. Scooper Charles Murphy claimed that Benedict Cumberbatch filmed "pivotal high-security scenes for Doomsday" under a production code name.

In that article, Murphy quoted another scooper, Daniel RPK, who had claimed that in Doomsday, Doctor Doom will be flanked by a "wizard sidekick" who wears a variation of the Latverian mask. According to that claim, the mask features a distinct slot on the forehead for a third eye.

Doctor Strange's third eye in Multiverse of Madness

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ended with Stephen Strange returning to his home 616 universe with all seemingly well. Then a third eye opened on his head. We were meant to assume that eye still connected him with the three-eyed Sinister Strange from the post-incursion universe, the Strange he fought in a musical battle and impaled.

There are a few ways to interpret Strange's third eye and the panic he seemed to be in at that moment. Maybe Sinister Strange was dreamwalking into his body, risking an incursion from that broken reality into this one. Or maybe the souls of the damned, which Strange partnered with to dreamwalk into the corpse of Defender Strange from the 617 universe during the final battle, continued to curse him in the ways Sorcerer Supreme Wong warned about during their final chat at Kamar-Taj.

But then, in the post-credit scene, Strange is bizarrely at peace with his third eye as he joins Clea to go into the Dark Dimension. She tells him he caused an incursion that they're going to fix, and he says he isn't afraid in the least.

Doctor Strange as the Sheriff of Agamotto in Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars

These claims from Daniel RPK and Charles Murphy are in line with the role Doctor Strange plays in Jonathan Hickman's 2015 Secret Wars comic storyline. There, Strange serves as the Sheriff of Agamotto, the right hand of God Emperor Doom, managing law and order on Battleworld.

We've been predicting this for some time, ever since we saw Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars #5 lying on the ground next to Deadpool in the Void in Deadpool and Wolverine. That's the issue with the flashback where Doctor Strange accompanies Doctor Doom as he takes Owen Reece, the Molecule Man, to face the Beyonders. Doom redirects their power so he can transfer it to himself and power up into God Emperor Doom. Once the transfer is complete, Doctor Strange swears loyalty to Doom.

Leaked concept art and Cryptic's claim that Loki replaces the Beyonders

In spring 2025, the alleged concept art leak showed an illustration of a medieval court where one person kneels in judgment before a seated God Emperor Doom on his throne. Standing to the side of him is a figure who appears to be the Sheriff of Agamotto version of Doctor Strange.

Separately, the scooper account Cryptic made a long run of plot leak claims in a short span. Among the unconfirmed things he claimed: Loki will replace the Beyonders. The idea is that rather than absorbing the Beyonders' power through Molecule Man, the Doom played by Robert Downey Jr. will do that to Loki, the God of Stories, as we saw him at the end of Loki Season 2. Doom would then have power over the Yggdrasil world tree shape the multiverse took as the new Sacred Timeline, letting him remake reality however he sees fit.

I think there's going to be some connection between that and the Russos referring to the four teasers not as trailers but as stories. In other words, they're glimpses of reality as someone would see it if they had control over those strands of time. In the Loki pilot, we learned the TVA did not allow magic inside the facility, which is why Loki couldn't conjure his sorcery to fight his way out. But maybe what Loki did at the Temporal Loom in that finale made magic usable in the TVA again. Maybe that protocol wasn't originally a factor in stopping sorcerers like Doom from ever sacking the TVA.

Could Clea and Doctor Strange replace the Black Swans?

Another claim from Cryptic is that there will be some alternative to the Black Swans. This refers to a group of priestesses from another dimension who serve a masked figure called Rabum Alal, who we later learn is actually Victor Von Doom.

There were early rumors that Ana de Armas might join the cast as the main Black Swan. But perhaps that role could be reassigned to Clea and Doctor Strange, explaining what they've been doing in the Dark Dimension since the Multiverse of Madness post-credit scene. Maybe when Clea arrived to scold Strange for causing an incursion they would have to fix, they both ended up in servitude to a masked figure they'll later find out is Doctor Doom. They might think he's a good guy with some random name like Rabum Alal.

Doom's hidden identity and the trouble with anonymous leaks

Cryptic also claims Doom's identity will be hidden from the Avengers and other Marvel heroes so he can manipulate them into helping carry out his plans. He also claims that whatever reason the Russos had for casting Robert Downey Jr., the reason Victor Von Doom has the same face as Tony Stark will not be explained in Doomsday. I hope that's not true.

Cryptic further claims all of Doom's followers in the movie will have their identities hidden too, which I would take to include Doctor Strange if that three-eyed mask report is true.

Between this and another plot leak that went on and on about Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man but didn't include the Thunderbolts, who we know will be in this movie, you can see how almost anyone with an anonymous social media handle can claim anything with authority. It then becomes the head canon that many people judge my reporting against. So, sadly, I can't ignore these claims when they're made.

Why Doctor Strange looked afraid at the 14,000,605 futures

Whether it's rumor or real news, it all points to the fact that everything in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is very important to the overall Multiverse Saga and to Doomsday. That movie, along with everything Strange did in Spider-Man: No Way Home, is going to be seen as the first steps leading directly to the plot of Doomsday: the incursions, the dreamwalking, the multiverse logic, and the rule that when characters in the MCU dream, they're peering into the lives of their multiversal selves.

Back in the Infinity Saga, Doctor Strange looked ahead to 14,000,605 future outcomes and told Tony there was one where they would win, the one he later signaled to Tony with a trembling hand on the Endgame battlefield. I think the fear on Stephen's face was because one of the futures he saw was one where he would end up serving Doom to save the multiverse.

And I think the stories, as the Russos called the first four teasers, are stories from the Sacred Timeline tree of Loki, the God of Stories, that Strange's boss might have drawn out of him. They're visions Strange was able to see with his third eye, the same ones that overwhelmed him back when he was using the Time Stone.