Avengers: Doomsday teaser seems to confirm Doom leak

The Russo brothers followed up their earlier Avengers: Doomsday photo tease with a cryptic clip, and this one is more upfront. In my view, it all but confirms a piece of leaked concept art showing Doctor Doom on his throne with Sue Storm and Franklin Richards beside him, while also pointing to a connection between Doom and Iron Man.

The earlier photo came with the instruction "Look hard," and with that one we weren't completely sure what we were supposed to be looking for. This time the Russos are clearly trying to show specific things, and they center on Iron Man, Doctor Doom and the Fantastic Four.

AGBO's teaser puts Iron Man and Doctor Doom masks side by side

The clip came from the official TikTok account of AGBO Films, the company the Russo brothers own. It's set to two very popular songs. One is the song "What's Up?" The other is a remix of a Nicki Minaj track. I'm sure the lyrics have meaning here, and I'll come back to them at the end of this piece.

The people in the clip appear to be AGBO workers, since this seems to be their workspace. One of them wears an Iron Man mask and another wears a Doom mask. To me, that's a clear tease that there is going to be a connection between Doctor Doom and Iron Man.

That fits with what had already been said. The Russo brothers had confirmed that Tony Stark's snap will connect deeply to the story of Avengers: Doomsday. Robert Downey Jr. had also teased some kind of relationship between Doom and Iron Man on his Instagram account a couple of times. At one point he showed comics he was reading that had Doom going up against Iron Man.

I do expect an Iron Man variant to show up in Avengers: Doomsday, and I do expect him to be played by Robert Downey Jr. But I don't think that will be the main focus of the movie, or even one of the main focuses. I think it's more about the connection between a Tony Stark variant and a Victor von Doom variant.

The Kang leak that ties Tony Stark to Victor von Doom

There was a plot leak that I thought offered a good explanation of how Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, from the main Earth 616 universe, who died in Avengers: Endgame, and Victor von Doom are connected. It involves Kang. A few insiders had stated that this is what Marvel Studios was planning, and what it had originally planned for Kang's story.

According to those insiders, He Who Remains, a variant of Kang, rewrote the history of the Earth 616 universe, the main MCU timeline. He did this to hide the truth of the multiverse. Part of that, the leak claims, was transforming Victor von Doom into Tony Stark. He also reportedly reshaped major events of that universe to prepare for a future multiversal battle.

The reasoning given is that he considered Victor von Doom too dangerous. So, the story goes, he rewrote him in this timeline as Tony Stark, with the same mind but a new life and an altered identity. Reportedly, Kang did all of this not to end the multiversal war but to prepare for a bigger war coming with the Council of Kangs, who kicked him out and betrayed him.

In that leak, a multiversal variant of Doctor Doom, not the same one from the 616 universe who became Tony Stark, figures out what Kang did and is furious. His plan is to rewrite the true history of the multiverse. That's why he wants Franklin Richards, and Franklin is teased in this AGBO clip too.

A green Doom costume flanked by Sue Storm and Franklin Richards

As the shot rotates toward the back of the room, you can spot the green Doctor Doom if you look very closely. They make sure not to show the entire thing, because this is obviously going to be a costume Doom wears in the movie. Sue Storm stands on his right and Franklin Richards on his left.

What's interesting is that this lines up with leaked concept art from before, which showed Doom on his throne as God Emperor Doom with Sue Storm and Franklin Richards next to him. I'd say this teaser is basically confirming that image is going to happen. As I read it, it's also confirming that Doctor Strange will be on Doom's other side.

That would mean they're taking a huge page from the 2015 Secret Wars, where Doctor Strange is Doom's right hand man and controls the police force Doom oversees. It also looks to me like Doom is going to take Reed Richards' family, which is what happens in the comics. There, Doom is married to Sue Storm and their kids are Franklin and Valeria.

Valeria isn't born yet, at least not to our knowledge. She could be hidden behind the people in the shot, or she could be next to Franklin, but probably not, because she'd just be a baby. As we learned from The Fantastic Four: First Steps, its post credits scene and some leaks, Franklin is the important piece here, and he's who Doom wants.

Why I think Doom uses Franklin to create Battleworld

Some leaks had said that Doom wants Franklin so he can restore the multiverse to how it was supposed to be before He Who Remains altered it. But considering what we see here, and that it seems to confirm the leaked concept art, I think we more or less know that Avengers: Doomsday will end with the destruction of the multiverse. It does seem like this confirms Doom will create Battleworld and rule over it.

This is where the talk of Doom being both a villain and a hero comes into play. The multiverse is being destroyed, the incursions are happening, and it's about to come to an end. It sounds like Doom wants Franklin to restore the multiverse, which would keep it from being destroyed. He'd be trying to save it and return it to how it was, which could be seen as Doom being the hero.

Ultimately, though, it seems that isn't an option. The only option left is what happens in the comics: they can save only one thing, one universe, one planet, Battleworld, and Doom is the one to do it. In the comics he does that by stealing the power of the Beyonders through Molecule Man. He doesn't have that here, and while Marvel had teased the Beyonder, what makes the most sense, especially with this tease, is that he uses Franklin.

Franklin is one of the most powerful characters in Marvel comics, and he can create pocket universes. At the end of the 2015 Secret Wars story, those pocket universes are used to restore the multiverse, with help from Molecule Man and Reed Richards. I think they're taking many pages from that story and altering them slightly. Somehow Doom uses Franklin's powers to save one universe, one planet, makes it Battleworld and rules it. I think that's pretty much confirmed by this tease.

The song lyrics split Doom and Iron Man

I think the lyrics point to Doom being the most powerful variant of all. The Nicki Minaj lyrics amount to saying that nobody can tell her anything, nobody is bigger and no one is more powerful. That's the Doom side, and that music plays when we see Doom.

The other side, Iron Man, gets the 4 Non Blondes question of what's going on. If everything we've heard about Tony Stark is true, that he's a Victor von Doom variant who was altered, then that would be an appropriate question for him to ask.