Now that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is out, I for one am wondering when we could get a team-up movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe again. Ever since Avengers: Endgame, fans have been wondering when we could get another Avengers film, and while I don’t believe we’ll ever get a direct Avengers movie again, we are close to getting a Young Avengers movie, and I think we could get movies going forward where most, if not all, of the MCU heroes come together. Multiverse of Madness’ mid-credits scene did set the stage for Strange and Clea to try to stop an incursion, and seeing how the multiverse is a huge part of the MCU moving forward, this could be where we get a “Secret Wars” setup. Not the one from the 1980s, but a version of the newer one from 2015 which dealt with the multiverse collapsing in on itself.
2015’s “Secret Wars” was a story where the multiverse is being destroyed. Universes are crashing together one by one and the fate of these universes, including the original Marvel Universe Earth-616, are in danger. The heroes attempt to hold off annihilation, but in the end are unsuccessful. Doctor Doom however has, as in the original “Secret Wars”, once again delved into the great cosmic convergence and managed to steal the power of the race of Beyonders who created the multiverse and have begun to destroy it for reasons their own. Though he can’t save the multiverse, or even Earth-616 from their ultimate destruction, he is able to take pieces of the multiverse and puzzle together a new Battleworld (which is eventually the new collective Marvel Universe) under his complete control. No one who remains remembers the multiverse, they only know Battleworld. This existence works, though tenuously, until a cosmic lifeboat containing a few survivors from Earth-616, including Doom’s rival Reed Richards, is found.
Image via: GAMINGbible
In the original “Secret Wars” from the 80s, a cosmic being known as The Beyonder took heroes from all across the multiverse, and brought them together on a planet that he named Battleworld where contests took place which would see heroes fighting one another for sport. The version from 2015, which was a loose sequel, saw the multiverse falling apart and variants of villains such as Doctor Doom and Superior Iron Man took advantage. This twisted and far more arrogant version of Tony Stark tried to rule, while Doom set out to do what Beyonder had did all those years ago with Battleworld. Doom deep down always thought extremely highly of himself, so when the multiverse began to break, he went as war as to proclaiming himself as a god and deemed himself the new god of whatever is left of humanity after the cataclysmic event has finished.
Considering that the MCU hasn’t used Doctor Doom yet, let alone even teased him, I’m not sure how much of “Secret Wars” they’d follow to a tee. That being said, there is a long running rumor that in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Doom could be pulling strings has he starts a war between Wakanda and Atlantis. If that’s the case, we’ll surely get a nod to one of of the greatest villains in all of Marvel’s lore, and would clearly setup the Fantastic Four movie as well, which lost its director just last week in Jon Watts whose, “taking a break” from superhero movies.
Image via: Marvel Comics
Some fans might not know this, but Doctor Doom is as much as a villain to Black Panther and Wakanda as he is to the Fantastic Four. He’s arguably T’Challa’s best villain, and having him making a name for himself in the Black Panther sequel, would be wonderful. While it would be weird to see the villain in a Black Panther movie, or anything really, before a Fantastic Four movie comes out, I think I speak for all Marvel Comics fans when I say that I just want to see him!
The series was used as a means of combining universes, into one collective world on Earth-616. This would be a great way fo getting Mutants/X-Men into the fray, and Charles Xavier could wipe the minds of the newfound world’s population so they forget that they’re not on “their” world. Xavier has done this tactic many times, such as causing humans to forget about Mutants for their safety. “Secret Wars" ends with T'Challa and Doctor Doom locked in a battle for the fate of all existence. T'Challa at this point has control of the Infinity Gauntlet while Doom had the unworldly cosmic powers of the Beyonders. Eventually Doom was forced to battle Reed Richards on equal grounds, with their actual powers with no cosmic powers being involved, and Doom is defeated which led to the return of the Marvel Universe.
Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame have both said that they’d come back to the MCU in a heartbeat to direct a Secret Wars movie if Marvel Studios were to ever tackle this amazing. So it’s safe to say that if the MCU deals with “Secret Wars” at some point, they’d surely be in safe hands.