Avengers: Doomsday is coming, and many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are still guessing about what the mega crossover event is going to bring. We know that Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom will be on a mission to seize control of a Marvel Multiverse that’s spiraling out of control; however, the motivations of the many other characters in the film has kept everyone guessing. We know the Avengers of the MCU will be facing off against the X-Men of the Fox Movie Universe, but the roots of that conflict remain totally unknown.
However, there have been clues during the Marvel Multiverse Saga that point to what the big conflict in Avengers: Doomsday will be all about. In fact, Captain America: Brave New World ended with a tease that practically spelled it out. But now, one cast member of Avengers: Doomsday is teasing a little more about what’s to come, and it may just confirm one of the bigger rumors about the film, and why it will be a Marvel superhero movie unlike any other.
James Marsden was one of the Avengers: Doomsday cast members that Empire magazine spoke to recently, and he had something curious to say about where his character, Cyclops, and the rest of the X-Men find themselves in the film:
“It’s an absolute colliion of three gigantic universes, coming together in the face of a very serious existential threat,” Marsden said in the interview. “You’re seein time on screen. You’re seeing these character from 27 years ago, in new costumes with new intentions and intensities.”
That quote about “new intensions and intensities” has raised many Marvel fans’ eyebrows. The way that Marsden phrases it, it seems like the X-men won’t have the normal heroic intentions that we know them for; it sounds like this “Avengers vs X-Men” conflict in Doomsday will see at least one team (the X-Men) purposefully trying to defeat the other, presumably to ensure the survival of their own universe, over the other.
That is exactly the dark scenario that Samuel Sterns/The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) teased to Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) at the end of Captain America: Brave New World: That heroes of different realities will have to decide between heroic morals and survival, when the incursions make each reality crash into one another. From Marsden’s words, it sounds like the X-Men will be fully aware of the multiversal collapse and the incursions, and will be on the offensive to ensure their universe. It’s an interesting flip on the X-Men’s cinematic legacy, and also hints at one of the main challenges of Avengers: Doomsday: making a film that turns cinematic heroes into antagonists, facing -off against one another. It’s a classic Marvel trope to have heroic teams have fights before they reach understanding and unite against a common threat; but will film audiences buy it?
There are also some major dangling threads still hanging over this story. It sounds like we may know the X-Men’s motivations, but then again, we also know they will be defending against a team of Avengers (and Co.) who are invading their universe (as confirmed by trailer scenes of a fight in the X-Mansion). Why the Avengers make the jump between universes is unknown, but fans have been keeping tabs on possibilities, such as Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) being stranded in the X-Men Universe, at the end of The Marvels.
Recent whispers of Avengers: Doomsday doing reshoots or the film still coming together in the editing bay, has some fans spooked. There is a lot of fan-service and spectacle that seems to be built into the film; now, we just need a compelling story and character drama to glue it all together.
Avengers: Doomsday will be in theaters on December 18th.
