We still don’t know a lot about Doctor Doom’s motivation in Avengers: Doomsday, although his plan is undoubtedly connected to the multiversal shenanigans that have been going on throughout the last few phases of the MCU. With how massive the scale of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga is, it is impossible for Doom to have been with every individual superhero in Doomsday. However, there are some he definitely has a problem with.
In the newest trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, Doom says, “You have all lived stolen lives. But now you must give them back.” We don’t see who he is talking to, and we’re still not entirely sure what it means. However, it very well could be related to how MCU characters frequently meddle with time, which could have inadvertently led to the rise of Doom. So, here are the different characters we believe may be living “stolen lives,” and why Doom may want to get rid of them.
Although they are played by the same actors, the X-Men seen in Doomsday probably aren’t the same variants seen in FOX’s X-Men movie series. After all, these have different costumes, relationships, and team members, and while that could be drawn up to in-universe changes that occurred in the years since they were last seen, things like the new Sentinel design make this seem unlikely. However, both X-Men iterations will likely have a lot of parallels, meaning that Doomsday‘s mutants may have lived through events similar to those seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
In the film, the X-Men live in a dystopian 2023, causing them to send Logan back to 1973, where he can end the Sentinel program before it starts. This plan works, altering the timeline and creating a better 2023. The happier lives that many of the mutants live could be considered stolen, but things get even worse for the team when you remember that Logan’s actions literally bring Scott Summers and Jean Grey back to life. So, this would definitely put the X-Men on Doom’s chopping block, especially if they continue to mess with the timelines in Doomsday.
Of all the characters whose lives could be deemed stolen, Loki is arguably the most obvious. While the character’s mainline iteration died in Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers’ time travel plan in Endgame caused a Loki variant to obtain the Tesseract in 2012 and escape from his imprisonment after the Battle of New York. This led to the events of Loki, with him encountering the TVA, jumping to all kinds of different timelines, encountering Kang, and eventually becoming the new He Who Remains.
Loki seems to hold supreme power over the multiverse ahead of Doomsday, meaning Doom most definitely has his sights set on him. Doom could hope to steal Loki’s position as He Who Remains, and he may be justifying it to himself due to multiverse-hopping and killing also being how Loki got the position.
At the end of Endgame, Steve Rogers leaves to return the Infinity Stones to their timelines, only to return as an old man. What happened in between these two moments may be what leads Doom to his doorstep. After returning the Infinity Stones, Steve goes back to the 1940s and lives a full life with Peggy. This has raised lots of questions throughout the years, as it seems to contradict rules of the multiverse that were set up in projects like Loki. However, Doomsday may finally answer them.
Tons of rumors have indicated that Steve’s decision to go back in time to Peggy is the inciting incident of Avengers: Doomsday, with it potentially causing an incursion or another catastrophic event. If this event affects Doom, it would make sense for him to despise Steve, with him potentially going after him throughout the film. Steve’s return in his youthful form in Doomsday will obviously involve multiverse shenanigans in some way, so it only makes sense that they will play a big role in Doom’s arc.
While it makes sense for Doom to hold grudges against some characters in particular, his plan in Doomsday becomes terrifying when you remember that half of the universe may be living “stolen lives.” In Endgame, the Avengers have to go back in time in order to retrieve the Infinity Stones, which allow them to defeat Thanos and bring half of the universe back to life. Loki implies that this is part of the Sacred Timeline, but since that wasn’t a thing anymore, it’s hard to justify sanctioning this time travel plot while condemning all others.
This could be Doom’s point in Doomsday, with him not believing that the Avengers and those who are alive thanks to their actions in Endgame should go unpunished. Doom could see destroying half of all life in Earth-199999 as the only way to set the multiverse right, undoing the apparent damage that the Avengers did. This would put tons of Doomsday superheroes in danger, including Sam Wilson, Yelena, and potentially many more.
