Avengers: Doomsday remains shrouded in mystery. We now know that when the film begins, the Marvel Multiverse will be in a cataclysmic state, as different realities begin to collide in mass incursions. It’s also clear that Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) will be a figure of immense power who steps up to forge some surviving reality after the multiverse collapses; what’s more unclear is just how much help Doom will have in the film.
Promotional events featuring Avengers: Doomsday have also revealed a set of characters we haven’t seen in trailers or images: the “Latverian Witches,” aka three female lieutenants of Doom, each masked and cloaked to conceal their identities. However, some new artwork from Avengers: Doomsday seems to reveal that a major character seen in some previous leaks is no longer part of the film. And that would be a major late-game change of plans.
Concept artist Jorge Molinam recently posted some artwork he did for an Avengers: Doomsday and Magic: The Gathering collab, featuring Doctor Doom and the Doom Witches. However, early sketches in the slideshow feature Doom, the three mysterious female witches, and “Boris,” a male figure, hidden behind a helmet and mask, who seemed to be Doom’s right-hand man. So why is he missing from the final artwork on the MTG card?
“Boris” made big headlines back in the summer, when his costume was part of the Latverian Witches costume set on display at San Diego Comic-Con. MCU fans almost immediately surmised that Boris is most likely Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), considering that the helmet has an opening for the third eye Strange earned in The Multiverse of Madness. It’s also been speculated that the Purple Latverian Witch will be Clea (Charlize Theron), the sorceress Strange was last seen with, as they headed into the dreaded Dark Dimension.
So could Strange/Boris have been in Avengers: Doomsday at one point, only to be removed? For months now, we’ve heard rumors that Doomsday is made of a lot of disjointed parts that are still being arranged into a cohesive whole – which is not uncommon for a film of this size. However, we’ve also heard that the finer details and beats of the story are still in flux, and that there could indeed be some big changes to which characters are featured and when, as there is an Avengers: Secret Wars movie that will follow and is rumored to feature many of the characters we don’t see in Doomsday.
The Secret Wars (2015) comic series made Strange one of the most pivotal figures in the “Battleworld” Doom creates as his custom reality; maybe the Secret Wars movie is planning the same? As we’ve examined many of the Doomsday leaks, we also pointed out that revealing Strange as Boris and having him help Doom achieve victory would be too close to Avengers: Infinity War. Marvel Studios could easily get away with having Boris in small cameo moments during Doomsday and saving the Doctor Strange reveal for a post-credits scene, or the beginning of Secret Wars.
More leaked Avengers: Doomsday promotional images of the Latverian Witches and a mystery masked character cause a stir online.
Who do you think is behind the mask? pic.twitter.com/du1VPmlRyb
It could also be just as true that Marvel Studios saw what happened when they revealed the Boris costume at Comic-Con, and are scrubbing the character from other promotional materials to maintain secrecy. Call us conspiracy theorists, but it feels like Strange isn’t the only major MCU character that is conspicuously being left out of Doomsday: Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Spider-Man (Tom Holland – and the other two), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Paris), who is still stranded in the X-Men universe, the Guardians of the Galaxy… the list goes on. We weren’t even sure Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) was in it until Spider-Man: Brand New Day came out.
The Doomsday set has been more secure than the Pentagon, so none of these surprise cameos have leaked (yet), and Marvel Studios has been playing 4D chess, keeping every actor’s lips sealed and coordinating which characters can appear in promos, on merchandise, etc. Who knows who is making the final cut, or how much screen time they’ll even have?
Avengers: Doomsday will be in theaters on December 18th.
