Earlier today, the Marvel news ecosystem flew into a veritable tizzy—possibly even a kerfuffle—over allegations that concept art for next May’s Avengers: Doomsday had leaked out onto the internet. Per Comicbook.com, an artist named Mushk Rizvi (whose social media and LinkedIn lists them as a concept artist for Marvel Studios) very briefly posted several images that were alleged to be concept art for the as-yet-unfilmed movie, and while these posts were quickly deleted, it wasn’t quick enough for the internet. Now the images are floating around all over the place (we’re not going to post them here, but even the semi-lobotomized Google of recent days will bring them up with a simple search), sending the speculation machines into overdrive.
The upshot of all this is that—as might be expected, given that the 2027 Avengers movie is literally named after it—it’s looking increasingly possible that this new duology of films, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, will take major inspiration from 2015 event comic Secret Wars, in which Marvel villain par excellence Victor Von Doom finally managed to conquer reality for good. (I.e., for a couple of months a decade ago, until the status quo reasserted itself.) Among other things, the art shows Doom looming on his throne with Stephen Strange at his side, while the presence of “Sheriff Strange” was a major part of comic-Doom’s rule of “Battleworld,” the small corner of reality he kludged together to rule over after the various members of the Marvel multiverse managed to blow each other to hell once and for all. Other images seem to also reference memorable bits of Secret Wars, including a medieval village filled with Hulks that seems reminiscent of the comics’ concept of “Greenland.”
Other pictures reference a possible line-up of Young Avengers (including Kate Bishop Kamala Khan, and Billy Maximoff), although, if we’re being honest, that particular picture is the one that makes us the most skeptical of this whole art dump, because it’s hard to imagine Marvel attempting to reclaim its top position atop the box office heap with a movie that prominently features weirdo X-Men mascot character Doop. There’s also a very odd image that shows what would appear to be a re-cast Black Panther, one where Star-Lord and Vision are roommates, and some shots that seem to show Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards on his knees before Doom.
All of this, obviously, needs to be taken with huge, skyscraper-sized grains of salt; even if this concept art is real, it’s just that: Concept art, suggesting possible ideas Marvel is exploring for the film, with no commitment to pursuing any of them. It is odd to note, though, that Secret Wars was essentially a massive finale, paying off, after decades, the idea of Doom finally triumphing over the rest of the Marvel universe. Using it in what’s expected to be Robert Downey Jr.’s first major film in the role feels very odd, although the Russos have said they expect the film to “challenge” audiences—and starting off with Doom suddenly in control of reality, and working back from there, would be a pretty hefty challenge for viewers to cope with.
