The bigger picture
MCU Connections
How the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men end up in the same story.
Avengers: Doomsday is built around a multiverse collision. Here's how the pieces fit - based on Marvel's official framing and reported director/producer commentary (labeled where it isn't from Marvel's own synopsis).
Three universes, one story
Reporting on interviews describes three groups converging: Reported
- The Avengers, Wakandans, and New Avengers - the mainline MCU timeline (Earth-616).
- The Fantastic Four - a separate universe introduced in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), reported as “Earth-828.”
- The X-Men - an “original” team from yet another universe, drawing on Fox's pre-MCU X-Men actors.
Marvel's official synopsis more broadly describes “heroes from three distinct universes” facing a shared existential threat: Doctor Doom.
Why the Fantastic Four connection matters
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) established Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben in their own corner of the multiverse before Doomsday brings them into the Avengers' story - the most direct prior-film link outside the Avengers franchise itself.
Why the X-Men are different
The X-Men actors reprise roles from 20th Century Fox's separate X-Men series (2000–2019), which existed entirely outside the MCU before Disney's acquisition of Fox. Their appearance is a genuine multiverse crossover in the story's own logic - not a continuation of an existing MCU X-Men thread (the MCU hasn't yet produced its own X-Men film).
The road to Avengers: Secret Wars
Doomsday and its confirmed sequel Avengers: Secret Wars (December 17, 2027) share writers (Michael Waldron, Stephen McFeely) and directors (the Russos), and are in production together - similar to how Infinity War and Endgame were developed as a pair (though not filmed back-to-back). Together they close “The Multiverse Saga” - Phases Four, Five, and Six. Confirmed
The sequel takes its name from Marvel's Secret Wars comics - the original 1984-85 crossover by Jim Shooter and the 2015-16 storyline by Jonathan Hickman, the latter of which puts Doctor Doom at the center of a patchwork reality. It's the comic backbone the two-film finale is reaching toward.