In the early phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios laid out a plan and, for the most part, stuck to it.
The recent years of the MCU have not gone that smoothly. Most fundamentally, they built the whole “Multiverse Saga” around the villain Kang, a time-traveling warlord. But then Kang actor Jonathan Majors was arrested and later convicted for assault in New York City. Majors was fired and the plan went out the window — now Avengers: The Kang Dynasty would be Avengers: Doomsday, and the villain at its center would be Doctor Doom, played by returning Marvel star Robert Downey Jr.
At least, that was the timeline the public was aware of. According to a new interview with Kevin Feige (via Variety), Feige was already thinking about replacing Kang even before the character’s full debut, in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opened in theaters. And he also claimed he was discussing the whole Robert Downey Jr as Doom concept before Majors was let go.
“We had started to realize that Kang wasn’t big enough, wasn’t Thanos, and that there was only one character that could be that because he was that in the comics for decades and decades,” he said. “We started talking about Doctor Doom even before we officially pivoted from Kang. In fact, I had started talking with Robert about this audacious idea before [Quantumania] even came out.”
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA
READ MORE: The Biggest Opening Weekends Ever For Superhero Movies
Doctor Doom is undeniably a bigger and more famous Marvel villain than Kang. But Kang is no slouch. And let’s be honest: To the world at large, Thanos wasn’t an especially well-known villain until Marvel made him so central to the MCU. Kang could have been just a big, with the right actor and the right concept. Clearly things didn’t quite work out that way.
My main takeaway from all of this is something we all know, but maybe don’t think about as often as we should. It was an absolute Hail Mary to pull off the Infinity Saga. All it takes is one accident or a run-in with the law (or, as we’ve learned since then, a tragic death like Chadwick Boseman’s) to force a change in plans. Or some times nothing that extreme goes wrong and you have to change your plans. Sometimes you just don’t cast the right person. Every choice in these universes is so high stakes.
Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in theaters this weekend. Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to open in theaters on December 18, 2026.
The Worst Movies of 2025 So Far
There have been a lot of good movies so far this year — and more than a handful of clunkers.