12 Years Later, The MCU Has Utterly Flipped The First Avengers Film On Its Head

12 years later, the MCU has utterly flipped the primary Avengers film on its head. Again in 2012, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes assembled for the primary time to forestall Loki the God of Mischief, the first actual crossover tournament of the early MCU that started with 2008’s Iron Guy. Now, the MCU is getting ready for a significant reversal that are supposed to turn out to be extremely thrilling.

Surprise Studios’ main announcement at SDCC 2025 continues to be stunning the sector: Robert Downey Jr is returning to the MCU as Physician Doom, starting with 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday. Alternatively, whether or not RDJ is taking part in a dismal Iron Guy variant who turns into Doom or a extra authentic Victor von Doom stays unclear. Regardless, it does create an enchanting twist for the MCU and 2012’s Avengers, one that may best in point of fact occur thru years of interconnected storytelling and a multiverse of various realities.

The First Avengers Had Loki As It is Primary Villain, and Iron Guy As A Key Hero

Preventing To Save The International From Loki’s Rule

In 2012’s Avengers, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki returns to Earth following his defeat in 2011’s Thor, having allied himself with Thanos to retrieve the Tesseract in alternate for conquering and ruling Earth with the Mad Titan’s Chitauri armies. This activates Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury to gather the Avengers, a bunch of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to combat battles humanity could not on my own. This significantly comprises Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Guy, the MCU’s first actual hero to debut of their interconnected universe.

Following 2012’s Fight of New York, Iron Guy and the Avengers stored the sector and Loki used to be defeated, their first actual on-screen villain. Alternatively, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and its use of time go back and forth created a variant of Loki, one that stole the Tesseract and escaped custody in 2012. This created a brand new timeline, leading to his arrest by way of the Time Variance Authority in 2021’s Loki. This kicked off Loki’s dynamic heroic arc, person who led to 2023’s Loki season 2 the place the previous God of Mischief rewrote his tale, changing into the savior of all of the multiverse by way of conserving all of the quite a lot of timelines in combination, combating their destruction.

12 Years Later, Loki and Iron Guy’s Roles Appear To Have Flipped

Preventing To Save The Multiverse From Physician Doom?

Blended with the huge information that RDJ goes to develop into Physician Doom, it sort of feels as regardless that Loki and Iron Guy’s roles from 2012’s Avengers have successfully flipped. 12 years later, Tom Hiddleston’s personality has develop into a hero protective the multiverse whilst RDJ will probably be a villain who will most probably try to remake it in his personal symbol, or take all of it aside as the primary antagonist of Avengers: Doomsday (and most probably Secret Wars as smartly). As such, it is relatively a testomony to what over a decade of interconnected storytelling can do, particularly when mixed with the infinite chances of a complete multiverse.

Avengers 5

Avengers: Doomsday is the 5th Avengers movie within the Surprise Cinematic Universe and can convey in combination heroes, new and previous, to stand off towards Victor von Doom – performed by way of the returning Robert DOwney Jr.. Avengers 5 may even mark the start of section 6 of the MCU.

Director

Destin Daniel Cretton

Unlock Date

Might 1, 2026

Studio(s)

Surprise Studios

Distributor(s)

Walt Disney Studios Movement Photos

Writers

Michael Waldron

Forged

Kathryn Newton , Iman Vellani , Mark Ruffalo , Hailee Steinfield , Anthony Mackie , Benedict Wong , Simu Liu , Benedict Cumberbatch , Dominique Thorne , Xochitl Gomez , Chris Hemsworth , Brie Larson

Finances

$356–400 million

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