I’ve Changed My Mind, I’m Glad Benedic...

Benedict Cumberbatch’s new MCU comments have me pretty excited about Avengers: Doomsday and its roster of heroes. Confirming that Doctor Strange won’t be featured in the next Avengers movie, it’s easy to take Cumberbatch’s absence as a negative. However, this suggests something positive about the movie and the heroes who will be featured in the upcoming crossover.

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Doctor Stephen Strange was last seen in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a movie that ended with the Master of the Mystic Arts joining Charlize Theron’s Clea on a mission to prevent a multiversal incursion in the Dark Dimension. As such, this is likely why Strange won’t be featured in Avengers 5 based on Cumberbatch’s new MCU comments confirming his absence. However, I’m actually glad that Strange will be missing considering what it likely means for the team that will be Avengers: Doomsday ahead of Avengers: Secret Wars.

The MCU Hasn’t Had An Official Avengers Team Since Endgame

A Void Doomsday Will Have To Address…

Remarkably, the MCU hasn’t had an official team of Avengers since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. In the wake of that movie, Black Widow and Iron Man sacrificed themselves and Steve Rogers retired, having passed on his shield and the Captain America mantle to Sam Wilson. While Thor and Bruce Banner’s Hulk are technically still around, Clint Barton’s Hawkeye is also essentially retired now that Kate Bishop has seemingly inherited his name following 2021’s Hawkeye series. As such, one would think that the MCU would have wanted to get a new roster of Earth’s Mightiest together as soon as possible.

However, this has not been the case. Instead, the closet the MCU has got to new teams forming is Ms. Marvel and Kate Bishop starting to put together a Young Avengers team, while CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is putting together a team of operatives in the form of the Thunderbolts*, featuring the likes of Bucky Barnes, Yelena Belova, John Walker’s U.S.Agent, and more. As such, it looks as though Avengers: Doomsday will likely be tasked with debuting and assembling a new team of Avengers from scratch, seven years after Endgame (though trailers for Captain America: Brave New World have featured some Avengers teases).

Benedict Cumberbatch’s Avengers: Doomsday Comments Suggest A More Focused Roster

A Smaller Force To Establish Who The New Avengers Are

At any rate, I take Benedict Cumberbatch’s confirmation of his Doctor Strange absence in Avengers: Doomsday as a good thing. Considering the work Doomsday will likely need to do to get a new team assembled before the action really gets going, a smaller and more focused team makes sense. The movie will hopefully take the time to feature new team dynamics and establish how this new roster of Avengers operates, a team that will likely feature the likes of Sam Wilson’s Captain America, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and more prominent heroes who’ve come up in the MCU since Endgame.

Of course, “smaller” is a relative term when talking about Avengers crossover movies. Avengers 5 is reported to still have quite a large roster of featured characters. Likewise, I wouldn’t be surprised to see The Fantastic Four joining forces with the new team of Avengers that’s yet to debut, especially with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom confirmed as the leading protagonist. However, Doctor Strange’s absence suggests that Avengers: Doomsday isn’t facing the pressure to feature every hero under the sun as was seen in Endgame. After all, that’s what Avengers: Secret Wars is for.

Doomsday Can Debut The New Avengers Before A Much Bigger Army For Secret Wars

The Variants Are Coming…

With Doomsday releasing only a year before Secret Wars, the preceding Avengers movie likely has the luxury of simply setting up the overarching plot while also introducing the key players and dangers. It’s going to be Secret Wars’ job to pull off a satisfying ending to the entire Multiverse Saga. This will presumably involve incorporating as many heroes and MCU variants as possible from multiple realities (like Deadpool, Wolverine, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men, The Fox universe’s X-Men characters, and more).

Benedict Cumberbatch also confirmed that he will indeed be in Secret Wars, further supporting the idea that the sixth Avengers movie will have a much larger cast in comparison to Doomsday. This feels like it will be a good thing, allowing both movies to feel distinct while also being part of the same culminating plot as the end of the MCU’s sixth and final phase of the Multiverse Saga. Likewise, it also means that Doctor Strange’s Dark Dimension mission likely won’t be glossed over, especially if Doctor Strange 3 releases between the next Avengers movies like many are expecting.

Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled for release on May 1st, 2026, while Avengers: Secret Wars releases May 7th, 2027.