Avengers: Doomsday & Secret Wars Get Major Update From Legendary Marvel Comics Writer

Published Oct 24, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

Adam has been writing in the entertainment news space for over a decade. Beginning his career of covering film and TV at CinemaBlend, he has also appeared on The Flash Podcast and done several radio spots. 

Longtime Marvel writer Jonathan Hickman has shared a major update about Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Hickman has been leaving his mark on the Marvel Comics landscape for nearly two decades, with some of his notable contributions including spearheading the Dawn of X and Ultimate Universe relaunches, as well as the new Marvel Midnight universe. His influence has also been felt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the inclusion of the Black Order in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, having co-created the characters with Jerome Opeña and Jim Cheung. He’s also revealed that he was involved with the making of Doomsday and Secret Wars.

During an interview with Bleeding Cool, Hickman addressed how elements of the core 2015 Secret Wars storyline that he wrote have been incorporated into these upcoming Marvel movies. The writer shared that he’s consulted on both Doomsday and Secret Wars, which started with reading the scripts two and a half years ago. After noting how it’s been “really, really interesting” following big shifts like the return of directors Joe and Anthony Russo and writer Stephen McFeely, as well as Robert Downey Jr. being cast as Doctor Doom following his time as Tony Stark, Hickman continued:

I have not seen a final cut or anything like that. I've seen work in progress and all and whatnot. But I think they're really excited about it. I'll tell you the most interesting thing about the whole thing was I have never seen a movie before while it was being worked on, in that there was no CGI involved. So you would see scenes where they hadn't added any special effects and then two much later, you see the final version. It's kind of wizardry, actually. I found the whole process rather fascinating.

While it remains to be seen how much Avengers: Secret Wars will resemble Hickman’s Secret Wars, his fingerprints are all over Avengers: Doomsday, from the collision of multiple universes, to Doctor Doom being the main antagonist. Originally, Avengers 5 was titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and would have seen multiple variants of Jonathan Majors’ Kang wreaking havoc on the multiverse. However, after Marvel Studios fired Majors in late 2023, the company changed course on the title and story, with Downey’s Doom casting being announced at 2024’s San Diego Comic-Con.

In addition to Downey playing a new character, Avengers: Doomsday also brings back Chris Evans as Steve Rogers for the first time since Avengers: Endgame, though he did return to the franchise in 2024 to reprise Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine. Doomsday’s sprawling lineup of characters includes members of the original Avengers, the New Avengers, the Wakandans, Earth-828’s Fantastic Four, and variations of the “original” X-Men from the Fox franchise. Secret Wars will loop in more established MCU players, like Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey, Paul Bettany’s Vision, and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury.

Avengers: Doomsday opens in theaters on December 18, and Avengers: Secret Wars follows on December 17, 2027.

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  Victor von Doom

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  Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic

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  Thor

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  Vanessa Kirby

  Sue Storm / Invisible Woman