Haven’t kept up with the MCU since 2019? We’ve got you covered
It’s a tale as old as time, really: the Marvel Cinematic Universe was on fire, and hit a peak with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which was the end of the first major arc in the MCU, putting an end to Thanos’s reign of terror. In the years since, Marvel Studios’ output has pushed through a collective “superhero fatigue,” in part due to the influx of Disney+ series and original films that expanded the MCU.
Why do we mention all of this? Because we know what’s about to happen: Avengers: Doomsday is already the talk of the town, but with roughly seven years of content being released at a faster clip than what came before it, we know that many of you haven’t been watching everything the MCU drops.
That’s where we come in.
For those of you who are ready for Doomsday, you may not need a primer like this. For those of you who may have loved Black Panther and kept up with things because you knew he’d be in Endgame, we understand if you haven’t been following since Tony Stark bit the big one, and that trailers like the one for Avengers: Doomsday can be confusing as hell with all of the new characters and titles. That’s where we come in.
At the time of this writing, you have roughly five months to catch up on everything from Endgame to now. Doesn’t sound like a daunting task, but this is during the dog days of summer, Thanksgiving break, and winter break. Some of you may need a cheatsheet to help you run through everythin you missed. Others just want enough to hold MCU conversation in a crowded room. We’ve got you, don’t worry. Here’s a guide to everything you need to know about Avengers: Doomsday if you’ve not watched since Avengers: Endgame.
Is that the X-Men?
Yeah, that’s right. In the post-credits scene of The Marvels, we were properly introduced to the X-Men, featuring Beast (played by Kelsey Grammer, reprising the role). In that film, Monica Rambeau, the daughter of Captain Marvel’s homegirl Maria. Rambeau was someone who was lost in The Blip, and when she returned, her mother had died. Rambeau worked for S.W.O.R.D. (the company that sprang up after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and during the events of WandaVision (where Wanda had the town of Westview, New Jersey under her spell, living through sitcom simulations while she dealt with the loss of Vision), Rambeau’s DNA was altered while trying to breach the Hex that Wanda had around Westview, giving her a number of powers.
Towards the end of The Marvels, Rambeau was tasked with repairing a rift in space (that film had a lot to do with opening portals and such in space and time). In the middle of this repair, Rambeau makes a Multiversal trip from Earth-616 to, um, whatever Earth these X-Men reside on. Maybe we will see her during the events of Avengers: Doomsday?
That voice
That’s Dr. Doom. We don’t know why he’s here…that’s why there’s a movie. Well, he’s been announced to be portrayed by a returning Robert Downey Jr., but the question of “why is Dr. Doom encountering Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?” is what the movie should reveal. (We think?)
Doom was spotted speaking to a young Franklin Richards during the post-credits scene for 2025’s Fantastic Four: The First Steps. Why? Who knows.
The Fantastic Four are here?
Why yes, 2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps officially introduced the quartet to the MCU, bringing us into a world where the Fantastic Four is already revered as heroes for their adventures battling all sorts of evildoers. They hail from Earth-828, so seeing them around the Avengers and superheroes is interesting. In 2022’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, there was a sequence when Strange traveled to Earth-838 and interacted with that world’s Reed Richards (portrayed by Jim Krasinski), but this marks a key moment in which Earth-616 will be inhabited by beings from across the Multiverse.
I recognize Falcon and The Winter Soldier!
Good! Falcon is actually, officially, Captain America, a distinction you saw Steve Rogers bestow on him at the conclusion of Endgame. Since then, he’s been battling with holding the shield, even having to do battle with a red Hulk. (No, seriously). Bucky Barnes is now a congressman, but by the end of 2025’s Thunderbolts*—aka The New Avengers—he’s also a part of the New Avengers. We currently don’t know what Ant-Man has been doing since he killed Kang in Quantumania.
New Avengers, you say?
Yeah, that group on the opposite side of Captain Falcon America and the Congressional Soldier are said New Avengers, which consist of: the Black Widow (aka Yelena Belova, the sister of the Black Widow who died in Endgame), the Sentry (a meth addict turnt test subject in a project that successfully turned him into the most powerful yet unstable being on the planet), U.S. Agent (the Great Value Captain America that was introduced in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ series who has his own set of issues), and the Red Guardian (the Soviet Union’s first super soldier, and surrogate father to both Black Widows while under cover). Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, the CIA director, put them together to bankroll her own personal Avengers. After the events of Thunderbolts*, they have an…agreement.
Who are Shuri and M’Baku dealing with in that room?
Those are the Atlanteans. The one in the throne is King Namor, who is the first mutant and controls the seas. There was a conflict between Atlantis and Wakanda that formed the bulk of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; in that film, T’Challa dies after the battle, with Shuri picking up the mantle of the Black Panther.
There’s a guy with a purple stick and a guy with golden rings fighting?
The guy with the stick is the X-Man known as Gambit, who made his MCU debut in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine; the guy with the rings is Shang-Chi, who used those ten rings to defeat a massive beast in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
At the time, Kevin Feige spoke on the importance of Shang-Chi in the MCU; this is the first time we’ve seen him since then.
What’s the TVA?
Introduced during the Loki series on Disney+, the Time Variance Authority are the keepers of the Sacred Timeline, maintaining the flow of time when there are “variants” who create “nexus events” by disrupting the Multiverse by hopping between timelines. The variant of Loki that escaped during Endgame was eventually caught by the TVA, and throughout the events of two seasons of Loki, that variant of Loki became the one holding all of the timelines together.
Steve Rogers is back?
You noticed that, too? And he seems like the real Rogers, as he is worthy enough to hold Thor’s hammer. That said, how did we go from an old Steve Rogers to this younger Steve Rogers in the Doomsday trailer? And why is he here now? All good questions. We haven’t seen Rogers since Endgame, and one has to wonder what’s drawn him (and Thor, for that matter) out.
WTF is “Infinity Vision”?
Ah, you peeped that at the very end, huh? Well, a funny thing happened on the way to December 18, 2026: earlier this year, it was noted that Dune Part Three, which released on the same day as Avengers: Doomsday, has a three-week exclusive on IMAX screens, icing out Doomsday for the most coveted large-format screens…right? Not if Marvel has something to say about it.
Enter Infinity Vision, Disney’s certification program that basically says that the theater you’re in has met the standards Disney has set up for premium large format viewings, which include screens that are at least 45 feet wide, with Dolby Surround 7.1 sound and 14 footlambert brightness levels for 2D (footlamberts for 3D). Endgame Encore is the first film hitting Infinity Vision in September, with Doomsday following in December.
What does all of this mean? Disney’s going to have a list of theaters for you to watch Doomsday in the best formats that aren’t IMAX, because you can’t see it in IMAX, at least for the first three weeks of its run.
