Highlights
- Ultron could return as a threat in The Multiverse Saga, showcasing his ability to travel and dominate different realities.
- Annihilus, a Fantastic Four villain from the Negative Zone, could emerge as a new threat to the multiverse.
- Red Skull, now free from his curse, could use his cosmic power to conquer the multiverse, offering an unfinished business storyline.
The next three phases of movies in the MCU to come after Avengers: Endgame have been titled The Multiverse Saga. As a result, all the MCU movies that have been released so far have been teasing the arrival of Kang the Conqueror as the next big villain for the franchise.
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Unfortunately, extenuating circumstances have led to Marvel Studios having to rethink this plan. The studio can either recast the role of Kang and move forward with the things they have already planned, or they could reshuffle some plans to introduce a new big threat for their upcoming Avengers movies. Luckily, there are plenty of villainous candidates in the Marvel universe who could take on this role.
6 Ultron
Infinity Ultron Could Rise In Live-Action
The psychotic AI, Ultron, has been in two projects by Marvel Studios so far. He was the primary antagonist in Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, and was the final threat to the multiversal heroes in Marvel's animated What If? TV show. Fortunately, both of these projects have done a great job of showing why Ultron could be a threat in The Multiverse Saga.
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His first live-action appearance showed fans who the character is and why he is a threat to a team of Avengers, and his animated appearance proved that Ultron can travel and dominate the multiverse in his effort to become all-powerful. Also, Ultron is an AI construct. Therefore, it would be easy for writers to bring him back as an antagonist for future movies. Perhaps the next Avengers could face another Ultron from another reality.
5 Annihilus
A Threat That Could Emerge From Outside The Known Multiverse
Annihilus is a Marvel villain who is yet to show up in the MCU. This winged monster is a Fantastic Four villain who lives in the Negative Zone, so there is a chance he could appear in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie if Marvel wanted to go in this direction.
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In the comics, The Negative Zone is another dimension where only antimatter exists. Annihilus and his minions live in this realm and will attack any reality made of matter when they escape this reality. If Marvel wanted to include Annihilus in a multiverse movie, they could easily clarify that The Negative Zone exists as the empty space between each universe. That would give the heroes of the multiverse a reason to team up and stop this new threat if Annihilus escapes.
4 Red Skull
A Villain With Unfinished Business
Fans were shocked to see Red Skull again when he appeared in Avengers: Infinity War. This villain showed up on Vormir when Thanos arrived to claim the soul stone. It turns out that Red Skull had been charged with being a cosmic force to help guide people to the stone after he failed to acquire the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avenger. However, it is unclear what happened to the villain after Hawkeye received the soul stone in Avengers: Endgame.
If Marvel wanted to use Red Skull again in the next Avengers movies, they could easily say that his curse is over. Now that Red Skull is free, he could use his new cosmic power to try and conquer the multiverse.
3 The Beyonder
A Villain Known To Toy With The Multiverse
The next movie to arrive after Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is supposed to be Avengers: Secret Wars. With Kang being the main villain of The Multiverse Saga, many fans assumed that the Secret Wars event from the comics would be changed to include Kang in the movies. However, that idea will now need to change.
Therefore, the MCU is now free to switch focus to The Beyonder. This space-faring entity is a powerful man who creates a place called Battle World. This new planet is used as a battleground for all the Marvel heroes and villains to fight it out to see who is the victor. Seeing how this new saga is focused heavily on the multiverse, The Beyonder could pull characters from alternate universes to fight in his Secret War.
2 Loki
The God of Stories Shouldn't Have His Story End
There were two characters in Marvel's Phase Four who dealt with the threat of the multiverse the most. One was Doctor Strange, and the other was Loki. The Avengers' first villain received his own TV show where he was placed outside of time and worked with the TVA to stop a variant of Kang from wiping out the multiverse. Season two of the show ended with Loki taking on the mantle of controlling all the branches of the multiverse so that Kang is no longer in charge of his own sacred timeline.
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While this was a rather noble end for Loki, he could easily be persuaded back into villainy for another Avengers movie. All it takes is for Marvel to establish a reason for one of the heroes to disrupt Loki's new position of power, and the Norse God could once again come out of retirement to get his throne back. Loki already has ties to the multiverse, and it would be fun to see Tom Hiddleston test the Marvel universe as a villain again now that it has grown much larger since he fought The Avengers in 2012.
1 Doctor Doom
Marvel's Most Well-Known Villain Could Be Perfect For Secret Wars
When rumors first started to circulate about the MCU pivoting away from Kang as the main threat in The Multiverse Saga, most fans began to cite Doctor Doom as the perfect replacement for the upcoming phases of the franchise. Doom is one of Marvel's oldest supervillains, and he serves as both the dictator of Latveria and the arch-villain of The Fantastic Four in the comics. Therefore, the studio has a perfect chance to reintroduce the character before The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.
However, it is Doctor Doom's ties to the Secret Wars event that makes him an ideal candidate to replace Kang. Doom becomes the leader of all the supervillains in the series, mostly due to his power levels and strategic knowledge. Plus, even fans of the MCU who do not read comics have heard of the hooded menace, as he has appeared in three Fantastic Four movies already. If Marvel wants to pick a new big villain for The Multiverse Saga, then it is best they go with a name most people recognize, like Doctor Doom.
