I Still Can’t Get Over The MCU Brutally Slaughtering Some Of Its Best Potential Avengers: Doomsday & Avengers: Secret Wars Characters To Hype Up A Villain Who Died Half An Hour Later
With Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars feeling closer than ever, I still can't get over the fact the MCU brutally killed off some of its best prospective characters for the upcoming multiversal Avengers movies in one fell swoop. The new Avengers: Doomsday cast announcements mean that conversations about where the franchise is headed with the fifth and sixth Avengers movies are more prevalent than ever, as the almost six-hour-long cast reveal built considerable hype for a new chapter of the MCU timeline.
However, this excitement has been tempered with some concerns and criticism, in part revolving around both why some names are absent from the Avengers: Doomsday cast list so far, and how the Multiverse Saga as a whole has expanded since the first films in this era of the franchise. Looking back at the early movies and shows in the MCU's Multiverse Saga, I can't help but think the franchise missed a perfect setup to include a range of exciting characters in its crossover stories, especially with the setup for a major multiversal crisis looking more par for the course now than perhaps ever before.
The Illuminati Had Way More Potential Than Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Gave Them Story-Wise
The Illuminati Could Have Been So Much More For The Multiverse Saga Than Simply Heroes For The Scarlet Witch To Kill Off
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' place in the MCU timeline made it a perfect point to explore the concept of the franchise's multiverse, and give audiences characters who helped them to understand this idea and endear them to the concept. In part, the film did just that, throwing Stephen Strange and America Chavez through an assortment of colorful and eye-catching worlds before landing them in an alternate universe wherein a hero team known as the Illuminati took the place that the Avengers have in the main timeline.
Given the Illuminati team are an important one in Marvel's comic stories - albeit a very different one in motive and roster - it seemed this plot point would be an especially important one that could hold great potential for future chapters of the MCU, particularly since the team's lineup includes the likes of a variant of Patrick Stewart's iconic portrayal of Professor X from the Fox timeline and John Krasinski's Mister Fantastic, following the actor being a much-lauded fancast for the role for years. Instead, though, almost the entire team is butchered by the Scarlet Witch as the film builds to its ending.
It's understandable the MCU would want some way to show off just how powerful a fully realized Scarlet Witch really is, and this sequence contains some of the most eye-catching deaths in the entire franchise. However, this decision feels like an increasing waste as the franchise continues. With the MCU building up to a multiverse conflict in the overarching story of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, giving audiences some time with an alternate universe that they could connect to and root for would make the likely scenario of the main MCU universe facing another all the more gripping.
Instead, with all the Illuminati bar Karl Modo dead, the MCU will have to lean on universe with shorter teases - like the universe shown in the post-credits of The Marvels - or otherwise pit universes that are less easy to simply destroy to show the stakes at hand, like Fox's X-Men universe after its official folding into the MCU multiverse with Deadpool & Wolverine, which has only just recovered from previous seeming certain doom in the events of the film. As such, murdering the llluminati after giving them this screentime seems as though it wasn't as wise a move in the long run.
Scarlet Witch Dying Not Long After Killing The Entire Illuminati Off Highlights Just How Much Of A Waste Their Deaths Really Were
Wanda's Sacrifice Made The Illuminati's Deaths Seem Even Less Important To The Multiverse Saga Story
Had this unhinged murder spree kicked off Wanda's second protracted villain arc in the MCU, it may have been worth sacrificing a series of characters who could have helped the narrative of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars and their prospective setup here. Instead, the Scarlet Witch sacrifices herself half an hour after this ordeal in order to try and destroy the Darkhold that corrupted her, meaning this selection of brutal murders is one of her last acts before her redemption of sorts and then her own death.
Wanda being willing to give her life does seem in character - especially after realizing the variants of her children she sought to reunite with following WandaVision are terrified of her and have their own version of Wanda to look after them. However, since she dies less than an hour later, and after having a change of heart seemingly not linked to these killings, this serves to scupper any potential for the Illuminati's demises to have any more long-lasting impact on the overarching story of the MCU, rendering their on-screen slaughter even more limited in terms of what it actually means.
The MCU's Initial Multiverse Saga Plans Help Explain Why The Illuminati Were Killed Off
The Multiverse Saga's Initial Plans Would Have Made The Illuminati Less Useful Than They Seem Looking Back Now
The prior plans for the MCU's Multiverse Saga all appeared to build towards Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, before the movie was changed to Avengers: Doomsday and its villain also changed from Kang to Doctor Doom accordingly. Given the main figure intended to tie these multiversal shennanigans together was Kang himself, it makes sense that the overarching plan for the franchise wouldn't lean too much into keeping side figures like the Illuminati around when their dramatic deaths could instead be used to inject a healthy dose of action and up the stakes of the final act of the Doctor Strange sequel.
As it stands, though, the overarching plans for things seem to have considerably changed from early iterations. The MCU cutting ties with Kang actor Jonathan Majors and appearing to reconsider its entire story with Kang as the figurehead of this stage in its story has subsequently meant a lot of major changes for both the Saga itself, and many of the smaller narratives intertwined within it, changing its trajectory and how prior stories look in retrospect.
With Kang seemingly ejected from the Multiverse Saga plans, having some other more pre-established multiversal figures to turn to seems like it could have proved useful for the MCU story's major pivot. The franchise now appears to need to replace the entire Council Of Kang and other countless Kang variants with Doctor Doom, meaning the Avengers facing the Illuminati could have been a perfect way to add more faces who could be allies or enemies, or otherwise at least make the second MCU Saga seem like it's more tightly connected overall, even if the upcoming chapters are still definitely exciting.
- Created by
- Kevin Feige
- First Film
- Iron Man
- Upcoming Films
- Blade, Avengers: Doomsday (2026), Avengers: Secret Wars
- First TV Show
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Upcoming TV Shows
- Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, Vision Quest
- Cast
- Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Simu Liu, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan, Ma Dong-seok, Brian Tyree Henry, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Jonathan Majors
