Popverse's top stories of the day

• Before the final season, Netflix has a surprise Stranger Things project for fans
• MEMBERS ONLY: Popverse Jump: Netflix & Crunchyroll control 80% of anime streaming outside Japan, and are acting like uneasy allies moreso than fierce competitors: here's what is going on
• Despite what Marvel Studios announced, Chris Evans' Captain America is expected to 'surprise' us in next Avengers movie

  ---

While the plots of both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars remain under tightly-guarded wraps at Marvel Studios, the cast announcement for Avengers: Doomsday appears to have let slip a pretty significant spoiler about one of the plot mechanics that is going bridge the two movies — namely, just how is the MCU as we know it going to transform into the world of Secret Wars?

The answer lies in the fact that Loki actor Tom Hiddleston has been announced to appear in Doomsday — an appearance that can only mean bad things for the current reality of the Marvel Multiverse.

The final episode of Disney+’s Loki series, 2023’s ‘Glorious Purpose,’ sees the character wrestle with the question of how to prevent the collapse of all reality in the wake of the death of He Who Remains, who had previously been pruning the multiverse into the Sacred Timeline, in order to prevent a multiverse war and utter destruction. The answer he finally arrives at is that he himself has to replace He Who Remains, and surrender permanently at the end of time to literally hold the multiverse together and keep reality alive. It is, after a lifetime of selfish behavior, the ultimate sacrifice, because it requires that Loki has to always be present to keep reality together, or else… bad things.

So let’s just say that the fact that we’re going to see Loki at all in Doomsday doesn’t seem entirely promising for reality.

While it’s unlikely to expect Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars to map entirely onto an existing comic book storyline — see earlier MCU efforts like Avengers: Age of Ultron or Captain America: Civil War, neither of which entirely adapt their comic book namesakes — one constant in Doctor Doom’s behavior in his comic book incarnation is that he will always try to steal omnipotence or something similar whenever given the chance; it’s therefore not too much of a stretch to assume that Loki’s benign reign as the person keeping all of reality together will be interrupted by Doom, before everything goes horribly wrong… leaving only a small patchwork of existence left for Avengers: Secret Wars to take place.

This is, of course, simply speculation — but, given the context, it also feels like the only direction the movies can go in, given their ultimate destination. We have a little over a year before Avengers: Doomsday his theaters (on May 1, 2026) to find out if we’re right or wrong.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.