ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Is Magneto the Secret Villain of Avengers: Doomsday?

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

The original X-Men are back for their big MCU debut in Avengers Doomsday, but why? Well we think Magneto will be one of Doctor Doom's greatest rivals in this climactic multiversal showdown between these two Marvel universes. And this is all leading to Avengers Secret Wars and connecting 25 years worth of X-Men, Deadpool, Spider-Man, and Avengers stories that Kevin Feige has been cooking since that very first X-Men film.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The war is still coming, Charles, and I intend to fight it. And I will always be there. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn. And let me tell you the real reason the original Fox X-Men are in Avengers Doomsday. We learned in that five-hour back of chairs live stream that Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, Mystique, Nightcrawler, and Beast, all being portrayed by their original actors will be returning for Doomsday. and it's pretty clear that we will be seeing the Avengers and the X-Men go to war, but not the way you think. So let's talk about some new info that we have on the X-Men's role in this film,

and talk about the pivotal role that I think Magneto will play in this war between the mainline MCU and the Deadpool universe, which is the same universe as those Fox X-Men films, and I think is the same universe that Monica Rambo is in at the end of the Marvels. So we'll talk about all of that, and how this entire war is being orchestrated by Robert Downey Jr's Dr. Doom. And hey, speaking of, we've got this great I hate you 3,000, Dr. Doom, Iron Man parody shirt up on our merch store right now, as well as the Gambit inspired,

who I'm about to make a name for myself, the Frazier Beast, and many more marvelous designs up for grabs on our merch store, screencrushmerge.com. Thank you so much for your support. Now, I've talked before about how I think the new Avengers, formerly the Thunderbolts, will be Team Doom and Avengers Doomsday. I think that this group of anti-heroes with dark pests and who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty will join Doctor Doom in what they think is a noble mission of saving their reality from complete destruction and saving trillions from dying.

And on the other side of this war, we will see a similar formation of a good guy team like the X-Men being led by a notorious villain in Magneto. Meanwhile, Sam Wilson, Captain America, who is clearly unhappy with the new Avengers being formed without him and is even suing for the name, he will be part of what I'm calling the Peace Faction. While Doom leads the more warbound heroes into war with Magneto and his warbound mutants, we will see Sam Wilson and his Avengers, like She-Hulk, Ant-Man, Wong, America Chavez, Ms. Marvel, and others join Professor X, Beast and Monica Rambo in their efforts alongside Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four to save both universes and not succumbing to the easy way out of destroying one universe to save another.

And this is why having the original Fox X-Men is so crucial to this story, because it's a story that has been set in motion a quarter century ago by Kevin Feige before even that first Iron Man movie. Now, some have characterized the return of Andrew Garfield and Toby McGuire's Spider-Man, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, and RDJ's Doctor Doom as a desperate and quote-unquote nostalgia bait. And I'm sympathetic to that viewpoint. The Multiverse saga has no doubt been heavy on a reverence for the past, and not too much, for the future. But the original X-Men lineup returning for this film, specifically Ian McKellon's Magneto, is far more than nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. Their role in Avengers Doomsday is an absolute necessity for Doomsday and Secret Wars to work. Because the story

that we're about to get is not simply a conclusion to the MCU, but a conclusion to a story that Marvel and Kevin Feige began telling 25 years ago with the very first X-Men film. So originally, the first big culmination film for the multiverse saga was going to be called Avengers the King Dynasty. However, following the perception of Ant Man and the Wass Quantomania and some legal issues surrounding Jonathan Majors, Marvel opted to change cores, drop Kang, and embrace Doctor Doom. Thus keeping Avengers Secret Wars part of the plan, but changing Avengers the King Dynasty over to Avengers Doomsday. Now some fans like our very own Ryan Airy speculated that they would pivot into an Avengers versus X-Men

film to replace King Dynasty. And hey, credit where credit is due, that is kind of what we're getting here with Avengers Doomsday. Remember when we all sat around for five hours and watched chairs with names on the back? Good times. Well, the biggest reveal in that lineup, for me at least, was the revelation of the original X-Men joining the cast. Professor X, Magneto, Beast, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Mystique, all being played by the same

actors who played them in those original X-Men films, and who Kevin Feigey specifically referred to at Cinemocon as, the original X-Men. There's even a great recent quote from Nightcrawler actor Alan coming discussing a scene that he just shot for Doomsday where he was told, you're punching Pedro Pascal. You're hitting Pedro Pascal against the head or something. So, I think we can anticipate a fight between Mr. Fantastic and Nightcrawler, which, I mean, come on, that, that's exciting. Now, the whole plot of Secret Wars in the comics is seeing two big groups of characters go to war with each other. In the original run, it's a big group of heroes

versus a big group of villains, yet surprisingly, Magneto is grouped with the heroes. More on that in a sec, because it actually plays in perfectly to my theory that Magneto will dethrone Xavier as the X-Men's leader, like we've seen many times in the comics and even in X-Men 97. Anyway, in the 2015, multiversal version of Secret Wars, which is what Marvel Studios is most likely to be more closely adapting for Doomsday and Secret Wars. In that version, we see an incursion take place. Take it away, Stretchy Jim. An incursion occurs when the boundary between two universes erodes, and they collide, destroying one or both entirely. Now sure, if Marvel wanted to, they could have introduced us to a brand new universe with a completely new cast of X-Men for the Avengers to fight,

similar to the brand new Fantastic Four in their universe. But that becomes, I don't know, weightless, impactless, especially in a saga where you've already brought back OGed characters like Toby and Andrews Spider-Man and, of course, Wolverine and, Deadpool. There's just something special about Marvel using an already established universe of X-Men characters that we as the audience know and care about to tell this story of two worlds going to war. It provides more weight seeing a world that we know go to war with another world we know. And there's just something poetic about seeing the Marvel cinematic universe that began with Iron Man back in 2008 going to war with the OG Marvel movie universe that Kevin Feikey had a major hand in creating with that first X-Men movie. Or what about Blade? Wasn't that the first Marvel movie? Well, actually, buddy, that would be Howard the Doug, but that doesn't, doesn't come. No, but seriously, Feigey's first big role at Marvel was helping them to helm that original X-Men series, and he even had hopes to one day cross them over with other big Marvel properties.

As if gamma accidents, radioactive bug bites, and assorted mutants weren't enough. I have to deal with a spoiled brat who doesn't play well with others. Now that, of course, never happened because different heroes were at different studios, but now, most of them are all under Marvel Studios banner. So I am hopeful that Feigey calling the returning X-Men cast, the original X-Men, means that they aren't simply playing variants, like we saw with Jackman's Wolverine and Deadpool and Wolverine, or with Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Multiverse of Madness,

but that they are returning to play the same versions of those characters that they have played before. And in the same universe that those films took place in, Universe 100005, the Fox X-Men universe, aka Deadpool's Universe, the universe that Monica Rambo likely woke up in at the end of the Marvels. She seems a little disoriented. Where are we? What happened?

We were hoping you could tell us. Yeah, but how can they be the same X-Men? Didn't that Mystique lose her powers? And didn't Cyclops die? It wasn't Beast, not CGI? And isn't Deadpool? Doug, relax. I know that this presents a lot of potential plot holes,

which I'm sure we'll make a video about once the movie comes out. But Deadpool and Wolverine and X-Men Days of Future past, almost perfectly explains away all of the potential continuity problems, many of which actually stem from the no longer canon X-Men The Last Stand. Deadpool and Wolverine, X-Men Days of Future past, and actually Logan as well, have secretly set the stage for the Fox X-Men universe to collide with the MCU and bring it in to the story that Feige started telling all those years ago. In Deadpool and Wolverine, Deadpool references his use of Cable's Time Machine to

rewrite his timeline in Deadpool 2. Was this because I used Cable's time machine? Brought a couple of people back to life, then I destroyed it. Agent Paradox of the TVA says that they are fully aware of Deadpool's shenanigans. We're aware of your abuse of your timeline, and you are so abusive of it. Now, Deadpool 2 wasn't the first time we saw time travel in that Fox X-Men universe. We actually first saw it in Days of Future Past. You do this, you change history.

Well, that's kind of the point. And in both days of future past, in Deadpool 2, we get confirmation that the way time time travel works in that universe is like Back to the Future. So no Scott Lane, back to the future is not a bunch of bullshit. In Avengers in game, Professor Hulk explains that time travel doesn't work that way, claiming that changing the past doesn't change the future. But we have clearly seen that in the Fox X-Men universe, which is part of the Marvel multiverse, that changing the past does change the future.

Their timeline can be rewritten like that of a VHS tape. You can have one series of events on a track of film that can then be written over with a whole new story, thus erasing the previous one. Kind of like that time my father-in-law almost recorded the animaniacs over his wedding video. Now, this type of time travel mechanics is different from the MCU model of branching timelines every time something has changed. And in canon, this could simply be explained as there being different laws of physics in different universes. And that's actually a common theory amongst physicists who discuss the possibility of an actual multiverse and how the laws of physics could

be different between different universes. So, what Hulk said was true, for the MCU and many other universes, perhaps in the Fox X-Men universe, time travel just works different. So anyway, the Fox X-Men universe has been written over many, many times. Deadpool even acknowledges that his universe is confusing. These timelines are so confusing. And Deadpool's fourth wall breaking really is a great way to just say, hey, you know those Fox X-Men movies? That's this universe, inconsistencies and all.

So what if the timelines get a little confusing? It makes it to where we can have a completely new version of Colosses, the best version, by the way, and it explains why Beast is all of a sudden a giant CG character too. It's the same universe and it's just taking some creative liberties here and there. And X-Men Days of Future Pass gives us a brand new future that we can assume is the version of the timeline that the first Deadpool movie took place in. That resetting of the timeline would explain why Deadpool doesn't look like this, how Cyclops is alive, how Mystique never lost her powers, and how Beast is alive. And then in Deadpool 2, we see the timeline get

rewritten again and that could explain away any further disparities. The only hiccup I have is that theoretically if the events of Logan are part of this timeline and Logan dies in the future in 2029 then that would mean that there should be two Wolverines in this timeline now because that other Wolverine is now with Deadpool in his time which is before the events of Logan unless we are to assume that there are also branches of time in this overall universe which would make sense because that's what these graphics at the TVA seem to suggest. So maybe the moment that Deadpool and Wolverine saved their universe, that Logan movie became exactly what director James

Mangold, as well as Hugh Jackman always intended it to be a separate continuity. All right, explain this to me like I'm a two-year-old, okay? Because there's an element to this thing, I just cannot get through my thick head. Yeah, you're right, Danzel. It still doesn't make any sense, but hey, that's why it's good news that we have the fourth wall breaking Deadpool here to brush it aside, acknowledge that it's confusing and just move on with the story and give us a dope-ass movie. And just accept that this is the Canon Schman in Fox X-Men universe, embrace that Wolverine is back, and just accept that this reality with all the X-Men back in action is supposed to be that Fox X-Men universe that we know and love from those pre-MCU days,

and just enjoy the movie, don't ask too many questions. And so if that's the case, if we are meant to take this Fox X-Men universe that we are getting in Doomsday as a continuation, as a part of those original films. What is a major constant in that X-Men universe? The Magneto heel turn. In almost every X-Men film, Magneto isn't the villain, he and Charles typically share a common goal of helping mutant kind, but Magneto always has his anticipated heel turn where he takes matters into his own metal manipulating hands. In X-Men first class, Magneto fights alongside the X-Men for most of the film, but at the end, he goes rogue, kills Shaw, and tries to blow up a bunch of humans. Granted,

they did launch the missiles first. In days of future past, Magneto joins the X-Men in their fight against Tras to save mutant kind from extinction, but as usual, he goes rogue and he tries to kill Mystique, and then the president. In X-Men Apocalypse, you guessed it, he joins Apocalypse, and then he actually has a face turn and betrays Apocalypse. You betray me. No, I betrayed them. In X2, Magneto and the X-Men are working together to stop Stryker, but Magneto is quick to betray them and execute them and execute his attack on humanity.

In X-Men last stand, the government has developed a cure for mutation. Magneto and the X-Men are on the same page of a forced cure being a problem, but Magneto takes the approach of weaponizing the Phoenix to stop humanity. So my point is that Magneto is notorious for joining the cause in the fight against evil,

but then taking his own brutal approach and becoming a type of evil himself. And I think the same will be true for Avengers Doomsday. You see, some have theorized that Magneto will join Dooms similar to how he has joined Apocalypse, but I don't think that's the case. I think that Magneto is actually going to be one of the strongest fighters against Doom in Doomsday, but he will be inadvertently helping Doom in the process. Magneto is known for his us versus them mentality when it comes to mutants versus humans. The key rivalry that we have seen between

Magneto and Professor X has always been their approach to the war with mankind. While Xavier looked to protect mutant kind from humanity's cruel embrace by persuading mutants and human beings, to live in peace, Magneto, on the other hand, had no time for niceties or peace with the same mankind that has treated him as lesser his entire life, the same mankind that not only came at him for being a mutant, but also for being Jewish. Magneto has no patience for peace brokering and will simply seek to bring an end to the threat against his people. That threat being the colliding universe of the MCU. So those are the teams that I think we are going to see. A lot of well-meaning Avengers following Doom, who looks like the event.

Tony Stark, and I assume a lot of the X-Men will follow Magneto, while there is a third group of defected heroes made up of X-Men, Sam Wilson's Cap and his Avengers, and of course the Fantastic Four, trying to make peace and solve Reed's equation that we're going to see in Fantastic Four First Steps that he hopes once solved can stop incursions. But meanwhile, while the war ensues between realities, Magneto will be playing right into the Hand of Doom, who has no true loyalty to the MCU, despite them viewing him as the their savior because he looks like Tony Stark. In all honesty, Doom will happily take over and rule whichever reality is strong enough to defeat the other. But ultimately, I think come the end of

this movie, they will likely both fail. The multiverse will collapse and they'll all be flung into the void at the end of time. And that will become battle world, which we've seen in the comics, and that's basically a culmination of different worlds. And it is there in battle world, in the void, that we will see Doom assert himself as the ruler. And I assume this is where we will get the inevitable Magneto face turn where, like in the comics, he will fight alongside the heroes to stop Dr. Doom and save reality. Now, come the end of Secret Wars, we will likely see the multiverse be rebuilt by young Franklin Richards, that's the son of Reed and Sue, and of course, Wanda Maximoff, both using their reality manipulation powers to create new worlds, and we'll

see a new MCU where the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, etc., all coexist in a new conjoined reality, just like in the comics when we saw Universe 616 and the Ultimates universe combined, giving us Peter Parker and Miles Morales swinging together through New York City. But I don't know if Sony's going to let that happen. Anyway, I do think that this would also be the perfect time to bring back to other icons who have played Magneto and Professor X, that of course being Michael Fastbender and James McAvoy. But hey, those are just my thoughts. I want to hear your thoughts and theories on why the Fox X-Men are returning for Avengers Doomsday down in the comments below. And hey, if you're new here,

be sure to subscribe, smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Colton Ogburn.