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Avengers: Doomsday’s Captain America Problem Could Break the MCU’s Next Era captain america mcu sam steve john doomsday

By Jared Stewart Published Mar 1, 2026, 7:48 PM EST Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Add Us On Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Following Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame as the pinnacle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars have a lot riding on them. Unlike Avengers: Infinity War, though, Avengers: Doomsday won’t be supported by a series of movies and character arcs that gradually culminate in an epic two-part Avengers experience. Instead, Avengers: Doomsday seems to be purely capitalizing on nostalgia and praying that this makes it entertaining enough for narrative blemishes to be overlooked.

The basis for this theory is derived from literally nothing about the story having been shared yet (to be fair, it won’t be released for another nine months, roughly), while a slew of actors has. It’s this star power that the MCU is banking on wholly between its casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and yanking Chris Evans back to play Steve Rogers again. The latter is incredibly egregious, too, when it ensures that there will be at least three Captain America characters featured in Avengers: Doomsday.

Avengers: Doomsday Has 3 Captain Americas Running Around

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America in Avengers: Endgame battlefield

Two Captain Americas are one too many, and thus Avengers: Doomsday boasting three is preposterous. These three are set to be:

Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie), who was previously Falcon and is presently Captain America in the MCU.
John Walker (played by Wyatt Russell), who was previously Captain America, a mercenary, and a Thunderbolt, and is presently a New Avenger.
Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans), who was previously Captain America and whose whereabouts as an elderly man are presently unknown after having retired, passed the vibranium shield onto Sam, and time-traveled in order to grow old with Margaret ‘Peggy’ Carter.

In a perfectly balanced, reshaped reality, Sam would be the leader of a new Avengers team, and Avengers: Doomsday wouldn’t need to drag Steve back into the MCU to elicit excitement. As it stands, the effect of Steve’s MCU presence after Avengers: Doomsday, assuming he is around for Avengers: Secret Wars, could demolish any chance of Sam being as special as he should be.

Captain Carter Could Be Captain America #4

Captain Carter as part of the illuminati in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

The ceiling has never been lower in an MCU movie in terms of what multiversal shenanigans Avengers: Doomsday may get up to, especially if it is merely an amuse-bouche for Avengers: Secret Wars. Hell, with Steve returning, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility at all for the presumed mother of his child, Peggy Carter, to also return.

Having her back as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and What If…?’s Captain Carter wouldn’t be the most shameless character revivals that’s ever been seen in the history of Marvel lore, either, and yet Hayley Atwell was absent during Chris Evans’ Avengers: Doomsday character teaser and the star-studded cast chair livestream.

If she’s being kept secret for now in anticipation of a surprise reveal, Captain Carter would oversaturate Avengers: Doomsday more than it already is. Nonetheless, while John and Steve are interesting depictions of how much a character can evolve beyond the star-spangled costume, Sam is at risk of being overshadowed.

“On Your Left”—Sam Wilson Can’t Catch a Break

captain america brave new world sam wilson mcu

John and Steve may not actually be Captain Americas in Avengers: Doomsday, but they’re still muddying those waters. These are both characters that Sam has had to prove to himself that he could be Captain America instead of, and Steve, in particular, is undoubtedly going to eclipse Sam in this upcoming movie.

Sam initially accepted Steve’s shield before bafflingly relinquishing it to the government, where it was passed onto John, whom Sam later confiscates it from. Sam then officially became Captain America at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and has only had one Captain America movie, Brave New World, to his name.

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It’s unknown if Sam’s Captain America is slated to be a lead in Avengers: Doomsday, though it would be quite unprecedented if so. Sam’s Captain America hasn’t been shown to be a leader of an Avengers team thus far, for instance, and he is not being marketed nearly as strongly as the MCU’s holy trinity—Iron Man (Doctor Doom, in this case), Captain America (Steve, in this case), and Thor.

In fact, James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes and Yelena Belova have been portrayed as leader figures more in the one movie in which their New Avengers team was established. However, pedestalizing Sam’s Captain America as a lead in Avengers: Doomsday is probably necessary in order to guarantee that Steve coming back won’t shake that foundation.

Steve coming back in Avengers: Doomsday and not making a cinematic splash is basically impossible, whether he carries a shield and wears a costume or not. It could also be neat to see how he and John might interact if Steve learned about John’s troubled history as Captain America, and yet Steve alone will only ever serve to detract from Sam as long as he is around.

Avengers: Doomsday

Like Follow Followed Superhero Action Sci-Fi Release Date December 18, 2026 Director Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Writers Stephen McFeely, Michael Waldron, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee