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Loki TVA Doctor Doom Replacing Kang is one of the hottest MCU theories right now. After killing He Who Remains, Loki learns that the TVA is keeping timelines from branching by pruning them. He offers Sylvie a choice: kill him to prevent another time war or take his place.
She agrees. Then, they sneak onto a train to the Ark, which is set to destroy Lamentis-1, before their TemPad runs out of power.
How Could Loki’s TVA Storyline Connect to Doctor Doom Replacing Kang in the MCU?
Marvel is bringing back Doctor Doom with Robert Downey Jr., and the Russo brothers on board to direct, which means the MCU is set to change course after it teased a Kang-centric Avengers 5 story. That doesn’t mean that Kang has to be replaced, though. In fact, the multiverse story established by Loki season 2 could make it easy for Marvel to switch things up.
Victor Timely discovered the Multiverse in the 31st century, and joined a Council of Kangs ruling over foreseeable realities. Deeming the Council to be destroying the Multiverse, Timely sought to conquer as many worlds as possible in his role as Kang the Conqueror.
His armor gave him the ability to create circular platforms, levitate objects, and interact with ambient technology. He was also a master marksman, able to accurately shoot thousands of Freedom Fighters during the Uprising in Axia. He also looked down on Ant-Man, calling him a talkative ant, and murdered numerous variants of the heroes when they tried to thwart his plan.
The Fall of Kang
While the MCU moved on from Jonathan Majors in 2023 (after he was found guilty of assaulting a production assistant), it seems that the actor is now starting to work towards returning. His latest project, a new film called Magazine Dreams, appears to be his first step in that direction, but it might not be Marvel?
Before the MCU moved on from Majors, he played multiple Kang variants in Loki Season 1 and Avengers: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He was also set to lead 2026?s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (now retitled Avengers: Doomsday) alongside Robert Downey Jr.
The TVA is an organization that has operated outside of time and space as the de facto temporal law enforcement agency, pruning timelines and keeping the Sacred Timeline in order. At the end of Loki Season 2, the organization was facing a crisis, as timelines were popping up faster than they could be pruned. When our heroes consulted Ouroboros about the matter, he revealed that the overloading was causing power surges within the TVA, and that it would soon be overwhelmed entirely.
The TVA Controls Timelines
The TVA uses a huge device known as the Temporal Loom to weave strands of raw time into the Sacred Timeline. The organization prunes versions of the universe to prevent timelines from branching out and creating a multiversal war. In Loki season 2, it’s revealed that the original He Who Remains created the TVA to prevent his own variants from waging a war that nearly destroyed the multiverse.
One of the ways the TVA works is by enlisting heroes from different timelines to fight their own version of He Who Remains. This is how the Fantastic Four ended up in a timeline where they were the only survivors of a multiversal explosion that killed their original selves.
The TVA later recruited the Fantastic Four to help them track down a rogue Timekeeper named Godwulf, who was trying to revert the universe back to the pre-Crisis state. But the Fantastic Four were able to use a reality wave to make the TVA think the team was from their home timeline, causing it to stop pursuing them.
Doom’s Comic History with the Multiverse
After Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has been redirected toward a Multiverse-focused direction. That change has led to a big shift in the tone of the franchise, and it also explains why Marvel chose Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom.
In the comics, Doom has been tied to the Multiverse for a long time. He is one of the most powerful villains in the history of Marvel, and he has even defeated Kang in the past.
In the comics, He Who Remains created the TVA to prevent the creation of timelines that threaten the Sacred Timeline. He Who Remains later explains that his own variants waged a war in the past that nearly tore the Multiverse apart, and he wanted to avoid such a future for all possible timelines. With the TVA now tracking down all versions of He Who Remains, it could make sense for the organization to enlist Victor von Doom to monitor the Multiverse.
Could Doom Be Teased in Avengers: Doomsday
At the Disney China Expo, fans got their first look at the MCU version of Doom in a light show. The silver and green suit looks spot-on, but the most exciting reveal may have come elsewhere.
The TVA is a fictional bureaucracy that is charged with monitoring every existent timeline from a space? world? domain? who knows where they exist, but definitely outside of time itself. They keep track of wayward time travelers and prevent them from ruining various realities. He Who Remains controls the TVA, and a 31st-century variant of Doom named Nathaniel Richards was a member for a while.
Loki encountered the TVA in season 2 of “Loki,” but instead of being pruned, he was recruited to help hunt another Loki variant. When Mobius brought him to Ouroboros, he realized that timelines were branching faster than they could be pruned, and it was overloading the Temporal Loom.
MCU Future
Marvel Studio President Kevin Feige recently confirmed that Kang the Conqueror is kaput after his unimpressive debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and criminal charges involving his actor led to him being terminated. He did not confirm if he will be replaced but hinted that the character may not return.
During the Disney D23 livestream, Feige discussed the future of Phase Five which will wrap up in 2027 with Avengers: Secret Wars and a movie version of Captain America: First Steps. He also confirmed that the Russo Brothers will be back to direct those films.
In addition to Downey, the Russos have tapped Robert Knepper as Victor Von Doom for Avengers: Doomsday and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique for the animated What If…?. Other notable actors coming back include Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Secret Invasion (2023), Tom Hiddleston as Loki in season two of the Marvel Netflix series Loki and Jeffrey Wright as the Watcher in the second and third seasons of that show.