AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY's Multiverse Catastrophe Has Already Begun, and the MCU Is Heading for Total Destruction

Marvel just gave fans a terrifying preview of what's coming in Avengers: Doomsday, and things are already looking pretty damn bad for the multiverse.

The new footage included in Avengers: Endgame Encore reveals that entire universes are being wiped out, and Earth's Mightiest Heroes could be heading into a fight they have no idea how to win.

The rerelease of Avengers: Endgame adds only about four minutes of new footage, but Marvel manages to pack some major developments into that short runtime.

The second mid-credits scene is particularly interesting because it connects the events of Loki and Deadpool & Wolverine to the coming catastrophe, while offering some pretty strong clues about how the MCU plans to adapt one of Marvel Comics' biggest storylines.

The scene brings us back to the Time Variance Authority, where Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) has returned to work following his departure at the end of Loki Season 2.

After Loki (Tom Hiddleston) sacrificed his freedom to keep the multiverse's timelines alive, the TVA changed its mission. Instead of destroying alternate timelines to protect the Sacred Timeline, the organization now works to preserve them.

Unfortunately, that job just became a whole lot harder. Mobius reunites with Ouroboros, better known as O.B. (Ke Huy Quan), and Casey (Eugene Cordero), but their reunion takes a nasty turn when the TVA's monitoring equipment detects a massive outbreak of incursions.

For anyone unfamiliar with Marvel's multiverse rules, incursions occur when two universes collide, potentially destroying both realities and everyone living in them.

The TVA agents watch in horror as the destruction spreads at an alarming rate. Within moments, nearly 3,000 universes have been erased. As the situation spirals out of control, O.B. delivers the grim news: “The multiverse is collapsing.”

What's interesting about this scene is how closely it connects to Marvel's 2015 Secret Wars comic event, written by Jonathan Hickman.

While Marvel has published two major Secret Wars storylines, the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars appear to be drawing heavily from Hickman's version, particularly the events leading up to the destruction of the multiverse.

In those comics, the heroes of Earth-616 discover that incursions are gradually wiping out alternate realities. The Illuminati, a secret group of powerful Marvel heroes, learns that these collisions involve different versions of Earth occupying the same space.

They eventually discover a horrifying solution. Destroying one of the two Earths can prevent both universes from being annihilated.

That leaves the heroes facing an impossible moral decision. Do they sacrifice billions of innocent people to save their own universe, or refuse to cross that line and potentially allow everyone to die?

The resulting conflict tears the heroes apart as they struggle with decisions that have no good answers. Eventually, it's revealed that the Beyonders, a group of nearly all-powerful cosmic beings, are responsible for the incursions.

By the time Secret Wars begins, only two universes remain: Earth-616 and Earth-1610, the original Ultimate Universe. With one final incursion approaching, the heroes of both worlds fight for survival while their respective versions of Reed Richards attempt to evacuate survivors aboard a vessel called the life raft.

Meanwhile, Victor von Doom confronts the Beyonders with the reluctant assistance of Stephen Strange. The final collision destroys both remaining universes, leaving nothing but white light and a brief image of Doom's mask.

When the survivors eventually emerge, they discover Battleworld, a strange planet assembled from fragments of destroyed realities. It's populated by alternate versions of familiar Marvel characters and ruled by Doom, who has become the all-powerful God Emperor.

It's an awesome comic book story, and the new Avengers: Endgame Encore footage suggests Marvel may be taking its most important elements straight into the MCU.

One particularly revealing detail appears on a TVA monitor, which shows Earth-10005 and Earth-1127 actively fighting during an incursion. Rather than simply allowing their universes to collide, the two realities appear to be at war, launching missiles at each other.

Marvel hasn't established Earth-1127 as the primary setting of any previous MCU project, but Earth-10005 should immediately sound familiar to fans of Deadpool & Wolverine.

That's the universe containing the X-Men characters and mythology featured in the Deadpool movies and Logan. This raises an interesting possibility for Avengers: Doomsday. Maybe the X-Men aren't just joining the Avengers to fight Doctor Doom, maybe they're fighting to save their universe from the Avengers' own reality.

If Marvel follows the comics, the mutants of Earth-10005 could occupy a position similar to the heroes of Earth-1610, putting them in direct conflict with the MCU's Earth-616.

Imagine the Avengers and X-Men finally meeting on the big screen, only to discover that saving one world could mean destroying the other.

That's a pretty brutal way to bring these characters together, and it could make for one of the most emotionally charged conflicts Marvel has attempted.

There's also Earth-828 to consider, the home universe of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The Doomsday trailers have strongly suggested that Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr., comes from this reality and shares a personal history with its Fantastic Four.

That connection could become incredibly important as the multiverse collapses. Everything we've seen and heard about Avengers: Doomsday suggests Doom won't necessarily enter the story as an obvious enemy.

Instead, he may initially position himself as someone capable of preventing the destruction, potentially earning the trust of the Fantastic Four and other heroes who are desperate to stop the incursions.

It's a dynamic that would fit nicely with the comics, where Doom works alongside Strange before ultimately taking control of what remains of existence.

With thousands of universes already destroyed, the Avengers might have little choice but to consider Doom's help. Of course, trusting a guy named Doctor Doom with the fate of reality sounds like a spectacularly terrible idea, but desperate times tend to lead to desperate decisions.

The most exciting thing about this new footage is that Marvel appears to be making the incursions themselves a major threat, rather than treating them as something that happens in the background while everyone fights the latest villain.

The potential destruction of entire realities gives Avengers: Doomsday a much bigger problem than simply defeating one powerful enemy. The heroes could find themselves fighting each other, making impossible sacrifices, and ultimately turning to someone who might be even more dangerous than the catastrophe they're trying to prevent.

If Marvel follows the general direction of Hickman's comics, stopping the collapse may only be the beginning of their problems.

Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars, and this new glimpse at the multiverse's destruction makes it clear that Marvel is preparing to put its heroes through absolute hell.