The announcement of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has renewed hope for Marvel vs. Capcom’s future. Needless to say, even Producer Shuhei Matsumoto hinted that the development teams at Capcom have big dreams regarding a potential sequel in the future.
Despite Dr. Doom’s prominence in previous entries, the character was notably absent in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. However, recent events suggest that, should a sequel ever happen, Dr. Doom would very likely return.
During San Diego Comic Con, it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. would be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even though Iron Man made the ultimate sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame. This time, Downey Jr. will be playing the role of Dr. Doom in the next two Avengers films starting with Avengers: Doomsday.
It’s also been rumored that Downey Jr. will be making an appearance in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which could tie in Dr. Doom into the Earth-616, better known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Technically speaking, Capcom did say prior to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s full roster reveal that the characters that were set to appear in that game were not necessarily restricted to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Of course, that statement ended up not aging particularly well, even if it was overshadowed by other events later down the line.
Ultimately, characters from the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises were banished from the roster, very likely since 20th Century Fox still owned the movie rights for both series at the time. It could be argued that only Venom, Ghost Rider, and maybe Nova are currently not big parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Meanwhile, characters like Ultron, Gamora, Thanos, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Black Widow, and Winter Solider were very clearly added as promotions for the movies. Even Hawkeye’s appearance was updated to better match how he looks in the MCU despite being a returning character from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Needless to say, what’s happening in the MCU played a huge role in which characters Disney approved for MvCI, and this would likely play a key role should the Marvel vs. Capcom series ever get a sequel. As such, Dr. Doom’s return is looking like a surefire bet.
However, it’s certainly interesting to note how things almost went in a different direction. Prior to the announcement that Dr. Doom would be playing the role of the big baddie in the next two Avengers films, events were lining up for Kang the Conqueror to be the villain.
Things ultimately didn’t pan out that way due to the actor who played Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Jonathan Majors, getting arrested. Going down this speculative rabbit hole, we would’ve probably ended up with Kang the Conqueror in the next Marvel vs. Capcom had this not happened.
Of course, this also might’ve meant that Dr. Doom’s overall role in the MCU would’ve been diminished compared to what it is now. Needless to say, these developments will very likely change the course of the next Marvel vs. Capcom entry, assuming it does ever happen.
Kang the Conqueror never had a spot on the roster for these classic versus fighting games. Now, for better or worse, it may possibly never happen.