Who should be the MCU's next big bad?

[Kyphael]

Binge watching FOX's 90's X-Men animated seriously and realizing how much justice the cartoon did Apocalypse and it got me thinking, could he be a Thanos level threat in the MCU, or strictly X-Men movies level? Who do you think should be the MCU's next tent pole villain appearing across several films and pulling all the strings like Thanis in phases 1-3?

[Ebalina]

MODOK just for the fun factor.
Molecule man for interesting story.
The beyonder for cool fun concept.
Annhilius for reasons.

[Kokolums]

I dunno about MCU but the DC comics universe should build a plan around Superboy Prime being the big bad.

[zlygork]

Probably Galactus will be the next "big bad" that will be slowly referenced during the next 10 years.
It's the logical way of one uping Thanos imo

[Soulwind]

As much as I'd enjoy Dr. Doom as an overarching villain, I don't think he looks or feels as threatening as Thanos does, so I vote Galactus. I'm curious how they'd handle the visuals for such a massive creature, too.

[Raven]

Depends on if its a world ending threat or universe ending threat.

World ending: probably Dr Doom.

Universe ending: Galactus or Dormammu.

[draganid]

As much as I'd enjoy Dr. Doom as an overarching villain, I don't think he looks or feels as threatening as Thanos does, so I vote Galactus. I'm curious how they'd handle the visuals for such a massive creature, too.

dr doom could be a villian like loki where we see him frequently over the 10 years leading to galactus

[StillMcfuu]

Dr Doom would be the best, but I don't think MCU could handle the character correctly.

[Skizzit]

After the last two X-men movies, the MCU would be wise to star far, far away from either Apocalypse or Dark Phoenix for awhile.

[Binaris]

Sylvanas Windrunner

[Dilbon]

I don't think I'd even want to see the X-Men in MCU so Dr. Doom and Galactus.

[Nefarious Tea]

A different question for you, OP:

Does the MCU even need an overarching villain after Thanos?

[Endus]

Dr Doom would be the best, but I don't think MCU could handle the character correctly.

It should be Doom.

They've shown that the heroes of Earth can stand up to the best of the universe. So what about the villains of Earth? Seems a reasonable next step. Going with Galactus seems like a step up from Thanos + Infinity Gauntlet, but it's really a step down, and retreading the same kind of ground.

And hell, the MCU made frickin' Vulture a scary-ass villain. I think they can handle Doom. Just a few points;

1> Don't do a major redesign. Use the bolt-face mask and hood. You can tweak that, SLIGHTLY, to make it work, but it should be as recognizable as Spidey's or Iron Man's suits were. Also, no taking the mask off, not until the final fight, and probably not even then. It shouldn't matter who he is under the mask. He's Doom.

2> Doom wins. Doom wins basically every fight. The next major arc should be a lot of "heroes versus villain of the week", where said villain is working for Doom, and they beat the villain, but Doom gets what he wanted and gets away. At best, he loses, and then takes it back in a future outing. The whole sequence of 10+ films should be Doom coming out on top, and he should be even more present than Thanos. More like Loki.

3> Doom's reasonable. He can cut his losses. His motivation is sensible. He can take his case to the UN, against the heroes and SHIELD, and make his case, without lying or hiding anything, and win that vote, legitimately. I don't know what that plot is, maybe it's an improvement on Stark's "we need to protect the Earth", with an added "and Doom is the only one who can" rider.

He should be Stark without the compassion, Mysterio without the dishonesty, the Captain America of Eastern-European Pragmatism rather than American-made Freedom. The biggest strengths of the main heroes, without their moral and ethical hesitations to hold him back, and the intelligence to pull it all off.

[Logwyn]

Dr Doom would be the best, but I don't think MCU could handle the character correctly.

Only issue with Dr. Doom would be the need for Fantastic Four to show up really. There yet to be a really good Fantastic Four on the level of Avengers.

[Frontenac]

Galactus if that means there will be a Silver Surfer movie with the epicness the animated series had.

[Soulwind]

Only issue with Dr. Doom would be the need for Fantastic Four to show up really. There yet to be a really good Fantastic Four on the level of Avengers.

I don't think the writers who made Ant-man or Doctor Strange work would have too much trouble with the Fantastic Four. But bringing Reed Richards into the story this late would be very weird.

Also, no taking the mask off, not until the final fight, and probably not even then. It shouldn't matter who he is under the mask. He's Doom.

We'd know who the actor behind the mask is before the first movie was released anyway. But that's not necessarily a negative. James Spader is a hell of an actor, but he doesn't really look like a hero or a villain, having him mo-cap and voice Ultron was a good choice in my opinion. Something similar could be done with Dr. Doom.

[gd8]

Probably Galactus will be the next "big bad" that will be slowly referenced during the next 10 years.
It's the logical way of one uping Thanos imo

we have to deal with another 10 years of this shit?

[Logwyn]

I don't think the writers who made Ant-man or Doctor Strange work would have too much trouble with the Fantastic Four. But bringing Reed Richards into the story this late would be very weird.

I can agree with this. Might have made more sense to have Reed Show up with one of either Human Torch or "Ben" show up and the other two "disappeared". Might have been better to have "Johnny" show up looking for Spiderman and Reed wanting to help.

[Soulwind]

I can agree with this. Might have made more sense to have Reed Show up with one of either Human Torch or "Ben" show up and the other two "disappeared". Might have been better to have "Johnny" show up looking for Spiderman and Reed wanting to help.

One of the theories before Endgame released was that whatever they would do to undo the snap and destroy the stones could somehow cause people to develop the X-gene, explaining why the X-Men weren't a thing before.

I could still see Galactus or Dr. Doom appearing as a result of all that has happened in phases 1-4 (for different reasons) but I don't know how they could add the X-Men or Fantastic Four to the established roster in an organic way. It would also feel like they've missed half of the story, and would appear as new, "inferior", heroes compared to the "veterans" who defeated Thanos, among a dozen of other world-ending threats, already.

[Kyphael]

A different question for you, OP:

Does the MCU even need an overarching villain after Thanos?

Need? No, but they're already planning it, and have acknowledged while an arc as grandiose as Infinity Wars is at least ten years off, it's definitely an event they're building towards again.

- - - Updated - - -

It should be Doom.

They've shown that the heroes of Earth can stand up to the best of the universe. So what about the villains of Earth? Seems a reasonable next step. Going with Galactus seems like a step up from Thanos + Infinity Gauntlet, but it's really a step down, and retreading the same kind of ground.

And hell, the MCU made frickin' Vulture a scary-ass villain. I think they can handle Doom. Just a few points;

1> Don't do a major redesign. Use the bolt-face mask and hood. You can tweak that, SLIGHTLY, to make it work, but it should be as recognizable as Spidey's or Iron Man's suits were. Also, no taking the mask off, not until the final fight, and probably not even then. It shouldn't matter who he is under the mask. He's Doom.

2> Doom wins. Doom wins basically every fight. The next major arc should be a lot of "heroes versus villain of the week", where said villain is working for Doom, and they beat the villain, but Doom gets what he wanted and gets away. At best, he loses, and then takes it back in a future outing. The whole sequence of 10+ films should be Doom coming out on top, and he should be even more present than Thanos. More like Loki.

3> Doom's reasonable. He can cut his losses. His motivation is sensible. He can take his case to the UN, against the heroes and SHIELD, and make his case, without lying or hiding anything, and win that vote, legitimately. I don't know what that plot is, maybe it's an improvement on Stark's "we need to protect the Earth", with an added "and Doom is the only one who can" rider.

He should be Stark without the compassion, Mysterio without the dishonesty, the Captain America of Eastern-European Pragmatism rather than American-made Freedom. The biggest strengths of the main heroes, without their moral and ethical hesitations to hold him back, and the intelligence to pull it all off.

Now this is well thought out and definitely more interesting than a Galactus arc.