Did ‘Loki’ Hint at Doctor Doom’s Secret Origin Before ‘Avengers: Doomsday’?

Marvel has expertly crafted a narrative around concealing future storylines in plain sight, and few franchises have rewarded viewers with rewatch value quite like ‘Loki.’ The Disney+ series has spent two seasons delving into the intricacies of the multiverse, introducing concepts that will shape the remainder of the Multiverse Saga.

Initially, many of these revelations seemed self-contained, focusing on Loki and Sylvie’s quest to confront the Time Variance Authority and the enigmatic figure behind it. However, few viewers recognized how much of that mythology might still be poised to unfold.

Currently, a theory is gaining traction online, with fans pointing to a particular scene as potential foreshadowing for Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom ahead of his debut in ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’ The scene features a tense exchange at the TVA, with on-screen text indicating that Doom has been lurking within incursions all along.

This theory originates from a story shared by Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius, who recounts a mission where TVA Hunters were dispatched to prune a variant responsible for numerous deaths that were never meant to occur. The twist, as fans have pieced together, is that the variant was merely a child living in a country near the Black Sea, a detail that aligns intriguingly with Doctor Doom’s comic book origin in Latveria.

According to the theory, that pruned child didn’t simply vanish. Since ‘Loki’ establishes that pruned variants are sent to the Void at the end of time rather than being erased, and given that multiple characters have since escaped that Void, fans speculate that the boy in Mobius’s tale could have survived, matured, and ultimately become the version of Doom now set to challenge the MCU.

If this theory holds true, the implications extend far beyond a clever Easter egg. It would imply that the Time Variance Authority is directly responsible for creating its own greatest adversary, providing Doctor Doom with a deeply personal motivation for targeting the organization in ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’ It would also reshape earlier MCU mysteries, including the true reasoning behind He Who Remains’s fixation on preventing dangerous variants from emerging across the timeline.

The incursion aspect adds another dimension to the speculation. Many fans believe Doom’s narrative involves surviving the destruction of his own timeline during an incursion, the catastrophic event where two universes collide and obliterate each other. This would position him not just as a survivor of TVA pruning, but potentially as the last remnant of an entirely erased reality, bearing the burden of that loss into his battle against the multiverse.

This theory aligns seamlessly with the overarching themes ‘Loki’ explored over two seasons, particularly its recurring question of whether the TVA was ever justified in determining which timelines should exist. Transforming that moral ambiguity into the literal origin story of the MCU’s next major villain would provide ‘Doomsday’ with a surprisingly emotional foundation as it approaches its December release.

Marvel Studios has yet to confirm any connection between this ‘Loki’ storyline and Doctor Doom’s actual backstory, and the studio has kept most details about Downey Jr.’s villain closely guarded ahead of the film’s release. Nevertheless, the pieces fans have assembled align closely enough that it’s easy to understand why this theory has gained such traction.

Regardless of whether this is confirmed on screen, it serves as a reminder of how meticulously Marvel tends to plant its long-term storytelling seeds.

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