Summary

  • With Robert Downey Jr. Returning as Doctor Doom, could The Beyonders bring chaos to the MCU leading into Avengers: Secret Wars?
  • The powerful beings live outside the multiverse, manipulating events and creating threats like The Beyonder. Will they dominate the MCU?
  • Clues in the Eternals and Doctor Strange films hint at the arrival of The Beyonders, setting the stage for a cosmic showdown in the MCU.

With the knowledge that not only would Robert Downey Jr. Be coming back to the MCU to play none other than Doctor Doom, but that the film Avengers: Doomsday would lead into the highly anticipated Avengers: Secret Wars, the question on everyone’s minds has been what direction or adaption of the Marvel Comics these films would bring into the MCU. One element that could appear in the films comes from the lead up to Marvel Comics 2015 crossover event Secret Wars, titled “Time Runs Out”. That element is the extradimensional beings known as The Beyonders.

Not to be confused with The Beyonder, the villain who created the first Secret Wars and Battleworld, the Beyonders are a nearly all-powerful race of beings that reside outside the multiverse. The end of the multiverse and the threat of annihilation led three Marvel characters to wage one final attack on the Beyonders, leading to the events of Secret Wars. Could these powerful entities become the catalyst for the MCU in much the same way, introducing them in Avengers: Doomsday?

Who are The Beyonders?

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Created by the all-powerful Celestials after the first Celestial War, these beings were also known as the Ivory Kings, who were charged with maintaining the multiverse from outside of it, known as the Beyond space. It would later be revealed that their opposites who worked in the dark were the Kings in Black, who worked to change the multiverse from within it, making beings like Knull and Venom the Beyonder’s rivals. For millennia, the Beyonders didn’t reveal themselves or their power to the Earth dimension, and they themselves can never breach the multiverse, only able to work through agents they choose from in the multiverse.

After using their agents to create the Savage Land on Earth to study evolution, they used other alien races to observe the multiverse, even using one race to help bring the High Evolutionary’s Counter-Earth to their museum outside the multiverse. The High Evolutionary went to retrieve his world, and nearly lost his mind when he tried to witness the sheer volume of their collected power, making his own power miniscule in comparison. They also became responsible for the creation of several Cosmic Cubes, which they were forced to abandon when the Living Tribune and Eternity came to realize the chaos that these cubes caused. One such cube gained sentience and became the entity known as The Beyonder, taking his name from the beings who made him.

Their power grew so large that eventually they decided to cause an experiment to witness the end of the multiverse. They took out Eternity, as well as beings like Infinity and Lord-Chaos, to prevent any intereference with their experiment. They begin causing incursions, colliding one universe with another until one or neither exists. While Marvel’s Illuminati attempts to stop this and comes into conflict with the heroes of Earth, the final battle between Earth 616 and the Beyonders comes from Doctor Strange, the Molecule Man and Doctor Doom. Doom collects Molecule Men from around the multiverse, who the Beyonders had turned into living bombs to destroy their respective universes, and instead destroys the Beyonders with a bomb mad of Molecule Men. The resulting explosion results in a new Battleworld and Secret Wars, ruled over by God Emperor Doom.

The Beyonders in the MCU

A Secret Wars comic cover with The Thing, Captain Marvel, Black Bolt, Namor, Mr. Fantastic, and others on it

While they may not have made their official appearance yet, there are many clues to show they could be working behind the scenes. For instance, the Eternals have already introduced the Celestials, the beings that created the Beyonders before the Marvel multiverse as we know it was born. Beings like Eternity have also been introduced, showcasing the growing cosmic entities that the MCU will be dealing with in future films.

In Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, fans were not only introduced to Charlize Theron’s Clea, but Clea’s warning to Strange that he was needed to help stop the rise of Incursions to the multiverse. This showcases that a prime element of the Beyonder’s plans to destroy the multiverse in the comics is already underway in the MCU, and while the origins of the Incursions have yet to be revealed, their existence could ultimately lead Strange to discover these beings, and turn to none other than Doom to stop them.

Then there is Doctor Doom, a villain who already has the gravitas and power to bring the MCU heroes to their knees. His introduction in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday film is set to make him the future big bad of the MCU, with Robert Downey Jr leading the charge as Marvel’s latest villain. His role is pivotal in the lead-up to Secret Wars, and the only way he becomes God Emperor Doom in the MCU is by taking out a powerful source of cosmic power like the Beyonders. The threat that these beings pose to the multiverse and the mystery behind how RDJ becomes Victor Von Doom could be the perfect storm that sees the Beyonders enter the MCU in a grand fashion.

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First Film
Iron Man
Latest Film
Marvels
Cast
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, Tom Hiddleston, Iman Vellani
TV Show(s)
WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk
Movie(s)
Iron Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Endgame, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Character(s)
Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a sprawling movie and television franchise that weaves together individual stories of superheroes including Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and many more. The first film in the franchise, Iron Man, was released in 2008. The MCU has garnered critical praise and financial success, earning billions at the box office and becoming a cultural phenomenon.

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