– Doomsday is coming-

In exactly one year from now – 365 days – 8760 hours – 525600 minutes – The MCU will come to some sort of grand conclusion. Wrapping up the last quarter century of cinematic superhero films into an extravaganza blockbuster. Yet there have been many bumps in the road on this long journey that the MCU has taken us on. It’s safe to say that, after many cinematic duds – both financial and critical – and television shows that failed to gather audiences in a substantial way, the MCU isn’t standing on as-solid-a-foundation as it did when they had their previous big event with Infinity War and Endgame. I’ll be the first to say that I am the opposite of excited for Doomsday, both because of the lackluster build up to it as well as everything else we know about the film, yet I feel there are parts of this grand tapestry that work very well. Some of the pieces that are and have been in play for the last 7 years are incredibly fun and exciting and could lead to some very satisfying world-building – yet it’s just not working, is it!?

That’s what “Project Doomsday” is. A series of articles in which I try to remold “The Sacred Timeline” into something more palpable, something more exciting and engaging then what we have now. How? Well it’s simple really: just rewrite half a decade of film-making in a year’s time. 

Okay not really, I won’t be delivering like 12 whole screenplays about a bunch of movies I don’t really care about: this is more an exercise in improving. In using the knowledge I have off this universe, the comics, the entire Marvel world and smashing it together to hopefully deliver a version of this story that makes people more excited to see it all culminate in Doomsday and Secret Wars. That’s also where the limitations of this challenge come into play. I’m not doing a fanfiction thing. Don’t expect me to be like: “I hate She Hulk! What if She-Hulk was actually Iron Man 4 and in Iron Man 4 no one is WOKE and all the ladies are sexy!” – if you want that then go write your own stuff, I’m sure it’ll be wonderful buddy! No, I’m really trying to keep Phase 4-through-6 intact, I won’t take out any movies or shows from the already existing line-up and I’ll try not to add a billion-trillion extra shows and films (I might add one or two but that’s an idea for later). I will use what is there and just shift it into something else. 

I will change a lot about those movies though. Yes, I’ll try to keep most of them intact, I don’t really want to completely overhaul these stories but I’ll definitely change them in substantial ways. Most of the casts of these films will remain the same, A lot of the story beats will remain the same and endings are mostly already set in stone given what I need to work towards, but things will be different. To give you a little hint as to my first project: My version of “The Marvels” will NOT feature any body-swapping quantum-band hijinks – nor will it feature Nick Fury in a substantial role, but it will of course feature all the titular Marvels (I won’t give away too much else though).

I also won’t be changing ALL of the projects released in the last 7 years. Realistically speaking I’ll only be overhauling like 20 percent of what’s there (especially since phase 4-6 features something around 35 projects, which is quite frankly ridiculous) but I will be overhauling some of the major films released. If you’re expecting me to really dig into “Echo” or “Moon Knight” you can set those expectations a little lower. These projects are largely inconsequential to the already predetermined roadmap leading to Doomsday and will not be any more important in my version. That does not mean that I’ll be tackling every major hit the MCU has had either – Thunderbolts fans can rest soundly knowing I don’t see any reason to change what is already there. 

This brings me to my final point: Don’t read too much into this, please. I am doing this for fun, I’m doing this because it’s simple and low-stakes and if I mess up I won’t accidentally flush 200 million of Mickey Mouse’s hard earned dollars down the drain. Filmmaking is hard and hindsight is 2020. Of course my job is a million times easier than what Feige and his compatriots have had to do post Endgame – I don’t envy them at all (Maybe I envy them a little bit). I just think I can do something fun with what is there and I wanna show people that work.

Establishing the Timeline:

I wanna make sure everyone knows our jumping off point, You’ll need to know what is and isn’t canon as we go into the project. First off, the most obvious point to make: Everything released pre-Endgame is canon, that includes Endgame. The Infinity Saga is off-limits. The first few Phase 4 releases are also largely off-limits. Wandavision, Falcon and Winter Soldier, Black Widow as well as the first season of Loki will need to be almost completely intact for this to work. The set-up in those shows are too important for the future of this Saga to fuck with- if I did we’d be getting a completely different story and that is not what I’m trying to do. 

As my articles go on over the next few months I’ll be updating what is and isn’t canon as these projects go on. To streamline this I’ll be updating this handy little timeline in every article as well:

You’ll find similar timelines in each article to kind of give you a sense of what has and hasn’t happened. Some shows and films won’t get complete overhauls but I will change aspects of them so things mesh better with my new canon, if that happens you’ll see a little “CANON NOTE” where I’ll explain the details of what changes. 

I think those are all the rules. I hope so at least. If more rules pop up i’m sure everyone will figure it out. You can expect part 1 of this project to be released before the end of this year. With that said: 

In exactly 364 days from now – 8759 hours – 525594 minutes –  Doomsday will arrive.

(I thought of this ticking clock idea two weeks ago and then Marvel Studios decided to copy me actually!)