Avengers: Doomsday – Is Steve Rogers Really Steve Rogers?

Half the fun of a new Marvel movie’s trailer release is digging into its smaller, easy-to-miss details, so when a first proper look at Avengers: Doomsday was released earlier this week, we broke as much of the big stuff down as possible.

The internet at large has spotted a few other things in the days since. For example, when we see a shot of Loki’s TVA card in the trailer, the hand holding it sports a gold wedding ring. This has led people to believe that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is the one checking the official ID, and that he and Loki may have met in a branch timeline during the events of the Loki TV show—we just haven’t seen it yet.

Yet it’s Evans’ full appearance at the end of the trailer that’s got people talking. See, some aren’t convinced that the Steve Rogers who pops up and summons Mjolnir to prove to Thor that he’s worthy is really Steve Rogers. There’s no obvious reason to think this, just a sense that something is “off” about him. If you’re sitting there right now going “what do you mean? Of course that’s our Steve Rogers!” then we’re here to help break down the reasoning and best guesses of our online sleuths. We’re also going to rank them by how likely they are to be right, because why not?

6. Mephisto

Long after the heady days of WandaVision, when the internet was convinced that Mephisto was the one behind the strange occurrences in Westview, he really did show up in a Marvel TV show: Ironheart. Played by Sacha Baron Cohen, Mephisto revealed himself to Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) in the finale, admitting that he was the one who’d given the show’s villain his magical cloak.

Mephisto is a telekinetic master manipulator (and actual demon) who can shapeshift, manipulate time and reality, and even bring people back to life. Oh, and he just loves making pacts that destroy lives. If there was a way to swing the events of Doomsday to his advantage, or even just for kicks, Mephisto might choose to do so. And yes, he could also pretend to be Steve Rogers. But how could he wield Mjolnir, you may ask? To answer that question, you simply have to think like Mephisto: by conjuring a fake version of Mjolnir to fool Thor into thinking he was offering him the real one.

Though Mephisto is always a fun addition to key crossover events in the comics (and the main villain in Secret Wars II), we think it’s pretty unlikely that he’s pretending to be Steve here. You may have noticed that no one introduced in the Disney+ TV shows appears in the Doomsday trailer save for the new Falcon, who has since been established in the MCU movies thanks to Brave New World, so explaining TV Mephisto during a Doctor Doom movie seems like a headache Marvel could simply avoid.

5. Mystique

Mystique has rarely met a person she wouldn’t pretend to be. In the X-Men movies, the blue-skinned mutant has previously taken the guise of everyone from Rogue to Wolverine to William Stryker to even Hugh Hefner, and during the Doomsday trailer, we see her fake being Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) to get the upper hand.

Could she pretend to be Steve Rogers? Maybe, at a stretch. She would probably need to have seen photos or videos of Steve to accurately impersonate him, and there’s no reason to believe she’d have had access to those in the X-Men universe. As for wielding Mjolnir, it’s possible, but again, at a stretch. Magneto can manipulate magnetic fields around much bigger objects than Thor’s hammer, but he wouldn’t be able to bypass Odin’s enchantment to allow anyone to actually wield it. However, in that particular moment between Steve and Thor shown in the trailer, Mystique might just be able to get away with a basic ruse. But not for long.

4. The Beyonder

The Beyonder was key to both Secret Wars and Secret Wars II, while a race of Beyonders appeared in 2015’s Secret Wars run. Though there’s been no MCU set-up for the Beyonder to show up in Doomsday or 2027’s follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars, fans have often wondered if the omnipotent being from beyond the Marvel multiverse would pop up at some point. After all, the character is such an important aspect of those earlier Secret Wars runs, during which he was notably impressed by Steve Rogers’ ability to prioritise selflessness and reasoning over power or revenge, and once modeled himself after Steve.

If Doctor Doom is messing with the multiverse in Doomsday, the Beyonder could potentially take the form of Steve to insert himself into the narrative. His power would also likely outweigh Odin’s enchantment, leaving him free to toss Mjolnir wherever he chooses.

3. Captain Hydra

One of the most popular “Steve isn’t Steve” theories around is that the version of him we see in the Doomsday trailer is actually Captain Hydra. About a decade ago, Marvel Comics flirted with a storyline in which Cosmic Cube shenanigans rewrote Steve’s past so he believed in Hydra’s ideals from childhood. If we add this dastardly Steve into Doomsday, it would mean a Captain Hydra variant has taken Steve’s place. Fans make a good point that we already have an “evil” version of Iron Man (kinda) here, with Robert Downey Jr. now playing Doctor Doom. Why not throw another big one in?

The idea of tricking the audience into thinking Steve Rogers is back to save the day, only to reveal that he’s an evil variant, is admittedly quite delicious, but Marvel already has enough on their hands explaining who Doctor Doom is and why he looks exactly like Iron Man, not to mention having to catch people up on what happened to Loki for anyone who skipped that show. They’ve also added in so many extra teams and characters. The Thunderbolts, the Fantastic Four, the Wakandans, and the X-Men will all need to get their moment to shine. Wouldn’t bringing more variants into the equation just make things super, super convoluted? Besides, Captain Hydra isn’t in the least bit worthy. Yeah, we aren’t buying into this one!

2. Loki

This is the theory that makes the most emotional and narrative sense. Thor still believes that Loki is dead (and his version of Loki actually is dead), so the villainous variant who escaped during the Time Heist in Avengers: Endgame and went on to become a genuine good guy by working with the TVA might not want to confuse Thor by showing up out of the blue to help the Avengers. He could choose to appear as Steve Rogers instead.

Loki would arguably be much more likely to gain Thor’s trust that way, especially if he proves he’s worthy of summoning Mjolnir. Moreover, the payoff of Loki’s variant being able to wield the hammer would indeed be considerable. Many people would understand how much the character grew and evolved during his TV show arc, even sacrificing the rest of his days to keep the multiverse afloat alone. Who’s to say Loki isn’t worthy at this point? It also wouldn’t be the first time Loki has chosen to impersonate Captain America. He’s previously pretended to be Steve to get under Thor’s skin, and let’s not forget that when Steve saw another version of himself during Endgame, even he thought that version was Loki! That was his first and only thought!

It’s also worth noting that the moment when Thor says “it’s not possible” in the trailer has been embraced by different fan theories elsewhere, after people noticed someone standing in the shadows behind him. Marvel’s mischievous history of editing context in their trailers could have struck again. Could Thor actually be looking at the real Loki there, and that’s why he’s so shocked? Or is he looking at someone he believes to be the late Tony Stark? All we know is our gut says “maybe.”

1. Steve Rogers

Occam’s razor time: Doomsday’s Steve Rogers is probably just our Steve Rogers, and the internet is probably just being the internet again.

Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18, where all will be revealed.