My full theory dump. Doomsday/Secret Wars is a version of the Infamous Iron Man, the young Steve in the trailers isn't real, the reset will make MCU work more like the comics
Been sitting on these for a while and I wanted to share them before December. It all connects, bare with me.
Doom is running the Infamous Iron Man playbook
The MCU has never been 1:1 with comics, so here's my translation. Tony's death as an anchor being on the main timeline is what started causing incursions. Doom, after losing his own family, sees the multiverse collapsing and decides to stitch the dying ones together and make himself godlike as the new anchor being of whatever survives.
Doomsday vilifies him because everyone assumes he's the one causing the incursions.
Secret wars humanizes and deifies him. We are the reasons he does everything but we still see he's chasing godhood the whole time.
The "stolen lives" line in the trailer is Doom rejecting the legitimacy of the multiverse itself, or maybe rejecting that the snap got reversed, or something something something ...the heroes with kids. I'm not sure. Everyone else got to edit reality and take their lives back. His family's still dead.
The Iron Man connection is basically stolen valor. In the comics he takes over the Iron Man "brand" because it comes with glory and goodwill. In the MCU he takes over as Tony Stark because the universe literally collapses without Tony in it. He's not honoring him or trying to do good. Doom craves godhood, and seizes an opportunity to become one
The grizzled looking Steve Rogers summoning Thors hammer is a lie
They did time travel last movie. I think they'll stay away from it here. This one seems to be closing the multiverse for the next phase, so bringing in young dad Steve needs way too much explanation for a movie that has to work for MCU fans as well as people who checked out after Endgame.
There are two versions of Cap in the promos. Clean cut classic Steve in the past with his newborn, and a grizzled version that summons Mjolnir. The second looks like Chris Evans showed up for a reading, skipped wardrobe and makeup, and someone just happened to record.
My take is the real Steve is old man Rogers, and he's been living on the SABER station since Endgame. The public thinks he's dead. Never made it back from the fight with Thanos, or from dropping off the stones, whatever story they gave the masses. The "Steve's on the moon" joke in Falcon and Winter Soldier was not a joke, but foreshadowing. The reason Thor is surprised is not that he thought Cap was dead, but that he hasn't seen Steve as an old man.
With Hill dead and Fury fading, old Steve will pick up the Fury mantle. Fury operated through SHIELD by keeping his own people in the dark and "holding a gun at everyone". Steve's SABER wouldn't work like that. Fury recognizes that Steve is a great leader and a true protector. While Shield collapsed on Furys watch, Steve rooted out Hydra. Fury knows Steve can bring the change the agency's need
Could be an actual farewell to Steve, if they want to kill him of, or could be a redefining of the role Fury had done since Iron Man. Maybe both.
The real purpose of these movies is weeding out dead weight(duh)
It's no secret Doomsday/Secret Wars exists to cull the franchises that have been dead weight since Endgame. After the dust settles the main players will rebuild. X-Men, F4, Avengers, Spider-Man, Deadpool/Wolverine.
Doom survives it and becomes an F4 level threat, and a puppet master behind the scenes of other movies. RDJ sticks around for cameos and the occasional F4 appearance. Doom keeps his little stable of villains that answer to him
They flip how new characters get introduced
For 20 years the MCU has just given new characters their own movies or shows. They had to. There was no stories to spin off from. In the comics it was the opposite. Wolverine debuted in The Hulk. Punisher and Venom came out of Spider-Man. Half the cosmic stuff came out of Fantastic Four. The solo title was the reward for a good character arc.
After Secret Wars, with a smaller stable of healthy franchises, they go guest first. New characters appear inside other franchise's movies, prove they work, then get solo projects. Puppet master Doom feeds the villain side the same way. His lieutenants show up in one franchise and graduate to headlining someone else's problem later. That's how you get natural comic book feeling crossovers instead of every team-up being a massive MCU party. Brand New Day already showed the model with Frank.
They will not negate Endgame. No retcons, no undoing the bench scene, no copouts to the fans. That ending stays intact and everything above happens after it