Loki Creates Doom (Long Read!!)

I’ve been putting together a theory about the Sacred Timeline, Loki, Steve/Peggy, Doom, and why RDJ is playing Victor Von Doom.
The basic idea is that everything through Endgame was part of He Who Remains’ intended Sacred Timeline. Loki’s death of HWR is what allows the true multiverse to be reborn, and Loki’s attempt to protect that multiverse eventually creates the circumstances that lead to Doom.
Some of this is established MCU material, while the Steve/Peggy/Doom portions are my speculation based on the current Doomsday rumors and what we’ve seen so far.

1. The Sacred Timeline was HWR’s controlled history
He Who Remains wins the Multiversal War against the other Kang variants.
He creates the TVA and establishes the Sacred Timeline.
I don’t think the Sacred Timeline necessarily means one specific universe. I think it means one controlled history.
HWR’s goal is to prevent branches from developing into realities that could eventually produce other Kangs.
Whenever a dangerous branch appears, the TVA prunes it.
HWR knows what he’s doing is morally terrible, but he believes allowing unlimited branches would eventually result in the destruction of countless lives.
He’s not necessarily the hero, but he’s not simply the villain either. He’s someone who believes he’s preventing a much larger catastrophe.
This would also explain why the Sacred Timeline could potentially contain all of the MCU’s established history, including the various Marvel television shows, even if some continuity doesn’t fit perfectly.
It’s basically one enormous Marvel universe with decades of characters and stories, similar to how the comics have countless characters with their own histories.

2. Endgame happens exactly as HWR intended
The events of Endgame happen.
Thanos is defeated.
The Avengers save the universe.
The time heist happens.
The Infinity Stones are returned.
Steve eventually returns to Peggy.
My interpretation is that Steve and Peggy’s life together was always part of the Sacred Timeline.
Steve doesn’t necessarily create a completely separate universe by going back to Peggy.
The final dance is established as taking place in 1949, shortly after Steve arrives at Peggy’s house.
Steve lives his life with Peggy, potentially has children, grows old, and eventually gives Sam the shield.
Old Steve at the end of Endgame is therefore not necessarily a variant.
He’s simply the Steve who completed the loop that was always supposed to happen.

3. Endgame leads directly into Loki
The events surrounding Endgame eventually lead to Loki being captured by the TVA.
Loki discovers the truth about the Sacred Timeline and HWR.
HWR reveals that he knows Loki and Sylvie are coming.
He knows Sylvie will kill him.
He specifically doesn’t know what happens after that point.
So everything up until that moment was essentially within HWR’s plan.
HWR may have intended for Loki and Sylvie to replace him and continue maintaining his system.
Sylvie refuses.
She kills HWR.
And this is where everything changes.

4. HWR’s death is the rebirth of the multiverse
Once HWR dies, the TVA stops pruning every branch.
The multiverse begins expanding again.
Loki eventually realizes that simply allowing the branches to exist isn’t enough.
In Season 2, Loki takes responsibility for holding the branching timelines together.
The TVA changes from an organization that eliminates branches into one that monitors and protects the multiverse.
This is why the MCU can now have countless different realities.
The Spider-Man universes, X-Men universes, Fantastic Four universe, and countless other Marvel realities can now exist alongside the MCU.
Their stories don’t necessarily have to have been “created” at the moment Loki freed the multiverse.
They can have always existed as realities, while HWR’s system simply prevented them from becoming part of an uncontrolled multiverse.
From a story perspective, Loki has basically reopened the multiverse that HWR had deliberately shut down.

5. Kang stops being the immediate problem
The TVA continues monitoring the Kang variants.
The Kang problem isn’t necessarily gone, but it’s something the TVA believes it can manage.
The bigger problem becomes multiversal instability and incursions.
Loki believes the multiverse can be protected without using HWR’s method of destroying entire branches.
He thinks they’ve found a better solution.
But they haven’t actually solved the underlying problem.
The multiverse is growing, and with more universes come more opportunities for incursions.

6. This is where Endgame Encore changes everything
The original Endgame ending was Steve returning to Peggy and completing the life HWR intended.
But Loki now exists outside HWR’s original plan.
Loki and the TVA are monitoring the newly expanding multiverse.
Loki becomes concerned that Steve and Peggy’s continued existence could potentially contribute to an incursion.
He decides to intervene.
He travels back to 1949 and appears at Steve and Peggy’s house.
This is the moment where I think Endgame becomes “Endgame Encore.”
The original Sacred Timeline didn’t have Loki showing up at their door.
Therefore, Loki’s intervention creates a new branch.

7. Loki thinks he’s preventing an incursion — but accidentally creates the Doomsday timeline
Loki’s intention is probably to remove Steve and Peggy from the equation.
He may believe that placing them somewhere else will prevent a future incursion.
But the irony is that Steve and Peggy were never the problem.
They were always supposed to be part of the Sacred Timeline.
Loki’s intervention is what creates the divergence.
The original Sacred Timeline can continue independently.
Steve still lives his original life.
He still eventually gives Sam the shield.
That original Steve never experiences the events of Doomsday.
Old Man Steve never lived through Doomsday.
He simply completed the original loop.

8. Steve and Peggy are still OUR Steve and Peggy
If Loki moves them to another universe, I don’t think they suddenly become completely different variants.
They’re the same Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter who lived through the original MCU history.
Their timeline simply diverges at the moment Loki interferes.
Original path:
Steve → Endgame → returns Stones → 1949 Peggy → life together → grows old → gives Sam the shield
New path:
Steve → Endgame → returns Stones → 1949 Peggy → Loki arrives → Steve and Peggy are moved → new reality
The difference is Loki’s intervention.

9. The Fantastic Four universe becomes the new setting
Based on the current rumors/leaks, Loki supposedly moves Steve and Peggy into the universe of Fantastic Four: First Steps.
That universe makes sense as a place for them because it has a completely different history and technology level from the MCU.
Loki may believe it’s a safe place where Steve and Peggy can live without affecting the former Sacred Timeline.
He leaves them there.
But their presence has unintended consequences.

10. This is where Victor Von Doom enters the story
If the current rumors are correct, Steve and Peggy’s presence contributes to an incursion involving the Fantastic Four universe.
Victor Von Doom attempts to deal with the situation, potentially through some kind of experiment.
Something goes horribly wrong.
Doom loses his family.
Doom believes Steve and Peggy are responsible.
He sees them as people who essentially stole lives that didn’t belong to them.
His motivation therefore becomes personal.
He’s not simply trying to conquer the multiverse.
He believes Steve caused the death of his family.

11. Doom may eventually embrace the destruction of the multiverse
Doom initially appears to be trying to stop the incursions.
But he eventually realizes that the multiverse may be beyond saving.
Instead of accepting his family’s death, Doom decides he will survive the collapse.
He may intentionally allow or accelerate the incursions.
His ultimate goal could be to create or control whatever reality survives.
In other words, Doom isn’t necessarily trying to save the multiverse.
He may be trying to own whatever survives it.
And if he blames Steve personally, he may want Steve alive to watch everything collapse.

12. Tony Stark and Victor Von Doom are anchor counterparts
This is where I think RDJ’s casting gets really interesting.
I don’t think Victor Von Doom is Tony Stark.
I don’t think Doom is secretly a Tony Stark variant.
I think Tony Stark and Victor Von Doom are anchor counterparts of the multiverse.
They are two fundamentally connected individuals who exist separately.
Both have to exist.
Tony cannot replace Doom.
Doom cannot replace Tony.
They are almost like two opposing poles of the same fundamental force within the multiverse.
Both are brilliant men capable of changing the fate of entire universes.
Both are drawn toward solving impossible problems.
Both have enormous egos.
But they make completely different choices.
Tony Stark:
Genius
Technology
Ego
Learns humility
Sacrifices himself to save everyone
Accepts that he can’t control everything
Victor Von Doom:
Genius
Technology and magic
Ego
Refuses to accept loss
Tries to control everything
Eventually chooses his own vision of reality over everyone else’s
Tony isn’t Victor.
Victor isn’t Tony.
They’re two separate people who happen to be anchor counterparts of the multiverse.
Their existence may be one of the fundamental constants that keeps the multiverse balanced.
That could explain why RDJ can play Doom without Doom actually being Tony.

13. The Avengers don’t see Doom’s face until Secret Wars
This is the part I think could make the RDJ reveal much more powerful.
I think Marvel could deliberately keep Doom’s face hidden throughout Doomsday.
The Avengers know Doom only as the person responsible for everything happening to them.
They see the destruction he’s caused.
They see people die.
They see realities collapse.
They see the damage he’s done to the multiverse.
They build up an entire understanding of Doom as their ultimate enemy.
But they never actually see his face.
Then Secret Wars happens.
The mask finally comes off.
Steve sees him.
Thor sees him.
Bruce sees him.
Sam sees him.
Peter sees him.
The Avengers see Tony Stark’s face.
And suddenly everything they’ve experienced becomes emotionally complicated.
They’ve spent an entire movie fighting someone who has committed unimaginable acts, only to discover that the man underneath the mask looks exactly like the friend they lost.
They can’t simply look at him and see Tony.
They’ve already seen what Doom has done.
They’ve already watched him destroy lives and manipulate the multiverse.
So seeing Tony’s face doesn’t make them trust him.
It makes the revelation more disturbing.
They have to reconcile the face of the man they loved with the person they’ve spent all this time fighting.
Doom can potentially use their hesitation against them.
The face isn’t the revelation that Doom is Tony.
The revelation is that Doom looks exactly like Tony — while being a completely different person.

14. Then the actual Tony Stark returns
This is where I think the biggest emotional payoff could happen.
The Avengers eventually discover that Doom is Victor Von Doom, not Tony Stark.
Tony’s actual existence remains separate.
The Avengers finally understand that Doom was never their Tony.
He was his anchor counterpart.
And then the actual Tony Stark returns during Secret Wars.
Now the Avengers are looking at two men with the same face standing on opposite sides.
One is the Tony Stark they loved and lost.
The other is Victor Von Doom, the man who used Tony’s face while destroying the multiverse.
Tony and Doom aren’t fighting because one is secretly the other.
They’re fighting because they are two anchor counterparts who both have to exist, but chose completely different paths.
Tony represents:
“I will sacrifice myself to save everyone.”
Doom represents:
“I will reshape everything so I never have to lose again.”
That would make their confrontation about much more than their appearance.

15. The biggest twist could be Loki himself
One possibility is that Doom eventually discovers a way to defeat Loki.
If Doom somehow kills or removes Loki from the throne, the multiverse could become completely unstable.
The TVA may believe Loki has finally solved the multiverse problem.
Instead, Doom could secretly remove the one thing holding the branching realities together.
The incursions then happen rapidly.
Doom isn’t necessarily trying to stop the collapse.
He wants Steve to watch the multiverse collapse because he blames Steve for what happened to his family.

16. The irony is that Loki accidentally creates Doom
This could be the central theme of the entire Multiverse Saga:
HWR:
“I must control the multiverse to prevent Kang.”
↓
Loki:
“We can protect the multiverse without controlling it.”
↓
Loki frees the multiverse.
↓
The TVA learns to manage branches instead of pruning them.
↓
Loki sees Steve and Peggy as a potential problem.
↓
Loki interferes with their original timeline.
↓
Steve and Peggy are moved to another universe.
↓
That universe suffers an incursion.
↓
Victor Von Doom loses his family.
↓
Doom blames Steve.
↓
Doom discovers the multiverse is collapsing.
↓
Doom decides to control what survives.
↓
Secret Wars.
And that’s the irony:
HWR tried to prevent the multiverse from collapsing by controlling it.
Loki tried to save the multiverse by freeing it.
Loki’s attempt to protect it may be what ultimately creates Doom.

17. And that brings the MCU full circle
HWR wasn’t necessarily wrong about the danger of an uncontrolled multiverse.
Loki wasn’t necessarily wrong to believe that HWR’s system was unacceptable.
But Loki’s solution creates consequences HWR’s system was designed to prevent.
Doom then exploits those consequences.
And Tony becomes the perfect counterpart to Doom because the two represent completely different answers to the same fundamental problem:
What do you do when you lose everything you love?
Tony:
Accept the sacrifice and save everyone else.
Doom:
Refuse the loss and reshape reality itself.
And after Secret Wars, the MCU could create a new central reality.
Not HWR’s Sacred Timeline.
Not the uncontrolled multiverse.
But something new.