Who should be the next “Thanos” level character for the MCU?

[Frontier]

We've yet to see a proper super-villain team like The Masters of Evil - Thanos will be a difficult villain to top, so rather directly competing with him I think putting the Avengers against another super-team might work well.

Masters of Evil would be kind of difficult to pull off with all the dead villains, unless they start building up to it in the next Phase or start introducing the Thunderbolts in their villain identities first.

I guess we've got, what? Zemo, Abomination, maybe Yellowjacket since the director seemed to believe he wasn't quite dead...Leader if they care to bring him back too.

[XPac]

Masters of Evil would be kind of difficult to pull off with all the dead villains, unless they start building up to it in the next Phase or start introducing the Thunderbolts in their villain identities first.

I guess we've got, what? Zemo, Abomination, maybe Yellowjacket since the director seemed to believe he wasn't quite dead...Leader if they care to bring him back too.

If all the old guard is leaving, then they probably need to start from scratch anyways with the new Avengers and their rogues.

Strange has Mordo still around. Spider-Man still has Vulture. Black Panther can use Man Ape if they want a heel turn, OR they could bring back Klaw in his sound form. If Bucky is around, there's Zemo who I imagine has to be the brains of the outfit. We'll have to wait and see what we get out of Captain Marvels movie.

[HaveAtThee]

If the Big Three of Cap, Iron Man and Thor are out of the picture after Endgame I can see a Secret Invasion scenario for the new guard.

[Punisher007]

Doctor Doom.

[Tulku]

I almost went with Paste-Pot Pete, but I could see mileage in the High Evolutionary--a "normal" guy who keeps improving himself until he becomes a dominant threat.

[DebkoX]

It should be Doom if they can, but, if they open up multiverses, it can easily be Galactus.

[Ascended]

I dont think a second threat like Thanos would be wise. Yet another alien tyrant Big Bad? Hard to top Thanos already, and we're not even at Endgame yet. I expect Marvel to go a different way so things dont get stale.

Secret Invasion would be a different kind of threat from Thanos; a scalpel to Thanos' hammer, and bring a different atmosphere into the MCU. And with CM based in the 90's, I wouldn't be surprised if they go this way to one degree or another. Still, while it's a different kind of alien invasion, it's another alien invasion. And again from an alien with a weird ass chin.

They might literally go bigger than Thanos with the Celestials though. We haven't gotten much about them yet, aside from Ego, but we know they're out there. And by the time a multi-phase Big Bad appears, the MCU should have had the rights to Galactus back for a while.

I think we'll see a villain team, either the Thunderbolts or the Squadron Supreme, but I don't think they'll be the next multi-phase Big Bad.

The best possible Big Bads largely seem to belong to Fox for the moment, and of those I think Doom or Magneto would be the best options. Voted for Doom, myself. But both are great villains different enough from Thanos to feel fresh.

Or who knows? Maybe there won't be a Big Bad to replace Thanos. Maybe Marvel will focus more on individual narratives for the next phase or two and not bother with another Big Bad for a while?

[Ascended]

I guess we've got, what? Zemo, Abomination, maybe Yellowjacket since the director seemed to believe he wasn't quite dead...Leader if they care to bring him back too.

Justin Hammer could provide the tech. Abomination, the Leader....the real Mandarian is still out there, too. Zola could easily have a backup device with his intelligence and mind recorded. If he could remotely launch missiles and predict the future with Project Insight I'd be disappointed if he hadn't. Zemo is around of course. Mordo. For Spidey villains we've currently got Vulture, one Shocker, Scorpion, and that tech guy.....the Tinkerer? Scorpion isnt the Scorpion yet, so maybe he doesnt count. Ghost is still out there, and if they weren't building her character up for future appearances I'll eat my hat. Plus anyone who might survive in the next few films.

And Ross of course. Plenty of villains who're still out there that could be included on the roster if Marvel wanted some familiar faces. Some of them might be unlikely and/or useless but there's options on the table.

[JudicatorPrime]

If done right, Annihilus would scare the bejeezus out of the normal movie going public.

The other one that I would pit our heroes against even though he isn't a villain per se is Odin. To have the All Father betray the blind trust bestowed upon him by the viewing public would make for a sweet plot twist. By the end of the story, they can write it off as a necessary test to prepare the Avengers for a greater evil to come. And then introduce the Chaos King and Oblivion as that greater evil.

[Tazpocalapse]

High Evolutionary he has links to magic, mutants, and could be a foil to Adam Warlock if he comes into play. His ties to Sinister could be used as a method of how mutants are introduced in the MCU. Plus Counter Earth could be introduced.

[Flash Gordon]

I want wild Silver Surfer flicks with Galactus and all that jazz.

For a big bad guy? Prolly Doctor Doom, honestly.

[Michael Watkins]

logically, it should be Kang. they are messing with the timestream in Infinity War. that should get Kang's attention. and why would anyone take Doom seriously after the last 3 appearances on screen?

[Wiccan]

In my ideal world, they would mix up Dark Phoenix and Avengers vs X-Men as the Infinity War of the X-Men, after developing Jean's powers in the previous movies. Never gonna happen though sigh.

[your_name_here]

As mentioned before, in order to keep things from getting stale they’d almost have to 180 the multi-phase villain compared to the Thanos one. Skrulls could work, but I feel that could end up being too small considering Feige has mentioned a more cosmic route. Galactus is a great villain for the FF, but might struggle to give off the impending doom that Thanos managed to keep for 6 years.

That’s why I’m going with Doom. Different to Thanos, he can be a major part of different films/franchises and we can really get to know him. Cut to: Secret Wars...where he reveal the huge big bad isn’t the Beyonder and has actually been with us all this time and his name is Doom

[CRaymond]

Anything other than Doom would be a waste of time.