The Secret Wars Character Who May Be Too Powerful To Join The MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has included plenty of powerful villains since it first kicked off back in 2008 with Robert Downey Jr.'s "Iron Man," but the first "big bad" was introduced at the end of "The Avengers," when Thanos shows up in the post-credits scene. The villain was later played by Josh Brolin, and he served as the overarching villain of the MCU's first three phases, finally coming to blows with the team in both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame."

Now, as Marvel Studios pushes further into the unknown — as seen in "Loki," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" — it's clear the next horde of bad guys are really going to keep Earth's Mightiest Heroes on their toes in a whole new way. The end of "Loki," for one, reveals that a version of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) has already been around in the MCU for quite some time, and he — or rather, his variants — are only going to become a bigger cosmic threat as time goes by. The time-travelling despot will next cause havoc in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."

And now that the MCU is really diving into alternate timelines and the multiverse, the talk about a potential live-action version of "Secret Wars"  has hit a fever pitch — though it's unclear whether an MCU version would take its cues from the 1984 version, or the more epic and multiverse-spanning 2015 incarnation. Either way, it promises to be an incredibly ambitious crossover event which would be challenging to bring into live-action, and involves the use of a cosmic figure who may be too powerful to join the MCU.

The Beyonder is a cosmic being who is actually part of a race called — you guessed it — the Beyonders. They hail from a completely separate universe to our own, where each being is its own separate reality — which is why the Beyonder is so fascinated by the main Marvel-616 universe, because the heroes are unique individuals living within a universe (per Marvel Database). He comes to the conclusion that "desire" is the fundamental motive of all living beings, and this is what drives his actions: this happens because, initially, the Beyonder considers himself as a "complete" being because he is his own reality, but he winds up feeling inferior when he finds out that he is not the end-all, be-all of everything. Comics! 

Anyway, the Beyonder is supremely powerful — in fact he's one of the most powerful beings that Marvel Comics has to offer. He can reshape reality at will, and he doesn't need an Infinity Stone to do so. The Beyonder's powers are practically limitless, since he can move people from one place in the universe to another in an instant — and he has a vast array of psionic abilities that make it incredibly difficult to fight him in any traditional sense.

There's plenty of talk about "Secret Wars" being the MCU's next crossover event, so why shouldn't the Beyonder come with it?

As pointed out by Marvel fan u/NightMonkey15 on Reddit, it would be easier to use Kang, saying "Marvel likes to make sure every major plot beat is built off another, the best and easiest way to do that for Secret Wars would be to have Kang replace The Beyonder." This is a very valid point, since the MCU is already priming Kang to be the next overarching bad guy, thanks to his role in "Loki." The Reddit user also points out that Kang would have a more personal connection to the heroes than a cosmic force like the Beyonder. 

However, there's a bigger reason why the villain probably won't show up in the MCU. As Sagnik Gasputa pointed out on Quora, during a lengthy discussion about the villain, Marvel Studios likely won't introduce the Beyonder "because of only one reason – They are too powerful," adding that the "MCU tends to remain as realistic as possible." Marvel takes this approach because it's a great way of ensuring the audience stays connected to the stories. Since the Beyonder automatically comes with universe-altering powers, it'd be difficult to maintain this level of believability.

For instance, the godlike villain's omnipotence would be incredibly jarring against the likes of Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Sam Wilson's Captain America (Anthony Mackie). Although yes, a giant purple alien isn't exactly believable — but audiences spent several movies getting to know Thanos, what he wanted, and why the Infinity Stones were so important. If the studio is building up to the Beyonder appearing in "Secret Wars," there should be hints coming by now.