Earth’s mightiest heroes are back together this December as Avengers: Doomsday hits cinemas, marking the culmination of the past few years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), writes Film News Blitz’s writer Charlie Gardner.
A couple of months ago, select viewers at Cinema Con were shown a sneak peek at the first trailer for the blockbuster, but since then the trailer has been released to the public.
We open with a seemingly destroyed X-Mansion, as Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier cowers from some sort of explosion.
We get our first look at Doom, along with Robert Downey Jr’s unrecognisable eastern-European accent.
The rest of the trailer is mainly voiced over by Chris Hemsworth as Thor, who seems to be warning his team about a threat that lies ahead of them.
A brief look at Loki
We get looks at Cyclops, Namor and the Wakandans, Shang Chi and even Channing Tatum’s Gambit returns.
Magneto is also back, as is Mystique, and we get a brief look at Loki.
The highlight of the trailer comes as the God of Thunder flies through the air in a ball of lightning towards Doom, who stops his attack dead with just a finger.
Thor then talks about how it would take a miracle to beat Doom, and it’s at this point that Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers, calling Mjolnir out of Thor’s hands and into his own.
It’s clear that Marvel is going for their next big event here, akin to Infinity War and Endgame a few years ago.
This is going to be the culmination of the Multiverse Saga, which kicked off following the Avengers’ battle against Thanos in 2019.
Doctor Doom is a character held close to fans, and one that rose to wider interest when the Fantastic Four made their MCU debut in 2025.
He is a villain typically associated with the Fantastic Four and fans have raised questions as to whether he can truly fill the boots of Thanos who was before him.
What are the biggest problems facing ‘Avengers: Doomsday’?
Here’s a big one: they simply haven’t had enough time to set it up.
The infinity stones were cropping up all over the MCU from the start, Thanos was introduced in a post credits scene after the first Avengers film, and Guardians of the Galaxy took us into space to set up a universe big enough to hold such a great threat.
It was clear that something big was coming from the start.
Of course, issues off-screen for Jonathan Majors meant that Kang the Conqueror could not continue as the next bad guy as intended, but even then Kang never felt like a threat as big as Thanos.
This trailer solves some of those issues, though, namely through the scene with Thor included. It shows us early just how powerful Doom will be.
There’s also the issue of all these characters coming back, most namely the X-Men.
Yes, the past few years have been spent establishing the concepts of multiverses and variants, but to have to spend so long throwing in characters feels somewhat like nostalgia bait rather than good storytelling.
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Can Marvel pull off this massive setup?
With so much to establish Doomsday could get buried under its own setup.
The task of properly introducing Doom himself is bigger than the Russos would like, and of course power scaling him.
Lots of fans on social media have taken themselves to express similar confusion in such regard, some of them seeing Doom as no more than “some guy”.
That’s a poor set up in my opinion.
Infinity War started out with the Hulk and Thor getting humiliated by Thanos, with a restrained god of thunder only being able to watch as the tyrant killed his brother Loki with ease.
One particular comic adaptation, Secret Wars #8, shows Doctor Doom tearing out Thanos’ spine when he questions his capabilities.
This would be something that fans might be hoping to see in Doomsday, or maybe in its follow-up, which will also be called Secret Wars.
Return of Robert Downey Jr
Robert Downey Jr returning also casts a slight cloud over things for fans, with many questioning whether it will jeopardise the death of Tony Stark in Endgame, or if it will be a genuinely relevant plot point.
The same goes for the return of Chris Evans. Both returns just leave a sour taste into the mouth as to the strength of the plot.
What’s the point in crafting emotional farewells to such key characters, and then moving them on again?
Marvel has been on the ropes for recent years, with many characters like Shang Chi returning somewhat out of the blue, or some like Captain Marvel or the Eternals not being seen for quite some time.
Setting everything up will be a difficult task, yes, but directors Anthony and Joe Russo faced similar challenges ahead of Infinity War, which is largely recognised as a success.
For all its shortcomings, the MCU has made a comeback since focusing more on the Doomsday storyline, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps nicely setting up an explanation to Doom’s power with its post credits scene, where a mysterious cloaked figure seemingly kidnaps Franklin Richards, who in the comics is expected to be one of the most powerful characters in history.
Web slinger back
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will bring our favourite web slinger back onto screens alongside Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, but neither are confirmed to be back for Doomsday, yet.
It can be assumed this will provide a springboard to send us into Doomsday with a little more context, but for now there’s very little out to be certain.
The MCU has been on a downward trajectory since its stratospheric heights almost a decade ago, and now is their chance to prove just why people flood into cinemas to see their projects.
But will Doomsday serve as the revival, or just be a case of trying to catch a falling knife?
Avengers: Doomsday will be showing a lot more promotional material over the coming months, and is out on 18 December.
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