There’s plenty of hubbub online right now about the eagerly awaited trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, but as a life-long MCU fan who’s watched everything from Marvel Zombies to Werewolf by Night, I need that trailer to convince me that the next big team-up for our heroes is worth seeing on day one because right now, my enthusiasm is stilted.
For those who aren’t plugged into the current chatter, we already have confirmation that the first-ever trailer for Avengers: Doomsday will be shown as part of screenings for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is set to release 19 December.
Even with that date locked in, there’s also plenty of speculation that the trailer might appear even earlier so with that in mind, now feels like as good a time as any to discuss what might be in it and more importantly, what it needs to do to sell myself (and probably a good few others) on its premise.
Set up the stakes
One of the biggest problems facing Avengers: Doomsday is that, unlike Avengers: Infinity War or Endgame, there isn’t really any pre-conceived understanding of what the film will cover or what kind of peril our heroes might be up against.
Admittedly, part of this is down to the fact that Marvel’s big plan to ship Jonathan Majors as Kang went sideways after the actor was found guilty of assault, so all of the breadcrumbs that were dropped across both seasons of Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania were for nought.
The issue now is that, with so little time to course correct as the project as a whole changed from Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to Doomsday, if you didn’t catch the post-credit sequences in Thunderbolts or Fantastic Four: The First Steps, you might not even know that a new Avengers film was on the way, which is why the trailer needs to tell a clear and concise story to get people hooked from the jump.
We already know from Fantastic Four (slight spoilers here) that Doctor Doom has come to presumably kidnap Franklin Richards, and while that’s a horrifying thought for a soon-to-be-Dad like myself, it is a concept that’s easy to understand amongst the grander lore of the MCU: if the heroes can’t rescue Franklin in time then his cosmic powers will be used against them by Doom. Speaking of whom…
Sell me on Doom
Track down any comic book fan and they’ll speak about Victor Von Doom in a way that makes him sound almost otherworldly – as if no other Marvel villain can compare. That’s all well and good if you’re clued into the literature, but if you’re someone like me who’s only vaguely aware of the man thanks to less than stellar interpretations from the 20th Century Fox Fantastic Four films, it’s hard to get too excited.
At this point we all know that Robert Downey Jr. will be stepping into the role, but I would like to get some idea of where Doom sits in the rogue’s gallery of MCU villains. Thanos had pure muscle and an unrelenting determination on his side which is what made him so terrifying, but what is it that sets Doom apart – is he able to jump between the multiverses at a whim? Or is it super intelligence that puts him two steps ahead of even the smartest heroes?
Think back to the first trailer for Infinity War – you have Thanos narrating most of it with his terrifying speech that would eventually kick off the film. In just over two minutes, the trailer leaves you with the impression that the heroes are almost woefully unprepared for what’s about to happen and that it’s going to take every ounce of their being to fight back. Even watching it now, years after the film came out, it still gives me goosebumps, and that’s what we need once more.
To a lesser extent, there’s also the need to show that the gamble of bringing back Downey Jr. has paid off. The actor’s blend of comedic timing, sincerity and just a touch of snark is what made him the perfect Iron Man, and only time will tell if he can construct something wholly new that doesn’t just seem like a version of Tony Stark who does bad things.
The team-ups to come
Although the overarching story is what keeps Marvel fans coming back in droves whenever a new Avengers film hits cinemas, it’s the never-before-seen team-ups that stand out in our collective memories of them.
I’ll never forget the reveal that the Guardians of the Galaxy would be coming to Avengers: Infinity War (largely because it almost drove me to do a backflip). Seeing the space and earth-bound heroes interact could have been a complete tonal disaster but instead it created some of the best parts of the movie (“why is Gamora?!).
Disney
These collaborative flicks are a chance to really push the boat out and serve as a reward of sorts for the die-hard fans who have spent hours consuming every MCU storyline that’s out there. For example, I would love to see Loki try to calm an out-of-control Hulk in the halls of the TVA, or witness Spider-Man being brought back into the mix by other street-level heroes like Daredevil or Kate Bishop, and where the heck has Shang-Chi been all this time? If the fated meeting between Deadpool and Thor doesn’t happen then I’m walking out of the cinema (maybe).
We already know that the first meeting on the cards is likely to be the Thunderbolts/New Avengers crossing paths with the Fantastic Four, but there’s still so much left on the table, not to mention the return of classic X-Men alumni like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and James Marsden. Of course, the trailer can’t spoil all the fun but a few hints as to what’s in store will not go amiss.
