Movies

Avengers: Doomsday’s Teaser Trailers May Actually Be Clues to Some Very Dark Twists

The Avengers: Doomsday promotional rollout is underway, and if nothing else, it’s had the desired effect of getting Marvel fans talking. Every week has brought us a new teaser release for Avengers: Doomsday; so far, at the time of writing this, the teasers have featured Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth), the X-Men, Wakandans, and the Fantastic Four, respectively. The question a lot of fans are now asking is: why these characters? These trailers? In this order? And, with that question have come theories attempting to answer it.

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One particular theory is pretty grim. It states that Avengers: Doomsday directors, The Russo Brothers, are actually showing us a lineup of victims who won’t make it out of the film alive.

The Avengers: Doomsday Trailers May Be Eulogies For The Doomed

Avengers Doomsday Trailers Thor and Cyclops
Chris Hemsworth & James Marsden in Avengers: Doomsday / Marvel Studios

There are supposed Avengers: Doomsday plot leaks all over the internet right now, and whether they turn out to be authentic or not, A lot of the details in the leaks do line up with this theory about the trailers.

Steve Rogers is theorised to be a focal point of the film, as he messed up the timestream (and possibly broke the multiverse) in Avengers: Endgame. In that sense, Steve is a major multiversal anomaly that Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) will have to deal with, which could mean he doesn’t get to make it back home to his infant son and perfect life with Peggy Carter.

Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is seen praying to the All-Father (Odin), not to save him, but to protect his adopted daughter, Love. The irony of the Thunder God praying to a god hasn’t been lost on fans: Thor is clearly willing to sacrifice himself for the fight to keep his world alive (literally and figuratively), and he just might have to. There’s also the conspicuous issue of his brother Loki being the one currently holding reality together, making him an obvious target of Doom.

The Fox X-Men Universe was already wiped out by a real-life incursion: the merger between Fox and Disney. However, Avengers: Doomsday (and possibly Secret Wars) is a final major send-off for that franchise and its stars, and based on footage of Patrick Stewart’s Prof. X and Ian McKellen’s Magneto playing (one last) chess game, it seems like death is inevitable.

Then there’s the Shuri trailer. While we don’t expect Ben Grimm/Thing to die so early on in the Fantastic Four franchise, the other characters in the trailer are not so safe. Shuri’s monologue clearly references both her responsibility as Black Panther to fight for the multiverse and a King’s (Namor? M’Baku? Prince T’Challa II?) responsibility to stand with his subjects when the end comes. The Kingdoms of Wakanda and Talokan may have survived Avengers: Infinity War, but in Doomsday, they may not be so lucky.

A Final Goodbye to Beloved Actors

Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen in Avengers: Doomsday / Marvel Studios

As I keep saying: Avengers: Doomsday is clearly going for more than just the end to the MCU Multiverse Saga: it’s also a meta-themed story about the history of the once-scattered Marvel movie franchise, and the inevitable re-consolidation under the Disney-Marvel banner. In many ways, this film already feels like it’s going to be an official “goodbye” to the previous eras; a final closing of the door on at least the former X-Men movie franchise, with rumours that others (the previous Spider-Man film franchises, or 2000s Marvel films like Fantastic Four) could also get their moments of acknowledgement before being annihilated.

Behind-the-scenes, Avengers: Doomsday feels like the agreed-upon off-ramp for many Marvel actors. That’s especially true of those who have been doing these films since the 2000s, and are ready to end any further fan theories, reporter questions, or industry possibilities that they could return in future Marvel projects (Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden). The same could be said for any actors currently in the MCU who are either looking for that final exit door (Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans) or are possibly being shown the door (Letitia Wright, Ténoch Huerta) as the franchise moves forward without them.

When you step back and consider these Avengers: Doomsday teasers from that angle, it’s hard not to feel like these are indeed final memorials, before we see many of these characters suffer massive losses – including their time in the franchise. .

Avengers: Doomsday will be released in theatres on December 18th.