Avengers: Doomsday Cast Reveal Broke An Impressive Marvel Record

Moviegoers were very excited to learn who is starring in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, as Marvel’s cast reveal livestream broke an impressive record for the studio. According to Deadline, the livestream (which ran for over five hours) accumulated “275 [million] digital views,” making it the biggest livestream event in Marvel’s storied history. The cast announcement also generated “3.1 [million] social interactions” and “5x the social volume” of the record-breaking Deadpool & Wolverine trailer that debuted during last year’s Super Bowl. Deadline notes that viewership grew the longer the livestream went on, making this the “most [viewed] cross platform livestream stunt.”

Avengers: Doomsday was extremely popular on social media during and after the cast announcement. The hashtag #AvengersDoomsday was the top-trending term on Twitter for more than seven hours. All in all, there were “over 55 distinct trending terms” related to Doomsday over the course of the event.

Earlier this week, to commemorate Avengers: Doomsday beginning production, Marvel Studios revealed 27 actors who will be in the film. The livestream primarily consisted of chairs with the talents’ names printed on the back, with a new star being revealed roughly every 10-15 minutes. The end of the livestream featured a brief appearance from Robert Downey Jr., who took his chair on the set to mark the conclusion of the event.

[RELATED – Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday Casting Is the Perfect Punchline to One of Deadpool & Wolverine’s Best Jokes]

Shortly after the livestream, Marvel hinted that there could be even more people in the Doomsday cast. Reports have indicated that there are additional announcements to come, but it’s unknown when that would take place. Some notable names were missing from the Doomsday livestream, including Benedict Cumberbatch, who previously confirmed he’s reprising Doctor Strange in the film.

The overwhelming success of this event shows that even amidst recent ups and downs, the Marvel Cinematic Universe still has a considerable amount of clout in the pop culture zeitgeist. Captain America: Brave New World was the latest Multiverse Saga project to post underwhelming box office numbers and earn mixed reviews, but there’s evidently still a strong interest in the MCU as a whole, which bodes well for future Marvel projects. The studio needs films like Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps to be big hits. The Doomsday livestream was essentially free marketing for those titles, as their principal actors are all returning for the Avengers film. Those two movies will be required viewing to understand Doomsday. They were already poised to do well at the box office this summer, and the Doomsday connection could give them a boost.

Since it seems like Marvel has more surprises up its sleeve, it’ll be interesting to see how it goes about revealing the rest of the Doomsday cast. Using a San Diego Comic-Con panel sounds like a no-brainer, but Marvel just showed it doesn’t need the stage of a massive pop culture convention to dominate the entertainment landscape for a day. Seeing how well this livestream went, Marvel might decide to do another one at some point. Maybe when Doomsday wraps later this year, the Russo brothers will celebrate with more chairs, bookending shooting with star-studded cast reveals.