Avengers: Doomsday trailer revealed in new leaks that divide Marvel fans

On Monday, Marvel fans got their first unofficial look at Avengers: Doomsday, amid a flurry of leaks and reports that Marvel Studios plans to tease the next Avengers film across multiple trailers over multiple weeks. According to The Hollywood Reporter, four different trailers for Avengers: Doomsday are reported to be attached to another Disney movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash, which opens officially on Thursday. Those trailers are said to be rolling out on a weekly basis in hopes that Marvel fans will show up to theaters multiple times.

But Marvel's plan may have already been spoiled.

The first of those trailers, featuring the return of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, has already leaked online, initially in grainy, low-resolution style. The poor quality of that trailer — which Disney has apparently been working diligently to scrub from the internet — has led to questions about its authenticity. Some viewers have expressed disappointment about how little it shows, while others have alleged that it's the work of generative AI, not the hit-making Russo brothers and Marvel Studios.

New, higher resolution uploads of the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer certainly lend weight to its legitimacy. Additionally, multiple Marvel fans have recreated the Avengers: Doomsday teaser through generative AI shot for shot — to illustrate just how terrible AI-generated trailers actually look. (You can go to YouTube and find dozens of fake, gen-AI Avengers trailers that imagine what Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom might look like.)

What does the Avengers: Doomsday trailer reveal?

The first of four trailers for Avengers: Doomsday is all about Steve Rogers. As Marvel fans know, in Avengers: Endgame, Steve gave up the role of Captain America during his mission to return the Infinity Stones to their respective places in the main MCU timeline. Steve opted not to time travel back to the MCU's present, and instead lived the life he was denied, marrying (we assume!) Peggy Carter, and eventually becoming Old Man Steve, as seen in Avengers: Endgame's denouement.

Avengers: Doomsday will apparently envision Steve Rogers as a father. The first teaser for Doomsday shows Steve riding his motorcycle home, putting away his Captain America uniform (implying that he's done with that superhero life for good), and embracing an infant that is assumed to be his own. The identity of that child isn't revealed, but it puts Steve on the same level of Thor and Tony Stark as relatively newly minted fathers. In other words, the stakes for Steve in Doomsday are now higher, just as they were for Tony in Endgame when he was presented with the notion of a reality-changing time heist.

What Avengers: Doomsday trailers are still to come?

Multiple unconfirmed reports indicate that Steve is the focus of the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer, with teasers focused on Thor and Doctor Doom up next on the schedule. A more comprehensive teaser for Doomsday is reportedly planned for week four of Marvel Studios' rollout. It promises to be an exhausting month!

Where can you watch the Avengers: Doomsday trailers?

For the time being, in movie theaters, ahead of screenings of Avatar: Fire and Ash. It's unclear when (or even if) Marvel Studios plans to roll out the Avengers: Doomsday trailers on YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms. While unusual, Marvel appears to be following the hype-generating playbook that Christopher Nolan and Universal Pictures have taken with The Odyssey. A trailer for Nolan's Greek epic was attached to Universal's Jurassic World Rebirth this summer, and has not appeared online in an official capacity. Like Avengers: Doomsday, fans either got their first look at next year's highly anticipated The Odyssey on the big screen or in potato-quality uploads to Streamable.

Why are Marvel fans divided over Avengers: Doomsday trailers?

First, there's the first teaser being a "...that's it?" reveal for a lot of fans. Marvel fans really want to see Downey's Doom, or the reassembled Avengers and X-Men, and the first trailer for Doomsday doesn't deliver any of that. It's just Steve parking his motorcycle and holding a happy baby, then a doomsday clock countdown to Dec. 18, 2026, the release date for Avengers: Doomsday.

Then there's anti-finality of it all. Endgame provided clean, bittersweet closure for a lot of Marvel fans who were happy to see Steve Rogers hand off the shield and finally find happiness in the time in which he was supposed to live, and with the woman that he loved. The mantle of Captain America was bestowed upon Sam Wilson, and that was that. Doomsday appears to undo much of that, dragging Steve back into the mix and muddying the status of who will be Captain America going forward. (But look, it's Sam Wilson. Chris Evans definitely doesn't want to do this forever.)

Marvel fans are also facing the unpleasant reality that Disney and Marvel Studios are pulling the ripcord with Doomsday, bringing back Downey, Evans, and the cast of the Fox-era X-Men films as part of a major nostalgia play. After years of post-Endgame meh, Marvel and the Russos are retreating to a proven formula: Assemble the whole damn MCU cast for another two-part Avengers epic, and hope that the box office performance of Marvel's Phase 5 was just a... phase. The next generation of Marvel's heroes (e.g. The Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four) hasn't quite landed with audiences, but maybe the next-next will?

Marvel is absolutely banking on good feelings still echoing from Endgame, positioning Doomsday as a direct sequel to that landmark blockbuster. Whether fans will show up in force the way they did in 2019 remains to be seen. But Marvel is pulling out all the stops, looking both confident and a little bit desperate to gin up enthusiasm for another go at the Avengers.