One Key Avengers: Doomsday Trailer Moment Proves Marvel's Spell Is Broken
by Jeremy Mathai · /FilmThe "Avengers: Doomsday" trailer is finally here and it's making us feel thoroughly ... whelmed. That's probably not the response that Kevin Feige, the brothers Russo, and the rest of the Marvel Studios brain trust were hoping to elicit, but that's unfortunately where we are these days. The once-impenetrable superhero fad is showing some serious cracks in the armor lately, Christopher Nolan just reminded us what a proper blockbuster epic looks and feels like with "The Odyssey," and even "Doomsday" itself has been rendered as second billing on its own opening weekend, with "Dune: Part Three" stealing much of its thunder. The latest Marvel team-up arrives at a polar opposite moment in time than "Infinity War" and "Endgame" did, and the difference can be seen and felt immediately.
For all intents and purposes, the "Doomsday" trailer does its job exactly the way it should. The footage of the cobbled-together Avengers squaring off against various X-Men of old is everything fans hoped it would be. Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance as Doctor Doom seems appropriately menacing (though we hope he and the post-production team work on that dodgy-sounding Latverian accent a bit). Everything about this footage sells the stakes and tension that the "Fantastic Four" villain ought to represent – so why does it feel like it's trying twice as hard to accomplish half of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe pulled off so easily in its heyday?
Much of that can be summed up in the final exchange of the trailer. We see Chris Hemsworth's Thor encounter a familiar face just when he needs it most: Chris Evans returning as Steve Rogers. He extends his arm and Thor's hammer Mjolnir flies to him in the blink of an eye, just like in "Endgame." And instead of elation, I felt absolutely dead inside.
The Doomsday trailer can't recapture that Avengers: Endgame magic
You know that sinking feeling when you catch up with an old band that you grew up loving, but they no longer have that spark or energy (or, sadly, innovation) that once made you such a big fan in the first place? Yeah, you can probably see where I'm going with this. Justified or not, the MCU once stood for the complete and total peak of blockbuster filming. After the unstoppable force that was 2012's "The Avengers," the franchise promptly churned out hit after hit after hit in a seemingly unstoppable run for the hearts and minds of general audiences worldwide. And then something funny happened on the way to world domination: it all came to a fitting and satisfying end with "Avengers: Endgame," and almost everything that followed couldn't help but pale in comparison.
We're not pointing out anything that hasn't already been analyzed and litigated to death by this point in the MCU lifecycle, of course, but the point remains as salient as ever. The reason why the so-called Infinity Saga worked so well is because it actually felt like a miracle of cross-media entertainment. Entire movies and narrative arcs and events appeared to be building up to a unified vision and a grand plan. When "Age of Ultron" hinted at the idea that our aw-shucks hero Steve Rogers might actually be worthy of Thor's hammer, fans flipped out over such a pitch-perfect character beat. And when that setup paid off in the most important moment in "Endgame," well, there's a reason that stands as one of the all-time best scenes in the entire franchise.
But watching "Doomsday" attempt to recapture that magic — for a money shot in a trailer — feels like attending a Coldplay concert in the year 2026.
Does Avengers: Doomsday prove the MCU is beyond saving?
Now, none of this is to say that "Avengers: Doomsday" won't make a killing at the box office or that there won't be any sequences in the upcoming sequel that raise our collective pulses; things simply feel less special this time around, especially compared to the organic hype and interest surrounding the previous "Avengers" movies. Part of that is the inevitability of time passing, of course. Kids who grew up with the previous phase(s) of the MCU will naturally feel more attached to those movies, while more recent efforts are doomed to play second fiddle. But isn't the bigger issue that there comes a point of diminishing returns? Perhaps the lack of magic surrounding this "Doomsday" trailer suggest more worrisome things on the horizon.
Should we call a time of death on the MCU? That might be a bit premature, considering that the superhero bubble hasn't well and truly popped just yet. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" is about to coast off of "The Odyssey" and bring this summer blockbuster season to even greater heights, while even the recent delay of Matt Reeves' "The Batman: Part II" hasn't done anything to dull the excitement surrounding his DC sequel. But perhaps we're now at a point where even an "Avengers" movie struggles to stir up the same emotions that this franchise once did so effectively. After Tony Stark went out in a blaze of glory and Steve Rogers sailed off into a well-earned retirement, watching both actors return is as big a headline-making move as it gets. It's also a little embarrassing, as if Marvel's tacitly admitting that they can't improve on what they've done already.
We're hoping we'll change our tune entirely when "Avengers: Doomsday" lands December 18, 2026.