Carolina De La Rocque
The long awaited Avengers: Doomsday trailer has just been released by Marvel and the Russo Brothers, and it is everything that fans have been asking to see for over a decade. In what surely is the largest superhero crossover ever made, we see the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Thunderbolts all join forces to beat an inevitable villain: Doctor Doom, portrayed by the brilliant and remarkable Robert Downey Junior.
Starting one of the most awaited trailers of all time with a sign that reads Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in a universe that has not introduced the X-Men yet is certainly a questionable choice. Yet, Anthony and Joe Russo made it seem like the obvious decision. The sign torn apart on the ground ensures that the audience understands, in the first seconds of the trailer, the dimension of the threat posed by Doom. A scared Xaver powerlessly watches an incursion in the X-Mansion while Doom explains that “we shall be faced with an unthinkable decision”. We then have the first glance at Doom’s suit and design — it is equally stunning and horrifying in a way that works much better than I expected.
With a voiceover that explains just how desperate Thor is (as we had previously seen on his teaser released on December 30th), the audience sees modern New York and the meet up between the Fantastic Four and the Thunderbolts, with Sam Wilson and Scott Lang joining the team. This will probably tie directly into the Thunderbolts post-credit scene, which showed the New Avengers getting an alert for an extra-dimensional Fantastic Four ship approaching Earth. Next, there is an unlikely team up between Namor, Shuri (with the Black Panther suit!) and M’Baku. We also see fight scenes between Shang-Chi and Gambit, Mystique and Yelena Belova and Loki in a TVA uniform. Both Gambit and Cyclops have outstanding character designs, with beautiful suits and fitting CGI — fans worldwide have been praising the design of the X-Men. Still in the X-Men universe, the reunion between Magneto and Xavier, although previously disclosed in a teaser, is emotional and striking. We see many unlikely characters interacting and establishing a team of Avengers that seems connected with only one purpose: defeating the unbeatable.
This next scene is one of the trailer’s highlights: a raged Thor with a powered Stormbreaker moves towards Doom in a similar way as his Infinity War entrance in Wakanda and is stopped by Doom’s finger. It is also our first close look at RDJ, and I can tell by a one second glimpse at his eyes that he will not disappoint. As Thor states that he needs “a miracle”, Steve Rogers suddenly appears. To prove himself, he lifts the Mjolnir and the Avengers theme rises in the background — it’s the type of moment Marvel fans were dreaming of seeing since Avengers: Endgame. The soundtrack is a clear mix of the original Avengers theme with some elements of the Fantastic Four theme, and I can’t wait to see it playing back in a new “Assemble” scene.
Although the trailer leaves some crucial plot points open, such as Steve Rogers’ return or Franklin Richard’s fate, it serves its purpose of leaving fans euphoric. As a life-long Marvel fan, I am pleased and overjoyed with this release, though I would like some explanations to the questions left unanswered.
