By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 13 seconds ago

Say what you will about Marvel Studios, but they are still capable of surprising us. We haven’t gotten any big reveals about Avengers: Doomsday for a hot minute, and many fans assumed that we wouldn’t get anything significant until San Diego Comic-Con. However, the studio shocked everyone by releasing the first full trailer for the upcoming film online this morning. It’s far more substantial than the teasers we got last year, showing ample footage of our heroes teaming up to fight a new threat. We also get a great look at Doctor Doom in action as he deflects a mighty attack from Thor without breaking a sweat.

While the fan reaction has been divided, the trailer has some undeniably cool moments, including Steve Rogers’ reunion with Thor. What you might not realize while you’re soaking it all in, though, is that Marvel is effectively lying to us with this trailer. Most of the dialogue comes from Thor, who is rallying other heroes against a threat they will need “a miracle” to stop. The framing of the Avengers: Doomsday trailer implies that Doom himself is the threat. In reality, everyone is freaking out about the movie’s real Big Bad: the incursions that threaten the entire multiverse and that will kill all of your favorite heroes.

Mighty Marvel Misdirection

Now, before we get started, a word of warning. In discussing the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer, I’m going to be dipping into spoilers for the film. Some of these spoilers come from trusted leakers, but most come from my long boxes of comics. You see, Doomsday and Secret Wars are adapting a Marvel comics storyline that came out over a decade ago, so it’s easy to extrapolate some of where these films are going. If you haven’t read the comics or peeked at the leaks, though, my breakdown may spoil some of the movie’s biggest surprises. That makes this your last chance to back out if you’d rather know as little about Doomsday as possible.

Still with me? Great. Now, why do I say the Avengers: Doomsday trailer is effectively lying to us? Most of the dialogue comes from Thor, who gives a grim speech to other heroes. He discusses how he has teamed up with far stronger warriors who “died facing enemies and threats that scared me far less than this one.” He ends the speech saying, “we’re going to need a miracle.” There are plenty of interesting scenes while he speaks, but none are as captivating as Thor’s fight with Doctor Doom. Because of this, the trailer leads us to believe Thor has been talking about Doom the entire time.

The Saddest Marvel Movie

He isn’t, though. What he is talking about, which is only hinted at in the trailer (when Xavier looks up to see a bright explosion), are the incursions. Ripped straight from Marvel Comics, the plot of Avengers: Doomsday deals with different realities colliding into one another. When this happens, both universes are destroyed. However, a universe can survive by doing something horrific: wiping out the other universe before the collision. Doctor Doom alludes to this in the trailer when he talks about being “faced with an unthinkable decision.” That decision is whether the heroes are willing to wipe out entire realities in order to save everyone they love.

So, all of this is more or less backed up by official synopses for Avengers: Doomsday. The next parts are based on speculation from me and other comics-loving fans across the internet. Early in the trailer, we see Xavier looking in shock at a bright explosion. This is one of the other realities (most likely the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man universe) getting destroyed. According to the rumors, the X-Men have had to do this several times before, which is why the Avengers are wary of them. Presumably, this is why Gambit and Mystique are fighting, respectively, Shang-Chi and White Widow Yelena Belova in Xavier’s mansion.

From Secret Enemies To Secret Wars

Interestingly, the rumors claim that Doctor Doom presents himself as an ally first…someone who convinces both the Fantastic Four and Steve Rogers to come to the 616 universe and work with the Avengers to stop the incursions. However, the heel turn comes when the villain reveals that he actually wants the incursions to happen, and by the end, one of those incursions has killed everyone except Doom, who uses powers stolen from Loki to resurrect everyone, erase their memories, and make them part of the only reality that is left: Doom’s Battleworld. Avengers: Secret Wars will show what happens next, and its climax will help reboot the MCU.

Kevin Feige is basically gambling everything on that reboot; it will pave the way for properly introducing new X-Men into the MCU, recasting popular characters, and even bringing in fan-favorite superheroes like Miles Morales. There’s a certain irony here, of course: the incursions are the major existential threat of Avengers: Doomsday, and because of them, none of our favorite heroes will survive. Without those incursions, though, we’d never get the upcoming reset, and without that, there would be no way for the MCU to live. 

Multiple fictional worlds at stake, an entire cinematic universe on the line, and Robert Downey Jr. talking like Nandor from What We Do in the Shadows? Superhero fatigue be damned, it sounds like Avengers: Doomsday will be one hell of a thrill ride!