Avengers Doomsday Trailer Quietly Erased Franklin Richards, Doctor Doom And Steve Rogers From One Shot

The Avengers Doomsday trailer includes a wide shot inside the New Avengers Tower where the New Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Sam Wilson, Ant-Man and Thor are all standing together. Looking closely at that shot, there are several signs that characters were digitally removed from it, including a large gap between members of the Fantastic Four, the top of Johnny Storm's head getting cut off, and a distorted wiggle in the floor when Thor moves his leg. Those are all signs of quick, unpolished digital removal, the kind that is good enough for a trailer but not much more.

A giant gap between the Fantastic Four hides Franklin Richards and Herbie

The most obvious sign of removal in the shot is a large gap between the members of the Fantastic Four. We already know from later in the trailer that Herbie is with the Fantastic Four when they travel into the MCU, because he appears alongside Reed Richards at the X-Mansion. I doubt the Fantastic Four went back to their own universe to grab Herbie before heading to the X-Men's universe, and there is no way Sue and Reed left Franklin at home alone without even Herbie there to babysit him.

Some have theorized that Franklin's absence from this shot means Doctor Doom already got to him. I don't think that's the case. Doctor Doom, Franklin, and Herbie are all three standing in this exact shot, they have just been digitally erased. The gap between the Fantastic Four members is where all three of them belong.

Why Doctor Doom appears to have been erased to protect the trailer's mystery

The reason I think Doom, Franklin, and Herbie were removed is to keep some mystery. If the plot leaks that have been circulating are true, Doom, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers are all working together at this early point in the film, and Marvel does not want us to know that yet. Right now Marvel still wants to sell the idea that Franklin is in danger, which is exactly what was teased in the post-credit scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

At this point in the marketing campaign, showing Doom standing alongside these heroes would not work, because this trailer is designed to sell Doom as the villain. The point of this shot is to give the impression that all of these heroes have come together to stop Doctor Doom, when in reality I think this assembly is coming together to stop the incursions instead. You can even see a display in the shot featuring the three worlds that are colliding.

That reading lines up with the Thunderbolts post-credit scene, which is actually a scene pulled directly from Doomsday and takes place right before this moment in the film. In it, Yelena says, "And now there's this huge space crisis and no one's telling us about it," and someone responds, "We're running out of space already? It's impossible. This building is enormous."

Shang-Chi and Joaquin Torres are also missing, blocked by a removed Steve Rogers

Shang-Chi is all over this trailer, so if he was actually standing in this shot and got digitally removed, the question becomes why. We know the New Avengers are currently at odds with Sam Wilson over him wanting to form his own team, and that team appears to consist of Joaquin Torres as the new Falcon and Ant-Man. Ant-Man is visible in the shot, but Joaquin is not, even though we see him later in the trailer alongside Bucky, the Wakandans, Ghost, U.S. Agent, Sue, and Thing.

My theory is that Joaquin is technically there, just being blocked by a character who was digitally removed. I think Steve Rogers is standing right in that spot and has been erased from the shot, which would also explain the floor wiggle by Thor's leg. If Steve is standing there, he would be blocking our view of the part of the screen where I think Joaquin and Shang-Chi are standing.

That would mean Joaquin and Shang-Chi were not fully captured in this shot, or were heavily obscured by Steve, kind of like how Bucky is obscured by Ghost in a different, later shot in the trailer. When they removed Steve, they only had to fill in empty room rather than digitally paint in the rest of Joaquin and Shang-Chi's bodies, which is a much easier fix. I do think Joaquin is definitely there with Sam, and Shang-Chi is probably there too, both recruited to Sam's Avengers lineup.

The floor wiggle by Thor's leg is a keyframing giveaway

When you have a moving shot, meaning the camera itself is actually moving, and you have to digitally paint out or cut around something using different layers of video to mask it out, you run into keyframing issues. If something is even a little bit off, you get a small wiggle or stretch in the footage, and that is exactly what is happening near Thor's leg in this shot.

Steve Rogers appears to have been saved for the trailer's final reveal

The obvious question is why remove Steve Rogers from this shot at all when he is already in the trailer at the end. That is actually the answer. It looks like Marvel wanted to save the reveal of Steve for the very end of the trailer, when he comes face to face with Thor, so they did not want him showing up in this wide shot with all of the Avengers earlier on.

There is evidence of this earlier in the trailer too. When the Fantastic Four step off their ship with Thor behind them, and the trailer cuts to a shot of Sam, Bucky, and Ant-Man watching on, you can see the silhouette of a head with longer hair that is clearly Steve Rogers stepping off that ship. The looks on their faces give it away as well: Bucky looks shocked, Scott looks in awe, and Sam looks like he already knows Steve is about to show up and set everyone straight on who is actually leading the Avengers.

What I'm hoping Steve says when he returns

I'm hoping Steve actually sits Sam, Yelena, and Bucky down and has a real conversation with them, something along the lines of, "Look, guys, Tony and I butted heads plenty. And because of that, we lost to Thanos. And it wasn't until we put those differences aside and worked together as one Avengers that we were able to win. So you're going to have to do that too." And then I would love for Thor to chime in with, "Yeah, besides, clearly I'm the leader of the Avengers."

As for a separate shadow visible in this same shot, I've seen some people online theorizing that it belongs to Bob.

Do you think Steve Rogers was really standing in that Avengers Tower shot the whole time?