Avengers: Doomsday Trailer May Have Given Away the Ending, and Steve Rogers' Loki Card Backs Up the Leaks

The first official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday arrived on Monday. After seeing it three or four times, I think it does more to confirm some of the plot leaks than to reveal Easter eggs. It includes a frame I think may be one of the last in the entire film, and a small object in Steve Rogers' hands that backs up the rumours about Loki.

Credit first to the one online reporter who claimed the trailer might drop that day. He said it would be either Monday or Saturday, and he was the only source who sort of got it right. Anyone who wondered whether Marvel Studios would put tickets on sale for Doomsday without giving us a trailer got their answer: apparently not.

The Avengers: Doomsday trailer is the CinemaCon trailer, now in HD

This is exactly the CinemaCon trailer that I had already broken down several times from leak descriptions. What changed is that we finally had the HD frames. That let me go through them with a fine tooth comb and point out everything you might have missed.

First, a quick spoiler warning. I know this trailer like the back of my hand from CinemaCon, and a lot of its reveals lie in what it confirms. I tried to hold the spoiler material until the end, but plenty of it is woven through. If you want to avoid that kind of thing, I'm not mad at you. Everything I discuss here has been out there all over the internet for a while, so it is not exactly a spoiler anymore.

The X-Mansion opening shows Professor X facing an incursion

The opening frame is one we had already seen in the X-Men preview trailer from December: Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The X-Mansion looked set to be a major location, appearing at least multiple times in the film. The synopsis confirmed the 828, the 616 and the 10005 Fox X-Men universe as the main universes in the movie. Some of the rumours suggested we would see several more.

Some of the earliest on set leaks came from aerial drone shots. They showed a fight against Sentinels taking place in the courtyard. Later in this trailer, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers are there as well. In this opening shot, Professor X looks on at the beginning of an incursion, with another Earth hanging low in its orbit. If you have been following the X-Men rumours, the 616 and the 828 would not be the first timelines they have battled. According to those rumours, they had been battling timelines for quite some time to preserve the 10005.

Doom's fountain shot matches the leaked Sentinel scene

The next freeze frame shows Doom finishing his intro soliloquy. He is telling them they cannot avoid what is coming and that they face an unthinkable decision. Look at what is in the background: the fountain in the X-Mansion courtyard. It is the same fountain at the center of the so called leaked scenes of Doom raising Sentinels, and the same one in those aerial drone shots. It is also the fountain at the center of the leaked Doom and Sentinels scene that was everywhere a couple of weeks earlier.

Doom is getting up from kneeling after touching the ground. This is the exact shot from the sequence where he raises the Sentinels, and we had seen it before. It is a clear example of what this trailer really does in HD: it confirms a lot of leaks.

One Doom frame reminds me of the Beyonder

I put an asterisk by this one, and I would love for someone to confirm it. I simply did not have time to check this freeze frame against every Marvel comic featuring the Beyonder. But something about it reminds me of him: the epaulets, which look sort of metal, and the striping on the inside.

I am not saying that it is the Beyonder, and I would welcome being debunked by anyone who knows for certain that it isn't. I mention it because the Beyonder is a central character in the Secret Wars storyline, and I did not think we would get him. My thinking was that Marvel Studios was straight up replacing him with Loki.

Thor, not Doom or Steve Rogers, arrives with the Fantastic Four

The way the trailer is edited makes it look like the Fantastic Four are arriving. There were rumours that Dr. Doom or Steve Rogers was on the Fantastic Four's ship when it reached the New Avengers Tower. It turns out to be neither. Unless someone has been erased, and I don't see why they would do that, Thor is the only one joining the Fantastic Four at the tower.

Thor looked set to be the person everyone in the room knows has no side between the New Avengers and Sam Wilson's Avengers. He is just there trying to make an ally out of everybody.

The next shot has me giddy, because it feels like something straight out of a dream. The New Avengers are on the left, and Sam Wilson's Avengers are on the right, though for now they look like just Sam Wilson and Ant-Man. Thor and the Fantastic Four are there too, all in the same room trying to figure out what is going on. The Thunderbolts post credit scene told us that space anomalies were being recognised as some kind of phenomenon, while everyone stayed hush hush about it. The way Thor arrives with the Fantastic Four makes it feel like he is there to warn them all. He may know what is going on when a lot of others don't.

Wakanda and Talokan, Thor against Doom, and Shang-Chi versus Gambit

The next shot makes it look like there is still some frustration or animosity left over between Wakanda and Talokan. They are still going to ally, though. It had been heavily rumoured that this would lead to another huge battle sequence on the 616.

When Thor takes on Doom, there is a statue in the background. I still believe this is probably the same courtyard with the fountain, either after or during the Sentinel fight. Something doesn't exactly line up, though. After facing Doom in this scene, Thor goes on to warn the others that this is the worst threat he has ever seen. He tells them that heroes he loved died side by side with him fighting people who appeared less strong than Doctor Doom.

Then comes a shot of Cyclops in the X-Mansion, and Shang-Chi fighting Gambit, as promised. Honestly, this fight looks like it is going to be incredible. It also looks like they have leveled up some of the CGI for Gambit.

Steve Rogers' Loki card confirms the relocation leaks

Next are what I think are probably the most critical frames in the trailer, because they confirm so much. They show a card with the Yggdrasil world tree on one side. That means the card represents the new state of the multiverse, not the old state when it was still a loom. Loki visiting Steve, saving his life and taking him to another timeline like the 828 to live out his life came after the events of Loki season 2. Otherwise the world tree would not be on the back.

This is Loki's calling card. It confirms that Loki had contact with Steve to leave him the card. That backs up the rumours about Loki relocating Steve, most likely to the 828, so he wasn't pruned. It also confirms that Steve has a way to get hold of Loki when and if he needs to. A lot of the plot rumours and leaks revolved around this exact object. Since the card confirms the original leaks about Steve's relocation and their contact, it probably means the rest of those leaks are true as well.

If you would rather not know the rest, back out now. According to those leaks, Doctor Doom at some point pulls a bait and switch to keep everybody occupied. Thor then tells Steve to take him to Loki, now that Steve can contact him. When they arrive, they find that Doom has already been there and already defeated everybody.

That is how I read the next frame, which shows Loki looking through what appear to be older style curtains. I see this as Loki visiting Steve Rogers' original house, the one from the last scene of Avengers: Endgame. He relocates Steve to the new house from the preview trailer, which is in the 828 rather than the earlier back in time 616. That could explain how Steve may have gotten back to the 616 at the end, though I'll save that theory for another day.

A frame of Ant-Man and the Human Torch may come from the end of the film

The trailer then goes back to Wakanda, now confirmed to be putting up the walls of water. After that come the Avengers infiltrating the X-Mansion, and Yelena fighting herself for the second time in almost as many movies. There is another shot of Professor X and Magneto, then Ant-Man and his daughter, and the Human Torch and his sister.

I want to point out that this last shot may be one of the final frames of the entire film. Compare what is going on behind them with the incursion at the start of the trailer. I think this may be them embracing and accepting their fate as incursions are about to happen. No matter what they do, they will not be able to stop it, and the multiverse ends with the last three Earths. In the wake of that destruction, Doctor Doom would use the remnants to build Battleworld. We may be seeing the decimation of entire timelines, including our 616, right in this moment.

That comes only after all of the heroes spring into action. Because of the CinemaCon leaks, we had already seen these scenes, or at least heard about them at length. Some are the same as in the preview trailers, and there are new shots of Namor and Sue Storm. There is also a shot of Doctor Doom easily controlling Thor, which makes Doom look severely overpowered. In fact, he probably is going to be.

Steve Rogers returns in a nomad look I can't explain

Right after Thor says, "We need a miracle," Steve Rogers shows up and proves that it is him, our Steve Rogers. I also want to point out that Thor is dual wielding Stormbreaker and Mjolnir here, which is pretty wild.

Honestly, I can't believe Steve's outfit. "He looks like he went to Target before he made his way to set." I couldn't help imagining how that agreement went. In my version, Marvel tells Chris Evans he can do it any way he wants, and he chooses not to work out, not to get into Captain America shape, not to wear the costume, not to cut his hair and not to shave his beard. Except he was seen right around the time they were filming, and he had enormous biceps. So I'm not sure why he is rocking this off brand nomad look or why he isn't Captain America, whatever the reasons turn out to be.

Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom doesn't feel like Robert Downey Jr.

I never normally do reaction pieces. But my reaction is that this trailer looks absolutely incredible, and "this looks as good as I wanted it to look." One of my biggest concerns was whether Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom would just feel like Robert Downey Jr. It doesn't, in his cadence, his tone or his affect. He also manages an accent that doesn't sound like Robert Downey Jr. doing an accent.

That was what I was most worried about. I didn't need or want Downey to bleed through the way he does in a lot of his roles, where it's for the better. It's what makes him him, and he's incredible. But he is already our Tony Stark, so "Doctor Doom needed to be different." His voice does feel different, although it sounds a little more German than Eastern European. I'm still okay with it, and he probably spent a lot of time dialing it in so it sounded the way it does.

The rune on Doom's glove could be the key to Battleworld

One Easter egg I want to point out is the rune on Doom's glove. Marvel chose this image to front the trailer officially, and that rune is very important. It was one of the first icons we saw in the laser show in Shanghai over a year earlier. Runes have also been part of almost all the official Doomsday promo imagery. We think the stained glass window behind the Avengers logo on the countdown clock is the beginning of Battleworld, and that window is surrounded by runes.

The original WandaVision series established that a witch encircled in runes can't use their power. My theory is that runes are the key to Doom's conquest of Battleworld. I think he builds a compiled rune from magic sourced across multiple forms, such as having a follower understand the Darkhold, and through other magical artifacts like the bangles or the Ten Rings. That would give him a master rune, or a set of runes, that can surround the Doomsday Clock and the stained glass window of Battleworld. It would make him the most powerful being in Battleworld.

Marvel Studios has always, always relied on seeds planted throughout a saga to make everything feel like it comes full circle. The Multiverse Saga may have felt like it had no plan or direction, going wide one after another with post credit scenes and new characters. Even so, I thought they were going to go back to some of the key things they introduced. One of the first was Wanda and her runes, and witches being unable to use magic when encircled by them.

If the stained glass window of Battleworld is encircled in master runes like the one on his glove, no one else would be able to break his spells. That includes a mind wipe for everybody, and ultimately the kind of power that makes him God Emperor Doom. So it is not just Doom taking Loki's power to be more powerful than everybody else. He would also be dampening or suppressing everyone else's power, especially magic, to hold Battleworld together as God Emperor Doom.

I have already seen some complaining, so maybe some of you disagree: did this trailer look as good to you as it did to me?