Avengers Doomsday Trailer Timing Revealed, and It May Bring Unannounced Characters

Every trailer released for Avengers Doomsday so far, going all the way back to December's preview trailers, has really just given extended frames of the same scenes. That means there is still a ton of Doomsday footage we have not seen: action sequences, cameos, and characters that remain hidden. Now there is word that the next trailer could change that in a big way.

Industry insiders have reported, and this has been covered over the last month, that Marvel was looking to make a huge splash with the next Avengers Doomsday trailer. If those reports are right, the footage could include brand new characters that have not only gone unseen so far, but haven't even been announced or confirmed by Marvel to be part of the cast at all.

An insider source reports the Doomsday trailer and a Spider-Man Season 2 trailer are coming between September and October

The latest update on timing comes from an industry insider source who has been active for years throughout the Multiverse Saga and has established a trusted track record when it comes to trailer releases, though as always not every scooper gets everything right and that should be taken with a grain of salt.

According to that source, "An Avengers Doomsday trailer and a trailer for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man season 2 are coming between September and October with the Doomsday trailer possibly being shown alongside Avengers Endgame Encore screenings."

That timing lines up with what has been speculated over the last month, when word first came that Marvel was gearing up for a splash with the next trailer. Some industry insider sources have also been referring to this as the official final trailer, which felt a little early given there is still promo to run through October and November, though it's possible new TV spots and official clips could still follow between now and December while this stands as the last full trailer.

Why the timing points toward the Endgame Encore screenings

With only a little over two months to go between the Endgame Encore screenings and Doomsday's release, and knowing that most people showing up for those screenings are diehard Marvel fans specifically going for the new Doomsday footage, it would make sense for Marvel to attach the trailer there. Most fans already have Disney Plus or a copy of Endgame and can rewatch it whenever they want for free, so anyone paying for the Encore experience is doing it for the hype, the deleted footage, and the Doomsday material.

That raises a question though: if Marvel is already attaching new footage and first look material to the Endgame Encore screenings, would they really need to double that up with a separate trailer release too? If the people buying Encore tickets already have their Doomsday tickets as well, which may be part of why Doomsday tickets were put on sale first, Marvel may not need to run a second trailer to capture their attention.

So this isn't a 100% lock. It's possible Marvel waits until October, maybe closer to mid October, or even times a release around October 18th to mark a 60 day countdown to release. Still, it feels more likely than not that the trailer comes with the Encore screenings, and either way, per that report, the wait for a new trailer won't stretch on much longer.

Vision Quest and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man could still be used to push Doomsday's story

Between now and the next trailer, Vision Quest is reportedly supposed to set things up in some way for Avengers Secret Wars, if that show ends up connecting to Doomsday. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, meanwhile, will very likely have nothing to do with the multiverse.

Even so, Marvel has an opportunity to piggyback off both projects to push Doomsday's plot in some way. The television and animated projects are a different animal entirely, but that doesn't mean there won't be eyes on Disney and Marvel, and some form of promotional overlap wouldn't be surprising.

Marvel knows how much is riding on Doomsday's box office and fandom reaction

Marvel Studios is acutely aware of how much is riding on Avengers Doomsday. Spider-Man: Brand New Day proved that Marvel movies that aren't called Avengers can still cross two billion dollars, and Deadpool and Wolverine did it as well. Spider-Man sits in a tier of his own among Marvel's IP, but it would be something of a disaster if Doomsday somehow made less at the box office than Brand New Day.

It's also safe to say Avengers Secret Wars' success rides on how well Doomsday performs at the box office, but even more so on how well it lands with the fandom. A world exists where Doomsday doesn't quite reach Brand New Day's numbers, since Spider-Man draws in casual fans and even kids who aren't caught up in the wider saga, but still becomes a huge hit that leaves everyone on a major cliffhanger heading into Secret Wars. That outcome is exactly what Marvel needs.

My hope is that Marvel resists the urge to over-explain in the final two weeks

There has always been pressure on Marvel, visible throughout the Multiverse Saga, to put out repeated TV spots as a film's release nears, sometimes giving too much away at the last minute. My view has long been that if fans don't already have their Doomsday tickets by the final week, no TV spot revealing another character is going to be what pushes them to buy. As I've put it: "if the people they think they're converting are going to go buy tickets because of that, they're even more wrong."

Given the outstanding tracking already being seen for Doomsday, which is putting it on pace for something like Brand New Day and maybe even bigger, my hope is that Marvel feels confident enough in the turnout that it doesn't feel pressure to release a new TV spot every day in the first two weeks of December revealing all the characters and moments it has held back over the last two months.

Plot leaks that have seemingly corroborated each other are already out there, including reports of Tobey Maguire, Hugh Jackman, and Ryan Reynolds returning for an intro sequence in which the Fox X-Men fight Maguire's Spider-Man universe. That has circulated as rumor among dedicated fans, but there are plenty of people who call themselves Marvel and MCU fans who don't follow trades, don't watch scoop coverage, and have zero idea what's coming. If Marvel keeps that material out of the TV spots, those fans won't know until they're in the theater watching Wolverine fight Maguire's Spider-Man, and that would be mind-blowing even for those who already know it's coming, let alone those who don't. My hope is that Marvel plays it close to the chest through that final promotional stretch.

Do you think Marvel should hold back the biggest Doomsday reveals from the TV spots, or give fans everything before opening weekend?