Avengers: Doomsday Teaser in HD Shows Steve Rogers Taking Out His Captain America Suit, Not Putting It Away

The HD version of the first Avengers: Doomsday teaser shows that Steve Rogers is taking his Captain America costume out of its case when he arrives home. He is not putting it away. With no warning, Marvel posted the teaser on its official YouTube channel a week after it first appeared. The clearer frames let me go back to two details I did not cover in my first breakdown, and I think they change how this scene should be read.

Those two details lead to the key question: which Steve Rogers is this? I will get to why I think the answer is not as simple as it first looks.

Marvel released the Avengers: Doomsday teaser in HD after more than a week of leaks

Leaked versions of this teaser had been circulating on social media for over a week before the official release. I did a full breakdown at the time, and so did plenty of others, so most people had already seen most of what is in it. We got an update on Marvel's release plan for these teasers, and apparently they would be putting them online. Then, out of nowhere one morning, the first one appeared on Marvel's official page in HD.

There are two things in it that probably deserved their own theory piece in the first place. With the HD frames finally available, this seemed like the right time to take them on.

Steve Rogers is pulling his Captain America costume out, not putting it away

The first detail is what is going on with the Captain America costume. I saw a lot of people say Steve was putting the costume away when he got home. But he is not wearing it when he pulls up to the house on the bike. He is actually pulling the costume out, and those frames lead directly into him with his son and his family.

We also know what the second teaser shows: Thor preparing for battle and looking at his daughter. When you tie the two together, it certainly feels like Steve is also preparing for battle, since he is taking the costume out of its case. The scene is given a feel of warmth. He smiles in a couple of places while looking at his kid, as if maybe everything is okay.

That is certainly not the case. I think there are some extremely somber undertones to this scene. Steve Rogers is preparing for an upcoming battle. It is the same one Thor is preparing for, probably because someone is assembling them from places across the multiverse and the 616 alike to bring them together to fight Doctor Doom.

This is the same Steve Rogers from the Infinity Saga

The second part of this theory rests on which Steve Rogers we are seeing. I think it is safe to assume, given everything that has been said about Doomsday being a direct sequel to Avengers: Endgame, that this is the exact same Steve Rogers we followed through the entire Infinity Saga. He is the one who returned the Stones and decided to go live his life with Peggy Carter.

Rather than wading into every detail, it is easier to play if/then, because in some cases the answer is a simple yes or no. Is this the same Steve Rogers from the Infinity Saga? Yes. We do not know whether he decided to live his life out in the 616. But there is no canonical evidence he could have traveled the multiverse with what was a Stark time navigation bracelet and Pym Particles. So it is assumed he is in the 616.

Part of the theory that comes from this is that he may be a cause of one of the original incursions. He would be living in the 616 alongside himself while the other Steve is still trapped in the ice. That may have caused a branch timeline in the first place, which is something I have talked about before.

The theory that old man Steve already fought Doctor Doom

The next if/then question is whether the old man Steve who gives the shield to Sam Wilson is the same Steve Rogers. I would believe yes. That is why he is giving our Sam Wilson the shield. If he lived his life out in the 616 and is now an old man on that bench, the theory follows that this old man Steve has already fought in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.

Under that reading, when old man Steve smiles and declines to tell Sam about everything that happened, it is for Sam's own good. He has already lived through these events, already fought Doctor Doom, and already knows how it all plays out. He sits on the bench ready to hand Sam a shield he probably got at the end of the Multiverse Saga, which works like a time loop in and of itself.

I have even talked about the theory that Sam could die. Steve could take that shield and, when it is all said and done, go back and give it to Sam, meaning Sam would always have had that shield. We know it is different from the one Cap has. The major takeaway of this theory is that the old man Steve at the very end of Endgame has already fought through Doomsday and Secret Wars.

Why I do not think old man Steve has fought Doom at all

Every time I have brought this up, in parts or as the same bird's eye view, something about it has not sat right with me. We know Avengers: Secret Wars, at the end of the Multiverse Saga, is supposed to be a soft reboot or a reset of sorts that puts things back into their singular timelines. I would argue that up until now, the Loom has created a Sacred Timeline, the culmination of these Marvel multiverses into one circle that plays itself out over and over again, overseen by He Who Remains.

But this is the end of all that. This is the reset. The theory may hold based on canon, since Endgame sets up an old man Steve in the 616 who already fought Doomsday and Secret Wars. I do not believe that is the case, for the simple reason that when Secret Wars is done, the circle will be done too, and none of this will have played out the same or will ever play out the same again. That is the whole point.

So while old man Steve may have fought through a version of these events, we are on the precipice of something new. It starts with He Who Remains dying, and with Loki on his course to becoming the God of Stories at the center of the multiverse. The end of Loki season 1 marks the moment things changed and went down a different path from the one that played out over and over before.

Old man Steve has been noticeably absent from the Multiverse Saga. He may have fought Doctor Doom in some course of events that led him to that bench and to giving Sam the shield. More likely, he has not fought in any of this at all, and this is new. Doom is new on the scene, creating a new threat. It is the same threat Thor and now Steve Rogers, in HD, are preparing for.

The HD Avengers: Doomsday teaser is darker than it first looked

That is my take on what is going on. Marvel definitely made this teaser seem a little more cheerful than what I think is actually happening in the frames, and that got missed in the blurry leaked version.

As a final thought, I was so relieved Marvel decided to release these in HD. It is fine to talk about the rumors, cover the audio and cover the leaks, but it is much better to have the HD frames, especially with a third teaser that was supposed to feature Doctor Doom. It was also good news for the people who went to see Avatar: Fire and Ash more than once without catching the teaser, because it was finally online for them.

Do you think the old man Steve who handed Sam the shield already fought Doctor Doom, or is Doomsday a completely new fight for him?