Avengers: Doomsday ads: does the Jeep spot reveal Latveria?

The new Avengers: Doomsday tie-in ads from KFC, Dunkin' and Jeep are more than product plugs. I think they carry real clues about the film, from what Doctor Doom does to the new Avengers Tower, to Gambit's true history with the X-Men, to what looks like the first exterior view of Latveria in the MCU.

Marvel's season of awkward commercials has begun. Whether it was the Fantastic Four promoting Little Caesars pizza or Red Hulk selling Tide, these spots keep revealing production design and VFX from the movies themselves. I'm telling you, there are plenty of clues and Easter eggs hidden inside them. For Doomsday so far, there is a KFC tie-in ad and a Dunkin' Donuts spot starring Gambit and H.E.R.B.I.E.. We tried the Dunkin' donuts, and they were fine.

KFC's Avengers: Doomsday ad shows Doctor Doom's destroyed New York

The core joke of the KFC ad is that Doctor Doom stands over a devastated New York City. The other fast food and takeout spots have been wrecked, but KFC is untouched, presumably because Doom signed a deal with Colonel Sanders. One shot shows a giant burger with a muscular, mustached burger mascot whose head has been hit by pigeon droppings. Captain America's shield is lodged in the head of the sign above a restaurant, but there is no sign of Cap anywhere.

Doom's green fire burns in the wreckage of a collapsed overpass, with green flames everywhere. A burger truck hangs off the edge of the debris. Then Doom steps forward to survey his destruction. In the distance, the new Avengers Tower is visible, and it has also been hit by the same green fire. It shows up again at the very end of the ad.

There is a hot dog cart dangling from a power line, and the hot dog shop's sign and its little hot dog statue are still burning. Through a window, a burger shop storefront that looks a lot like Burger King has been bombed out, right across the street from a taqueria. A dumpling takeaway restaurant is still burning in that same green fire, and a Subway style billboard advertising a Sicilian sub looks like someone took a huge bite out of it.

The KFC ad hides Kate Bishop and Fantastic Four clues

Several pizza delivery mopeds have smashed into the brick wall of a pizza shop whose name is a nod to Lucky the Pizza Dog, Kate Bishop's dog from the Hawkeye series. This is our second Kate Bishop clue for Avengers: Doomsday, because the ScreenX trailer seemed to show Scott Lang and Cassie Lang in Kate Bishop's apartment. One moped's wheel is still spinning after it hit a cooler, and pizzas are smeared across the walls and windows.

Then the Fantastic Four's spaceship turns up crashed into a chicken restaurant called Tom's Fried Chicken, its nose impaling poor Tom the Chicken. I like to think the Fantastic Four land safely on Earth-616, since we saw them arrive in the Thunderbolts post credits scene and saw them step off their ship in the Avengers: Doomsday trailer. But I don't think that ship is leaving Earth-616 again after that.

The final shot shows a KFC, unlike any real KFC I've seen in a big city, completely spared from the destruction, with a giant Sentinel head to its left. The punchline is that Doom spared KFC because of its black bun chicken sandwich with green Hulk goo spread over the pickles. I'm kidding, KFC. It looks tasty, and we'll eat it.

Doctor Doom may care more about what he preserves than what he destroys

Marvel Studios must have approved all of this, because while Doom destroys a lot in this movie, he also leaves some places intact for Battleworld. I think Avengers: Doomsday will be more about what Doom preserves and collects than what he destroys.

It's worth remembering that the Doomsday D23 trailer, released on August 14, included an epic shot of the ruins of Manhattan. The green fire is no longer burning there, and there's a strange looking ship or structure in Central Park that all of us are trying to figure out. Is it one of Reed Richards' life rafts? Is it the X-Men's ship? And ultimately, which characters in this movie travel to which Earth? One answer may lie in the Dunkin' promo starring Channing Tatum as Gambit, or Remy LeBeau.

Dunkin's Gambit ad shows an incursion over Earth-616

The Dunkin' ad puts Gambit in the new Avengers Tower as H.E.R.B.I.E. rides up in the elevator with Doomsday themed Munchkins and drinks. Why is Gambit on Earth-616 and not in his X-Men universe of Earth-10005? Why is H.E.R.B.I.E. here? We know from scenes in the trailers that both of these characters will be on Earth-10005 when other Marvel heroes head to the X-Mansion. Again, I know this is an ad, but Marvel must have approved all of it so that it fits the story of the film at least somewhat.

H.E.R.B.I.E. points outside, and we get the clearest view yet of an incursion. Another Earth, maybe Earth-10005 or Earth-828, appears in the sky above Earth-616. North America faces North America, much like the positions of the Earths in the TVA scene attached to the Avengers: Endgame encore. H.E.R.B.I.E. then demonstrates an incursion by knocking two Munchkins into each other. The ad also opens with Gambit shuffling his cards, and in the product's hero shot, his flaming ace slices a Doom Munchkin in two.

Channing Tatum says Gambit comes from the Fox X-Men universe

While promoting the ad, Channing Tatum spoke to the press and told Screen Rant that his Gambit comes from the Fox X-Men universe of Earth-10005, but with "gray around it." Screen Rant then included what he said next: that in Deadpool & Wolverine, as the interviewer was saying about where he came from, he wasn't really anywhere, that he was in a way born in the void, that it wasn't gone into deeply, and that they start from a place where they don't have to discuss where he came from.

That quote strikes me as confusing, and with no disrespect to Screen Rant, I think they should have shared the whole exchange word for word. In particular, I'd want the part of Tatum's answer where he confirmed their initial question and used "gray around it" in place of their earlier description, which on its own doesn't mean anything. But you know what? I trust them and I'm taking them at their word. This is an important confirmation.

Channing Tatum thinks his Gambit wasn't actually born in the void, despite what was said in Deadpool & Wolverine. He came from the Fox X-Men timeline. It's just that the character was pruned into the void at some point and is unsure about his own past before that. That's similar to Aaron Stanford's Pyro and Tyler Mane's Sabretooth. Those actors appeared in the void, but it was assumed they were the same characters seen in the Fox X-Men films.

Channing Tatum flirted with H.E.R.B.I.E.

Tatum also told People magazine at a very fun Dunkin' Donuts press event, which we weren't invited to, that he definitely flirted with H.E.R.B.I.E. a little. He explained that Gambit doesn't care what or who you are, he likes to flirt, so he was definitely flirting with a robot. Hey Channing, I get it. I got to spend a few minutes with H.E.R.B.I.E. ahead of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and I definitely had a bit too much fun with him myself.

I was trying to work out what Tatum meant by flirting with H.E.R.B.I.E., but then Dunkin' Donuts released more promos. In one, Gambit plays cards with H.E.R.B.I.E., asking if he has a seven, and the promo warns never to play cards with a robot. Ah, now I see what he meant. Sharing that straw was going a bit far. Separately, at the end of the first promo, when Gambit tells the other Avengers that H.E.R.B.I.E. is buying breakfast, H.E.R.B.I.E.'s robotic voice seems to say something like "we're seriously done" or "seriously endangered."

Does Gambit share history with the Fox X-Men?

Is this confirmation that Channing Tatum's Gambit shares real history with this movie's Magneto, Professor X, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Beast and Mystique? Specifically, with where those characters were at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past? Remember, Anna Paquin's Rogue was alive in that timeline, and now I want to know what her relationship with Gambit was like over those years. In People magazine, Tatum is quoted saying that Gambit is a flirt and that he thinks the character's romantic nature will come through in this movie.

When it comes to Gambit's full history with these characters, we should remember that in X2, the computer terminal of Colonel Stryker that Mystique hacked listed the name Remy LeBeau alongside other mutants. Taylor Kitsch was cast as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but that early 1980s history was changed by the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, so it no longer happened.

This new X-Men continuity is presented as though only the events of the first X-Men movie, and possibly the opening of X2 up until Jean Grey's death, actually took place. So that opens the door to a whole new backstory for Gambit, or Remy LeBeau.

Gambit's comedic connection in Avengers: Doomsday

Whatever that backstory turns out to be, Deadpool and Wolverine will be tied into it. After the stunts at San Diego Comic Con and D23, we're certain that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are in this movie. So logically, Gambit returning alongside the characters from Deadpool & Wolverine will be part of their comedic connection.

Honestly, I don't know how that's going to work. In my view, Channing Tatum's Gambit brings a different style of humor, one that's quite different from the Russo Brothers' usual comedic scenes, so I'm not sure exactly how it will play in this movie. But now that the final stretch is approaching, they will try to promote this movie more from its comedic side, and we'll see more of this kind of craziness.

Jeep's Avengers: Doomsday ad gives the first look at Latveria

Last, and possibly most important, is the Jeep ad. It features Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm and H.E.R.B.I.E., and I hope H.E.R.B.I.E. has a driver's license. They're all driving Jeeps across different worlds, including the New York City of Earth-616, a desert where Namor appears, and the Telly Canal surrounded by water from the other Doomsday trailers, which I think is part of the process of building Battleworld.

And for the first time, there's an exterior view of Latveria in the MCU. It looks like Doom's capital and the architecture of his new, modern Doomstadt tower, surrounded by Eastern European mountains. My guess is that this is Earth-828. I think the Doomstadt interiors we see in the other trailers take place inside this structure. It's incredible that this was revealed through a Jeep ad.

Who is opening the sling ring portals in the Jeep ad?

The question is, who is bringing these Jeeps through sling ring portals? Yes, it's a nod to the portals and the Avengers Assemble moment from Avengers: Endgame. But so far, no good sorcerer who could create sling ring portals like these has been confirmed for this movie, only Doctor Doom along with his Latverian witches and Boris.

So, courtesy of Jeep, we can read this as an indirect hint that Doctor Strange is in this movie. Or it could be part of Doctor Doom's ongoing collection, in which he has gathered Bruce Banner, we think Peter Parker, Stephen Strange and possibly Wanda Maximoff.