Avengers: Doomsday Jeep ad: does it show the Latveria battle?

There are Avengers: Doomsday tie-in commercials from Jeep, KFC and Dunkin'. I think they're all revealing real details about the movie, starting with Latveria, Doctor Doom's homeland, which turns up in a Jeep ad. Asked whether these ad takeovers are something to love or hate, I said I think they're "kitschy and corny and wonderful."

The ads arrive alongside other Marvel news. The Avengers: Doomsday final world tour was confirmed during Marvel Studios' official Doomsday countdown event, and Secret Wars is still set for December 2027.

The Jeep commercial appears to show the MCU's live action Latveria

The Jeep spot features Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm and H.E.R.B.I.E. driving around in Jeeps through different locations. The final location is Latveria. I think Jeep didn't come up with this design for Latveria on its own, and that Marvel gave it to them to put into the commercial.

The Latveria in the ad sits in the mountain ranges of Eastern Europe. The bottom of the structure looks like the old version of Doomstadt, but Doom has built a giant tower on top. It looks like his version of the Baxter Building, because he hates Reed Richards and wants a modern skyscraper in Latveria.

When I asked what this tells us about Doctor Doom, the answer I got was confusion about the Jeep part, and that even without the Jeeps, it was clear the setting was Latveria but not what would be happening in the scene. My tongue in cheek explanation was that all these Jeeps are Avengers assembling through sling ring portals.

Latveria could be where the final battle of Avengers: Doomsday happens

This blows my mind, because Latveria is the one exterior location we think will feature in Avengers: Doomsday that we haven't seen in trailers. The only other is a rumored opening scene in another universe where certain characters are said to be fighting. Arguably the D23 trailer already showed that, if the ruined Manhattan in it is where that scene takes place.

I do think the final battle of Avengers: Doomsday will take place on the field seen in the KFC ad.

The KFC ad shows a ruined Avengers Tower, but Doom spared the chicken

The KFC commercial shows all kinds of ruined landscapes in some universe. At first I wasn't sure whether it was Earth-616 or Earth-828. My conclusion is that it must be Earth-616, because Avengers Tower is in it and Doom has wrecked it.

Doom has not wrecked the KFC, though. The joke was that he signed a deal with Colonel Sanders to spare it, though Colonel Sanders doesn't appear. But I think this is also a case where Marvel has to sign off on these ads. My guess is that Marvel told KFC that Doom would destroy many things but spare certain ones, and someone pitched sparing a KFC to sell chicken.

The green goo chicken burger was a hard sell

The tie-in chicken burger got a rough reception in the discussion. It was called gross and "the most filthy thing," with a green goo oozing out of it. The argument made was that KFC could have made any other product and it would have been fine. When Burger King did its Shrek promotion, it made green ketchup. That simple approach would have worked here instead of a burger that looks like the "crazy, dirty, disgusting patty from Spongebob."

I suggested we should try it anyway, since it's only food coloring in the bun. That got a firm refusal: "I'll eat the Jeep, but I can't eat that." There are also chicken wings with the green goo on them.

The KFC Falcon wings label Anthony Mackie as Falcon, not Captain America

The wings are called Falcon wings, and the ad shows Anthony Mackie. I object to this. I don't like the jokes in these commercials about him still being Falcon when he is Captain America, and establishing that he is still Falcon feels controversial to me.

A scene from the baseball promo, or the trailer after the baseball promo, featured Paul Rudd as an older Scott Lang, unsure who is Cap anymore. The pushback I got was that the joke is Scott being awkward and trying to be respectful. My reply was that being respectful would have meant calling these Cap wings.

I also asked why the ad doesn't show Torres, and my answer is that no one recognizes Torres as Falcon. It was pointed out that in the MCU the characters mostly use first names and call him Sam. My response was that it's fine, but the ad said Falcon and then showed him. It was also asked whether Scott Lang has ever called him Falcon, and that remains unclear.

The Dunkin' ad shows an incursion without a burning sky

The Dunkin' commercial has Channing Tatum doing several cuts of flirting with H.E.R.B.I.E. More importantly, it offers the one shot so far of an incursion seen from ground level. The sky is not on fire. Another Earth hovers awkwardly outside our atmosphere.

To me, that image is creepier than fire. I hope incursions look like that throughout the first half of the movie, because it looks cool.

Why are Gambit and H.E.R.B.I.E. in Avengers Tower?

No trailer has shown Gambit alongside the Fantastic Four. That raises a strange question for me: Gambit is in Avengers Tower on Earth-616, so what is he doing there and who let him in? H.E.R.B.I.E. being there is also odd, since the point was raised that he should be at the Baxter Building.

One theory came up, with the admission that it's a stretch and probably not true. It starts with Ben Grimm, and what I think is Johnny Storm, appearing with the Wakandans in the desert. If the Fantastic Four split up, maybe they keep the baby at home with H.E.R.B.I.E., and maybe Gambit is there too. There was doubt about whether they'd leave the baby with H.E.R.B.I.E. alone.

Will Doom take Franklin Richards?

As for whether Doom takes the baby, we both doubted it happens that early in the film. The prediction in the discussion was that by the end the baby gets kidnapped, because you can't have a baby in a movie like this without it being kidnapped. Another possibility raised was that the child goes voluntarily, with a five year old Franklin deciding he likes this man.

A final theory came up: everyone leaves and H.E.R.B.I.E. stays behind. When events unfold at the X-Mansion, some characters go through different portals and end up at the Fantastic Four's home. H.E.R.B.I.E. was said to be with them at the X-Mansion, in the background. The guess from there is that they'll take ships, either one of the Fantastic Four's ships or a Quinjet.