Avengers: Doomsday's Hidden Clues: Three Theories on What the Russo Brothers' Trailers Really Mean

The Russo brothers released the fourth Avengers: Doomsday trailer online and told us plainly what we had been getting for four weeks: "They are stories. They are clues. Pay attention." The internet has spiralled trying to decode them, and I think everybody has done a pretty good job narrowing it down to probably three main things these trailers could be. Those three theories are the ones I find most interesting.

I will repeat my caveat from earlier. This could simply be the Russo brothers trying to get us talking and build hype, and the trailers might just be exactly what they look like: a set of stories about Doom, which we already know is coming. But I really like these three theories, and I think they are worth walking through.

Theory one: the four Doomsday trailers track life, love, death and the afterlife

The first theory is that each of the four trailers carries a specific theme. The first one, the Steve Rogers trailer, is about life. He has a son and is essentially starting a new beginning. The second is about love: Thor and his daughter, who is named Love, and his prayer, because he loves his daughter.

The X-Men trailer is about death, which is what Magneto talks about. It does seem like probably somebody has died and has been edited out of that trailer. That is why, I think, Cyclops takes off his visor and fires his optic blasts into the air: he is angry that somebody died. The last trailer specifically talks about the afterlife.

So the themes could be life, love, death and the afterlife, or they could be hope, fear, grief and acceptance. I like both versions, I do think those are the themes, and I do think they relate to Doom. If the reports we have been hearing about Dr. Doom's past are true, he had a family and lost them, and he is probably seeking revenge, trying to make people feel the pain he has felt. He has been through the beginning, through love with a wife and child, through their death, and now he is making his own afterlife, shaping the universe exactly how he wants it.

Theory two: the countdown glitches may be Avengers: Endgame timestamps

The second theory is one I really like. People have been obsessing over the countdown clock, and specifically the glitches in it. Each one is different, seemingly giving us different clues or codes, or, as a lot of people think, timestamps. If we go to those timestamps in Avengers: Endgame, we find some very specific scenes.

There are reasons people think Endgame is the film in question. The Russo brothers have said Doomsday picks up basically right where Endgame left off, which I think tells us time is not exactly linear in the MCU and makes Endgame the natural reference point. Marvel Studios was also set to release Endgame in theaters again not long before Doomsday. If these are timestamps for any movie, it is probably Endgame.

The Steve Rogers glitch points to 1 hour, 24 minutes and 20 seconds. That is the Ancient One telling Bruce Banner about branch timelines, and how they would have to return all of the stones exactly where and when they took them, which I do not think they did. I think that is why we are having problems. The scene is incredibly important, and the message seems to be: remember what the Ancient One said, because what they did affected not just one timeline but the entire multiverse.

The Thor glitch points to 1 hour, 17 minutes and 20 seconds, where Loki turns into Captain America when the team goes back in time. What I really think this points to is Loki escaping and then being captured by the TVA. That is the start of Loki's path to where he is now, essentially the god of stories: the TVA took him in Loki season 1, and by the end of season 2 he was on the throne holding all of the branches together. This movie is about Doom, but I think it is also really going to be about Loki, who has a huge part to play.

The X-Men and Wakanda timestamps might refer to Mjolnir and Doom's journey

The X-Men glitch points to 1 hour, 11 minutes and 20 seconds: Rocket talking to Thor when they go back to Asgard, helping him get his family back. What I really think this is about is Thor taking Mjolnir from that timeline. He did not have Mjolnir in his own timeline, because Hela destroyed it, so he took it from that one and Steve Rogers was supposed to return it. We actually do not know whether Steve returned it.

You could argue that returning it at the exact point in time should have prevented any problem. But the guidelines for time travel and multiverse rules have not been fully established, and some series have said things that later seem contradicted. I think the Russo brothers really have to establish what the rules are in this movie. Regardless, they have clearly shown us that Steve Rogers did something wrong, which is why he is getting back into the fight against Doom. So I think Thor taking Mjolnir sent that timeline on a bad trajectory that could have caused an incursion, and that is why they are showing that scene.

The last one, from the Wakanda trailer, is 1 hour, 4 minutes and 20 seconds: Rocket asking Ant-Man if he wants to go to space. A lot of people are stumped on this one, and there are plenty of theories. I think it might refer to Doom possibly going into space for the very first time. We do not know where he is from. He could be from the 828 universe, and he could have been working with the Fantastic Four. But I think this is about him going into space, which probably started his multiversal journey.

Theory three: the countdown may lead to a point of no return seen through Loki's eyes

I want to give full credit for the core of the third theory to the person whose clip was sent to me; I am adding my own thoughts on top. We know the clock is a countdown to the movie's release, but I really do not think Marvel will leave it up for a full year without something glitching or happening. His theory is that it is really a countdown to a point of no return.

He argues the trailers are from Loki's point of view. As the Russo brothers said, they are stories, and Loki is essentially the god of stories. As we saw at the end of Loki season 2, he can see everything happening in the branches he is attached to. While the timelines still exist and are intact, you could technically go back and try to correct things, which is roughly what the TVA does: branching and pruning timelines, keeping the multiverse from colliding, and eliminating Kangs. But once the timer reaches a certain point, there is no turning back.

The end of time and the void would mean Doom wins

I like that because it aligns with what Kang taught us. The Time Keepers were fake lore Kang made up, but at the Citadel at the End of Time, Kang was still writing the timeline, so there was an end to it. I believe this is the end of time: the destruction of the entire multiverse, where time is no longer a thing. If there are no timelines, no branches and no universes, time travel becomes impossible, so you cannot go back or forward to undo anything, and there is no multiversal travel because there is only the void or a single universe left.

That would be the point of no return, and that would be doomsday: Doom winning, becoming God Emperor Doom and ruling over Battleworld. The only thing real would be the absence of time and space, the void. That is what Cassandra Nova said in Deadpool & Wolverine: she would destroy every universe until nothing was left but the void. I think that is probably something we are going to get to in Avengers: Doomsday no matter what.

Loki, attached to everything, can guide people and tell them what happened and what needs to be undone, and that might change some events depending on the rules they establish. But once everything is destroyed, nothing more can be done. If Doom is not stopped before then, he wins and there is no going back.

Why I think all three theories could be right

I like this theory a lot, and I kind of think what is happening is a combination of all three. These are the ones I found most interesting and that made the most sense, and I think all three, or at least parts of them, will come up in the movie.

Still, I kind of think the glitches, codes and timestamps may just have been effects for the trailers and may not mean much, because the Russos have used cryptic teases before that did not really amount to anything. I hope that is not the case and that they do mean something. But I would not put it past them to just be getting us to talk, which is clearly working, because this is all anybody is talking about right now.

Which of these three theories do you think the Russo brothers were really hinting at, or were the clues just clever hype?