Avengers: Doomsday World Series look hints at a threat over the Fantastic Four's Earth

Marvel Entertainment debuted a new special look at Avengers: Doomsday during Game 1 of the Major League Baseball World Series. It includes some new scenes, and I think there's a backstory to what we might be seeing in the baseball sequence. Tying a baseball scene that was shot for the movies, not for MLB, to the World Series is a clever and smart move. I'll go through it scene by scene.

The baseball scenes take place in the Fantastic Four's Earth 828, not real MLB

The look opens on Earth 828, a different universe from the main Avengers universe. The existence of the multiverse is one of the main themes of Avengers: Doomsday. It has been the theme of the Multiverse Saga, which you would expect given the name, and now Marvel is diving into it further with Doomsday and then Avengers: Secret Wars.

There are mainly going to be three universes in Doomsday. There's our main universe, Earth 616. There's Earth 828, the Fantastic Four's universe and most likely, although not confirmed, where Doctor Doom himself is from. And there's the X-Men universe, which we've seen in the other trailers. Earth 828 is a retrofuturistic world set in the 1960s or 1970s, depending on when they place it, but it has advanced tech because of Reed Richards.

The scene is at a baseball field. Some people are saying it was made for MLB, but no real MLB teams appear anywhere. You don't see Seattle, the Dodgers or the Brewers interacting with the Fantastic Four cast. Even the Thing has a "little sluggers" reference. This is the Fantastic Four's universe, and these scenes were shot either for a Fantastic Four: First Steps post credits scene we never saw, or for Avengers: Doomsday.

The ballpark may tie back to a Steve Rogers scene planned for Fantastic Four: First Steps

The reason I say it might have been for First Steps is that there's a story behind it. We had heard that originally there was supposed to be a scene showing Steve Rogers in the 828 universe. That connects to the Avengers: Endgame Encore re-release. In Endgame Encore, Steve goes back in time, but at the end Loki shows up and says, "I can help both of you." He looks around the corner, Steve comes out, and Loki moves Steve to the Fantastic Four's universe.

So Steve was supposed to be in that universe, and we were supposed to get a post credits scene showing Steve Rogers and his son in the crowd at a baseball field where the Fantastic Four were. That could be what they filmed. There was also a mysterious figure on set that nobody identified, and it was most likely Chris Evans filming that scene. So this could have been shot a long time ago, but it could also be a scene from Avengers: Doomsday.

There's a new exchange here too. Someone asks if Reed is going to drop the hammer, and the answer is, "Maybe if Thor was pitching."

Steve Rogers proves he is himself by lifting a still broken Mjolnir

Then we get a part of the trailer we've seen before, with the heroes appearing to be on the Fantastic Four's ship. When the Fantastic Four arrive in the main universe, Steve is on board with them because he has been living in their universe. That's how Steve ends up reuniting with the Avengers here. He proves he's still worthy to lift Mjolnir, which proves it really is him.

Holding up the hammer, Steve asks, "This doesn't bother you, does it?" The answer comes back, "You know it does," and Cap gives a little smile. Notice that Mjolnir is still broken. It's the same Mjolnir from Thor: Love and Thunder and from everything we've seen in the MCU so far, not an alternate hammer from a different point in time.

Sometimes trailers are deceptive, but in this case I do think they're being genuine. I think this goes back to Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Thor tells everyone they're simply not worthy and lifts the hammer like it's nothing after they all tried. Steve moved it slightly back then, and the Russo brothers later said retroactively that Steve was always worthy. He chose not to lift it to spare Thor's feelings, since Thor talks about how whoever lifts it wields the power of Thor and will rule Asgard. So Thor's a little bitter that he isn't the only one. Vision lifted it too, but he wasn't technically human, which makes Steve the one humanoid person you could say can lift it.

Ant-Man's "Right, Cap" moment shows Sam Wilson is still Captain America

Next there's a line about trusting Cap, met with the point that it depends which Cap you're talking about. Then we cut to Paul Rudd's Ant-Man saying, "Right, Cap," to Steve Rogers. Ant-Man is excited to see Steve again because he's a super fan. We saw that in Captain America: Civil War, and again in Avengers: Endgame in his scenes with the Wasp, where he talks about what they call Cap.

But Steve is not Captain America anymore. Chris Evans, who plays Steve Rogers, has said he's returning, yet Sam Wilson is Captain America. So when Ant-Man says "Right, Cap" to Steve, it gets awkward, and he backtracks to Sam: "I mean, right, Cap?" Sam is even looking at him as if to say he knows Steve's back, but he's still Captain America.

Sam has an Avengers team of his own, and he's Captain America on it. The new Falcon is behind him to the left and Shang-Chi is to his right. Marvel has already told us a new Avengers team was assembled, and we basically get introduced to it right when Doomsday begins, with more backstory to come. Many people online were wondering whether a blonde character in this shot could be Captain Marvel. I think it's clearly Yelena Belova, to be perfectly honest. It could be Bob, but I think I see earrings, so it's most likely Yelena.

Something in the sky over the ballpark could be Doom's ship or an incursion

Back at the ballpark, the crowd is still in its 1960s setting, with the tagline "four heroes, one historic field" and a field on fire for Johnny Storm. This was clearly shot for Doomsday or First Steps. Reed stretches his arm out to pitch to Johnny, but then he looks up because something is happening. It isn't the ball, because he's looking forward. Something is coming, a big threat.

That could be a ship from Doom if this is from Doomsday, or some big otherworldly threat. Maybe this was originally meant to show them seeing the Silver Surfer. It's unclear at this time. If it was shot for Doomsday, I'd say it's most likely Doom related. Doom's ship could be coming because he wants to visit the Fantastic Four.

We see the Thing, Reed and Johnny on the field, but no Sue at all. Maybe she's at home taking care of Franklin. Then Doctor Doom could pull up in a ship and teleport himself into the Baxter Building, while the others only see the ship come in and get close to the building. That could be what's happening here.

The other big option is an incursion. We know incursions are happening left and right, so they could see another planet start to appear, the start of an incursion with this universe. That could also be why Doom shows up at the Baxter Building, because he knows what's happening and goes to Reed to say they have to act fast.

My read on the story, and why Mjolnir is Cap's weapon

I'd say it's probably one of those two options, and probably a combination of both. I think another Earth probably appears and that's what Reed is looking at. Then Doom appears and talks to them. They have to figure out if there's an anomaly in their universe, and that's where they find Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter and their son. Then they go to the main Avengers universe, then the X-Men universe, and of course they realize Doom is the bad guy.

I do think this is probably for Doomsday. They filmed some scenes before, as I mentioned, but I think this was probably either filmed again or reused to show Doom's ship coming into play or an incursion.

I like the feel it gives us. There's awkwardness among the Avengers because Steve was Captain America, and Sam took over only because Steve left. If he never left, he'd still be Cap and Sam would still be Falcon. Now that Steve's back, it's a question of who's in charge. Steve doesn't have the shield, so he's using Mjolnir. We've seen Hot Toys figures of him using both, and I do believe he'll use both at some point, but Cap's main weapon in Doomsday is going to be Mjolnir.

This obviously isn't the final trailer, and we should get that pretty soon. But it looks great. It's great to go back to the Fantastic Four's universe, and seeing the Avengers interact, with Ant-Man and that awkwardness, was really great.