Forget “I am Iron Man.” He is Doctor Doom. Ahead of its star-studded panel at San Diego Comic Con, Marvel Studios dropped the latest trailer for its newest superhero jamboree, Avengers: Doomsday, which features the first footage of erstwhile Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr., as Victor Von Doom, a new supervillain who puts the Avengers through their paces. While Downey notably doesn’t speak in this new teaser, we do get an instant sense of his menace.
Expanding on a trailer that was previously screened at CinemaCon in April, this two-and-a-half minute spot is narrated almost entirely by Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, who warns his allies — both old and new — that they’re up against a force even stronger than Thanos.
“I fought with many warriors in my time,” the Asgardian warrior says. “They were far stronger than all of us put together, and they died. They died facing enemies and threats that scared me far less than this one.”
The trailer also features such superhero meet-ups as Channing Tatum’s Gambit trading blows with Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, and Florence Pugh’s Black Widow fighting herself in the form of Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique from the now-defunct 20th Century Fox X-Men universe. But there are also gentler encounters, like the Fantastic Four shaking hands with the warriors of Wakanda. The trailer climaxes with another major return — Chris Evans’s Steve Rogers greets Thor and proves his identity by grasping Mjölnir without breaking a sweat.
Expect many of the stars who appear in this trailer to take the Hall H stage at SDCC as Marvel rallies the troops for Doomsday, due in theaters on Dec. 18.
Watch the trailer above and read on for everything we know about Avengers: Doomsday
The Backstory
The MCU has lost its footing in recent years with a run of films and shows that have largely been received with a shrug. For Doomsday, the studio decided to pull out all the stops, bringing back the top two Avengers stars in Evans and Downey, and Disney also coaxed back directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who, like Evans and Downey, had seemingly quit their Marvel gigs following the epic Avengers: Endgame. Downey’s Stark had sacrificed himself to defeat Thanos and Evans’ Rogers had handed over the Captain America shield to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) time-traveled off into apparently retirement with longtime love Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).
Hiring back the older heroes came after Marvel’s original plan for the next Avengers assembly, subtitled The Kang Dynasty, was scrapped after Jonathan Majors, who was set to play that film’s eponymous villain, was fired following a high-profile arrest and conviction for attacking his former girlfriend.
The Logline
So far Marvel is keeping the official synopsis under wraps. There have been rumors that the film is based on the 2015 version of the Secret Wars event, which brought together heroes from across dimensions to battle alien invaders called the Beyonders. Along the way, Doctor Doom acquires the aliens’ god-like powers and it takes the collective might of the heroes to defeat him.
Avengers: Doomsday serves as the first of a two-part conclusion to the MCU’s current multiverse saga. The film’s sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, follows in 2027.
The Cast
The hype for Avengers: Doomsday kicked into gear on March 26, 2025, when Marvel rolled out the cast during a five-hour and 23-minute live stream. All told, 27 actors were announced as participants, culminating with Downey appearing in person (the only cast member to do so). More than 10 million viewers watched the live stream on the social media platform X, and countless more watched it on YouTube.
Among the actors confirmed to appear in the next Avengers film who previously starred in the Infinity Saga series of interconnected movies that ended with Avengers: Endgame are Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America), Letitia Wright (Shuri/Black Panther), Winston Duke (M’Baku), and Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier).
Several actors from Phase Four and Phase Five Marvel films will also appear in Avengers: Doomsday, including Thunderbolts stars David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), FPugh (Yelena Belova), Wyatt Russell (John Walker/U.S. Agent), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost), and Lewis Pullman (Bob, a character who allegedly is Sentry despite some subterfuge in the marketing so far); Fantastic Four: The First Steps actors Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing), and Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/The Human Torch); Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings lead Liu (Shang-Chi); Captain America: Brave New World star Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres/Falcon); and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever antagonist Tenoch Heurta Mejia (Namor).
Most surprisingly, several former X-Men actors will also appear: Alan Cumming (Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler), Ian McKellen (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier/Professor X), Romijn (Raven Darkhölme/Mystique), James Marsden (Scott Summers/Cyclops), and Kesley Grammer (Hank McCoy/Beast). All played significant roles in the original X-Men franchise, which was absorbed into Marvel when Disney acquired 20th Century Fox.
Thus far, only Stewart and Grammer have appeared in Marvel Cinematic Universe productions since the merger, with Stewart playing an alternate universe version of Professor X in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Grammar appearing briefly in the post-credits scene for The Marvels alongside Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau) and Lashana Lynch (Maria Rambeau/Binary). Stewart will likely have to play yet another iteration of Professor X, since the multiverse version from Doctor Strange was killed by Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen, who announced earlier this year that she wouldn’t be back for Doomsday). Doomsday will mark the Marvel Cinematic Universe debuts for McKellen, Cumming, Marsden, and Romijn.
Another X-Men adjacent actor, Tatum, who played Gambit in Deadpool and Wolverine, will also appear.
Despite the starry presentation and murderer’s row of talent, several key Marvel actors were not announced as part of Avengers: Doomsday, including Evans, X-Men stars Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry, Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds, and Marvel stalwarts like Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk), Benedict Cumberbatch (Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange), Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), and Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel).
The Trailers
A series of individual teasers highlighting specific characters will be rolling out in the coming weeks. Marvel began, appropriately enough, with the First Avenger, releasing the Steve Rogers trailer online on Dec. 23.
Soundtracked by the Avengers main theme, the clip — which was officially released in front of Avatar: Fire and Ash screenings on Dec. 18 but had leaked online earlier — features Evans’ motorcycle-riding character pulling up to a bucolic farm. He enters the house, checks his star-spangled costume, and then admires a newborn. The preview ends with the text “Steve Rogers will return for Avengers: Doomsday” as a countdown clock begins ticking towards the Dec. 18, 2026 release. Watch below:
The Thor teaser followed on Dec. 30, revealing glimpses of Hemsworth’s Asgardian with his daughter Love (“a life untouched by the storm) and then in a field addressing his fallen father, Odin, asking for the strenght “to fight once more, defeat one more enemy, and return home to her.”
The X-Men-themed teaser debuted on Jan. 6, features Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and James Marsden returning as their mutant alter egos Professor X, Magneto, and Cyclops, respectively.
“Death comes for us all,” McKellen says at the top of the somber 69-second clip, which unfolds largely in an apparently long-abandoned version of Professor X’s once-vibrant mutant academy. “That’s all I know for sure. The question isn’t, ‘Are you prepared to die?’ The question is: ‘Who will you be when you close your eyes?'” At that point, we see Xavier clasp the hands of an elderly Magneto, suggesting that the two friends-turned-foes have made peace once more.
We then jump to a scene of Marsden ripping off Cyclops’s protective eyewear and unleashing the full might of his eye blasts.
The Wakanda-Fantastic Four teaser arrived on Jan. 13.
Oscar prospects
Since Iron Man launched the MCU in 2009, the franchise has racked up 27 Academy Award nominations, winning four (three for Black Panther, and one for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). Three Avengers-specific films — The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) — were nominated for Best Visual Effects, which is where we’re guessing Doomdsay has its best shot.
The release date
The countdown is on — Avengers: Doomsday is slated to hit theaters Dec. 18, 2026.
This post was originally published on Dec. 23; it was updated on Jan. 6, Jan. 13 and July 20 with new trailers.
