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• Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday teaser is coming, but let's remember the lesson taught by the Avengers: Infinity War trailer

If rumors are to be believed, the teaser trailer for Avengers: Doomsday is days away from release — indeed, if you believe one particular rumor, it’s already on Marvel’s YouTube account but no-one can see it — sparking speculation and excitement about what we’re about to see in our first glimpse at the big Marvel event of 2026.

I come, therefore, with one warning: Don’t believe everything you’re going to see in the teaser.

If that seems overly cynical, I want to remind you about the Avengers: Infinity War trailer from back in 2017. (Yes, eight years ago. We’re all old.) Rewatching it now, it’s a fun instruction in the kind of thing we should probably be expecting from the Doomsday teaser — essentially a tone poem for the movie, as opposed to a traditional trailer that introduces the plot of the movie in any meaningful way, with Thanos’s dialogue basically underscoring the “everything looks bad” intent while we watch familiar heroes look stressed as they fight for survival… and then there’s the group shot at the 1:59 mark of the assembled heroes running into action in Wakanda — which features the Hulk, whose absence from the movie is kind of a plot point throughout the whole thing. (Yes, I know Bruce Banner is there, but the Hulk isn’t. You know what I’m talking about.)

This isn’t the only time Marvel has doctored trailers to include characters who aren’t actually in the same scenes in the finished movie: the Thunderbolts* teaser trailer included Taskmaster in a group shot during the team’s confrontation with Valentina, even though the character was — spoilers! — dead by that point in the actual movie. It’s a fun way to deflect spoilers and keep fans guessing, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a lesson that everyone should remember when the Avengers: Doomsday teaser actually drops: don’t take everything you’re seeing onscreen too literally, because sometimes, misdirects are right there in front of your face.

Avengers: Doomsday will be released December 18, 2026. The Avengers: Doomsday trailer is expected at some point in the next few days.

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