'Avengers: Doomsday' Now Has the Hype It Truly Needed, Thanks to 'VisionQuest' Stinger
The film's marketing mantra of "Doom, Doom, Doom!" was getting monotonous. And then [Spoiler] awoke.
"[NAME REDACTED], awaken.... Your power will be mine."
With those eight little words and the imagery that accompanied them, VisionQuest's second mid-credits scene gave the Avengers: Doomsday marketing machine the kick in the pants it very much needed, almost five weeks out from the MCU Phase Six film's arrival in theaters.
Matt Webb Mitovich
To be clear, Avengers: Doomsday has not been asleep at the promotional wheel; far from it. Rewinding back to July 2024 at San Diego Comic-Con, the Russo Brothers, who directed the 39th MCU film, announced with great fanfare that franchise front man Robert Downey Jr. would return to mix, but as the titular Doctor Doom. The crowd (and internet) went wild.
Eight months later, more than two dozen other members of the Doomsday cast were confirmed via that infamous, gradual, five-and-a-half hour (!) reveal of director's chairs with actor names on them.
Last December, Marvel started rolling out character-centric vignettes featuring fresh footage, and at this summer's Comic-Con we got the first of several proper trailers, teasing Avengers/X-Men/Fantastic Four meet-ups, demonstrating Doom's Stormbreaker-proof might, and showing Steve Rogers effortlessly waving Mjölnir in Thor's face. (Again.)
Matt Webb Mitovich
Here's the thing, though. We know that dozens of familiar faces will be involved in Doomsday, yet much of the promotional material — including several one-sheets — has focused squarely on Doom. (I started writing this before Empire's inevitable cover story dropped, or a controversially arranged group photo, below, started making rounds. Also, there's buzz a new, internet-breaking trailer is imminent.)
The Doom-centric marketing is understandable. After all, it is by his hand, through whatever crisis he conjurs, that three groups of powerful heroes will unite (and in part fall). But we don't know this Victor von Doom yet, nor does most anyone in the MCU, save for the Fantastic Four. Plus, RDJ's face is concealed by a mask, his voice now affecting an accent. Fun as the casting may be, we aren't "seeing" him in the posters/trailers.
If you're a Fantastic Four comics fan, there is built-in buy-in and excitement. I'm happy for you, sincerely. But for those more vested in the Avengers — the characters whose films to date have amassed nearly $8 billion at the box office — or the X-Men, there might be a bit of a disconnect. This is not a Thanos situation, where a very slow, steady build-up over multiple films culminated in an awaited showdown. Instead, there's a whiff of, "Hey, it's been well over six years since you have seen most of these people. Now we're gonna sic Doctor Doom on them!"
It's exciting to know we'll finally see Simu Liu's Shang-Chi again, ditto Tom Hiddleston's Loki and numerous OG X-Men (R.I.P, Sir Patrick Stewart). But those and many other returning characters have been very scarce in trailers, muffled by a marketing mantra of "Doom, Doom, Dooooom!"
Matt Webb Mitovich
Enter the VisionQuest finale and its second of two bonus scenes — in which MCU vet Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda "Scarlet Witch" Maximoff, last seen with Mount Wundagore collapsing atop her in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, was found and "awoken" by Doctor Doom.
As caught off guard as I and many peers were by said sequence (excluded from the screeners we were issued in early October), the "Surprise, everyone!" nature of the reveal was, inarguably, damn brilliant. It's all anyone socialed about late that night, and the conversation/theorizing continues hot and heavy as we speak, days later.
That's because we know Wanda, and many, many have greatly missed Olsen's sorceress – especially since she was done a bit dirty in Multiverse of Madness. With Iron Man Tony Stark and Black Widow Natasha Romanoff both long gone, Steve no longer wielding Cap's mighty shield, and Tom Holland not confirmed (yet?) to appear as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, a whole lotta Avengers DNA will be missing from Doomsday.
But with the reveal that Wanda is "awake" — and even more tantalizing, likely playing for "the other team" (perhaps as one of several Latverian Witches whose costumes were on display at SDCC) — there's now a new, big reason to storm the Cineplex come Dec. 18.
If any Avengers franchise fans were inclined to take a "wait and see" approach to this team-up film, revolving as it does around a villain that few of our Earth's heroes have encountered before, Marvel just closed the deal by confirming a crowd-pleasing resurrection, and in turn some truly bewitching confrontations to come.
