Avengers: Doomsday trailer’s biggest moment is a bust — not the pop we wanted

Marvel's gone and dropped the first proper trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, and, as ever, tickets are up for grabs immediately. You'd think that's enough to send the internet into one of its usual meltdowns, but the reaction this time is a bit... complicated. Marvel's last few years have been, let's say, less 'heroic saga', more 'herding cats'. They tried to set up Kang the Conqueror as the next Thanos-sized threat, but that plan unravelled after Jonathan Majors got hit with allegations that saw the studio throw out the villain, scrap reams of backstory, and bring in the Russo brothers to direct the next two Avengers films. In the middle of that drama, they've pulled Robert Downey Jr. back, except this time he's not Iron Man, he's the main villain: Doctor Doom.

Big Returns, Big Shrugs

So after months of 'leaks', wild Reddit guesses, and everyone describing grainy phone footage from Comic-Con, we've finally seen the real trailer. It dials up the crossover madness—characters from wildly different corners of Marvel all packed together, which you can see is meant to look like the biggest playground ever. But it's the climactic reveal that's grabbed most of the conversation: Chris Evans is back as Steve Rogers, and—here's the bit for the highlight reel—he calls Mjölnir (Thor's hammer, for those who lost interest after Endgame) to prove he's him.

'The new trailer, barely out, racked up 100,000 likes on a single screen-capped reaction.'

Only, this supposed 'cheer' moment has landed flat. Instead of jaw-dropping excitement, social media's response has been, as the youth say, mid at best. One tweet by 'The Green Kasey' on X got 100,000 likes for the simple caption: they 'feel nothing' about seeing Thor and Steve Rogers reunite. Goes to show, lethargy can go viral too.

Fans Split Over Steve's Comeback

And it's not just one person. Loads of replies and other tweets in the same vein—@CelticsAdam34 reckons Marvel have 'ruined Steve Rogers perfect ending for a last ditch nostalgia grab to mask the slop.' Another from @wandasattorney basically says they also felt zip. Fair to say, Avengers: Doomsday is not generating the tidal wave of buzz that made Endgame unmissable event cinema. Maybe that's because Steve got a perfectly tidy send-off in Endgame, so dragging him back messes up a narrative closure they already spent a decade earning. On the other hand, some are annoyed for different reasons: @RawbertBeef points out that Sam Wilson seems completely ignored. 'The lack of Captain America in this trailer, combined with the fact that Steve Rogers is the focal point, is incredibly disappointing. I really can't help but feel like he's being sidelined.'

Look, Chris Evans was the emotional core of the Avengers run, and the studio probably thought getting him back was a sure bet. But he and his character haven't been on screen anywhere near these new crossovers—Evans only showed up for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as someone entirely new in 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. The underlying problem: this trailer is all nostalgia, all the time. Instead of investing in new characters—think Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, or Simu Liu's Shang-Chi—the film seems obsessed with retreading old ground.

• Director: Joe and Anthony Russo
• Villain: Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom
• Major return: Chris Evans as Steve Rogers
• Current Captain America: Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson (not much to see in the trailer, though)
• Other franchise crossovers teased, but no proper spotlight yet for newer heroes like Shang-Chi

With a trailer so loaded with callbacks, there's a faint hope that Marvel is deliberately holding back the meatier roles for Mackie's Cap and Liu's Shang-Chi until the film itself. If not, it's just a lot more 'remember this?'—and clearly, not everyone remembers fondly.