Avengers: Doomsday is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is intended to be the sequel to Avengers: Endgame (2019) and the 39th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, and written by Michael Waldron, Stephen McFeely, and the writing team of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the film features an ensemble cast led by Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. In the film, the Avengers, Wakandans, New Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men converge from different universes to face Doom.
Following the announcement of Downey's casting and other details at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in July 2024, several unique marketing stunts were used for Doomsday. Many cast members were announced as part of a nearly five-and-a-half-hour-long livestream in March 2025 which became the most viewed cross-platform livestream stunt. Four short teasers premiered in theaters ahead of showings for the film Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025), including one that revealed the return of Chris Evans in his MCU role of Steve Rogers. These teasers were leaked upon their debuts, which Marvel had expected, and were officially released online soon after. The first full trailer debuted at CinemaCon in April 2026, and was met with mixed responses when it was released online in July. A "special look" focusing on Doom received more positive responses when it was released in August, after being shown at SDCC 2026 and Disney's D23 convention. A common element of the teasers and trailers is a clock counting down to the film's release on December 18, 2026.
Initial convention announcements
At San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in July 2022, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced the crossover films Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. They were set to conclude "The Multiverse Saga", which covers Phases Four, Five, and Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The first film was inspired by "Kang Dynasty", a 2001–02 comic book storyline written by Kurt Busiek in which Kang the Conqueror travels through time to enslave humanity. The second film was inspired by Secret Wars, a 1984–85 comic book crossover event written by Jim Shooter, and "Secret Wars", a 2015–16 comic book storyline written by Jonathan Hickman; both follow various Marvel Comics characters who converge on the planet Battleworld. Jonathan Majors was cast as Kang for several Phase Four projects, and was confirmed to be starring in both new Avengers films, but he was later fired by Disney and Marvel after he was found guilty of harassment and reckless assault in the third degree. By late 2023, the films were being reworked to minimize Kang's role or remove him entirely.
At SDCC in July 2024, Marvel announced that The Kang Dynasty had been renamed Avengers: Doomsday. Both films were set to be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and co-written by Stephen McFeely, all returning from previous MCU films including the last two Avengers films, Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Additionally, Robert Downey, Jr.—who starred as Tony Stark / Iron Man in "The Infinity Saga", covering the MCU's Phases One, Two, and Three—was announced to be portraying the new main antagonist, Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom. The announcement involved multiple people appearing on stage dressed as Doom, including Downey who unmasked himself to reveal his casting to the audience. The reunion of Marvel Studios, Downey, and the Russo brothers was considered by industry insiders to be a return to what had worked in the past and a "perfect combination of timing and everyone being on the same page". Release dates for the two films were set later, with Doomsday scheduled for release on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars on December 17, 2027.
Downey's casting led to speculation about whether his Doom is an alternate universe "variant" of Stark, or if the films would ignore his previous role. Stark and Doom have swapped bodies in the comics, and Doom takes on the Iron Man mantle in the 2016–17 Infamous Iron Man comic book series by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. Kat Bailey at IGN described the announcement of Downey's casting as "one of the most dramatic reveals in recent Marvel history". She reported on mixed responses from fans, with some praising Downey's return while others thought it was a desperate move from Marvel Studios following Majors's firing. Charles Pulliam-Moore of The Verge saw the casting as "Marvel betting that it might be able to win audiences back with another massive cinematic event built around a person whose face and voice have long since become synonymous with Iron Man". Other commentators discussed the casting and mixed responses, including Collider Collier Jennings who criticized the casting of a non-Romani actor considering the character is traditionally depicted as Romani in the comic books.
Cast livestream and 2025 conventions
Coinciding with the start of production on Doomsday in March 2025, Marvel used a nearly five-and-a-half-hour-long livestream to announce 26 more cast members for the film. Many of those actors returned from previous MCU media and some were reprising their roles from 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series. The livestream featured a line of director's chairs with an actor's name on each one. A new chair was revealed approximately every 12 minutes, accompanied by music from a previous Marvel project that was relevant to that actor. After revealing all 26 cast members, the livestream ended with an appearance by Downey and a rendition of composer Alan Silvestri's Avengers theme.
Due to the characters announced in the livestream, Devin Meenan of /Film thought Doomsday could be adapting elements from the 2012 comic book crossover event "Avengers vs. X-Men" written by Bendis, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, and Hickman. He also felt elements of the 2010 limited series Doomwar, written by Jonathan Maberry, could be included. That comic depicts Doctor Doom invading Wakanda and features the X-Men. Austen Goslin of Polygon said the Russo brothers "might be biting off a little more than they can chew" with the large cast announced, including multiple X-Men film series actors. He was concerned that the film may "feel more like a puzzle designed to fit all these [characters] into place than like a film in its own right", and felt there may not be enough time to do justice to Doom.
The livestream saw around 100,000 concurrent viewers on YouTube, and an hour-over-hour audience growth, to become the most viewed cross-platform livestream stunt. It became the second-most trending video on YouTube with 275 million views in its first 24 hours, surpassing past livestreams for Marvel's red carpet premieres. The livestream also accumulated 3.1 million mentions across social media, which is five times higher than the "social volume" of the first trailer for the MCU film Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) which was released during Super Bowl LVIII. The livestream garnered 55 distinct trending terms on X (formerly Twitter), and the hashtag "AvengersDoomsday" was the top trending topic on the site for over seven hours. Numerous Internet memes were generated with each actor reveal. Anthony D'Alessandro of Deadline Hollywood described the stunt as a "pop cultural event". Variety Jordan Moreau and Brent Lang said it was a "slow-burn" and likened it to the release date reveal for the seventh season of Game of Thrones in 2017, which saw a block of ice melt to reveal the date; both stunts were "mocked for their pace". Goslin described the livestream as "agonizingly slow [but] exceedingly fun". He enjoyed checking the stream for each new reveal and seeing responses on social media. James Whitbrook of Gizmodo said the livestream's viewership spoke to Marvel's "ability to maintain much of that grip it's had on pop culture over the past almost 20 years". Tom Bacon at ComicBook.com discussed the livestream in March 2026, comparing it to a slow trailer rollout for the MCU film Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) and noting how both approaches were intended to "maximize engagement" throughout the day. The next month, Kathryn Newton referenced the livestream when announcing that she was reprising her role as Cassie Lang for Doomsday, posting a video to social media of a similar director's chair with her name on it.
The Russo brothers and Scott Lang / Ant-Man star Paul Rudd introduced footage from the film at Disney's Destination D23 event in August 2025. Disney's Merchandise Expo in China the following month featured concept art of Doom; a light show depicting Doom and logos for the film's heroic teams; and a recreation of a panel from the "Secret Wars" comic book storyline in which Doom rips out the skeleton of Thanos, the main antagonist of the Infinity Saga. In December, Doomsday was featured at Disney's Giornate Di Cinema Sorrento presentation in Italy. The announced cast was grouped into teams: the Fantastic Four comprises Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm / Invisible Woman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm / The Thing, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm / Human Torch, and Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic; the X-Men includes Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy / Beast, Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X, Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, Alan Cumming as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler, Rebecca Romijn as Raven Darkhölme / Mystique, and James Marsden as Scott Summers / Cyclops, all returning from Fox's X-Men films, and Channing Tatum as Remy LeBeau / Gambit from Deadpool & Wolverine; the New Avengers, introduced in the film Thunderbolts* (2025), features Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell as John Walker / U.S. Agent, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova / Black Widow, Lewis Pullman as Bob Reynolds / Sentry, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian, and Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr / Ghost; the "Heroic Avengers", led by Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson / Captain America, which includes Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Rudd as Ant-Man, Simu Liu as Xu Shang-Chi, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres / Falcon, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki; and the "Wakandan Warriors", which groups Letitia Wright as Shuri / Black Panther, Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor, and Winston Duke as M'Baku.
Short teasers