Avengers: Doomsday Cinemacon Presentation Promises More Heroes

Movies

Cinemacon is running in Las Vegas this week, with Hollywood studios giving movie theater owners a taste of what to expect in the coming months and years. Marvel was there, of course, and since the footage they showed is unavailable to the public (as it is with almost everything shown at Cinemacon – except for Superman), there isn’t much to talk about. Most of the details about this year’s Marvel offerings, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, are stuff we already know, but Kevin Feige did give some interesting information about Avengers: Doomsday, the next Avengers movie that will arrive in theaters on May 1, 2026. According to ComicBookMovie.com, Feige confirmed via a pre-taped video recording that the cast reveal from last week was not complete, and more Marvel heroes (and villains?) will appear in the film, something Chris Gore and Gary from Nerdrotic reported after the announcement video. He also said Doomsday would be about “the Avengers, Wakandans, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, and original X-Men all fighting Doctor Doom.”

We can extrapolate who the new Avengers are supposed to be from the Avengers: Doomsday Cinemacon presentation because, according to Feige, they do not include the Thunderbolts, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, or the Wakandans. That means it’ll be Sam Wilson, Shang-Chi, the grating new Falcon, Ant-Man, and returning OG Avenger Thor. Wow, what a lineup; it has “event movie” written all over it. Not that any of the other characters would have made it much better, but geez, not even Bucky? This makes me think they’re trying to replicate the feel of Infinity War, with several different groups of heroes fighting the villain in different places and for different reasons, at least to an extent; obviously, everyone wanted to save the world in Infinity War, but the Guardians wanted Gamora back, Thor wanted to avenge his friends and family, Iron Man wanted to stop Thanos before he got to Earth, and Captain America wanted to mount a defense on Earth. I could see them doing something similar in Doomsday, with the X-Men looking for a way back to their dimension, Thor seeing the cosmic implications from wherever he is now, Sam Wilson and the Thunderbolts being ordered in by the government and whoever Valentina Allegra de Fontaine represents, etc. If this is what they’re going for, it’s kind of lazy to copy Infinity War’s structure and act like you had some creative epiphany for how to make this work (like in Elf: “Hire Miles Finch!”). But my expectations for this crew are so low that I barely even care as long as something halfway watchable comes out of it. I am amazed at what they’ll copy and what they won’t, though; like, don’t copy the structure of Daredevil for Daredevil: Born Again, but do copy Infinity War for Doomsday, where you have the opportunity to do something different. But that’s assuming this is the plan, which it may not be.

The other interesting part of the Avengers: Doomsday Cinemacon presentation is Feige saying that the known cast list is incomplete. That makes sense, as this is a pretty lame group of Avengers, with the coolest inclusions by far being the X-Men, who are all in their 50s or above and are probably here primarily for nostalgia purposes. (That doesn’t mean I don’t like them, just that I’m not convinced Marvel will treat them like actual characters.) It also gels with Daniel Richtman’s report that some big names were left out of the announcement stream because their contracts haven’t been signed yet. So, who else will be in Doomsday? I think the Fox X-Men cast will fill out, so we’ll almost certainly have Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, and, of course, Hugh Jackman. I also think Ryan Reynolds will be in it, probably enacting that scene with Thor that was teased in Deadpool & Wolverine. On the MCU side, I believe Tom Holland will be absent from this one because he’ll be filming The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day while Doomsday is in production. Benedict Cumberbatch will probably be in it (unless they’re stupid enough to leave out the Sorcerer Supreme – no, it’s not Wong, no matter what they say – in a big event film where Doctor Doom is the villain). And I have to think Mark Ruffalo will be involved because the Hulk is one of the last of the original Avengers, and there are rumors that Smart Hulk is finally going bye-bye, and Savage Hulk (or, you know, the Hulk people actually like) is making his big comeback. I also think Chris Pratt and – sorry, but don’t shoot the messenger – Brie Larson will be there. But who knows? Until they make some announcements, it’s all up in the air, although since they start shooting Doomsday this month, I don’t think it will be long till we find out who else is taking on Doctor Doom.

Let us know what you think of the Avengers: Doomsday Cinemacon presentation in the comments!

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