By 
In the pages of Marvel Comics, Doctor Victor von Doom is a haughty villain who believes he deserves to rule the world, and he may be right. A master of both magic and science, Doom has conquered the Earth more than once, has become a god multiple times, and each time found it beneath him. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that Doom would also consider the Super Bowl, that celebration of crass Americanism, to be also beneath him.
Marvel Studios, however, doesn’t have the luxury of such selectivity. So the news that Marvel reportedly won’t be showing any trailers for Avengers: Doomsday during the Super Bowl has us all scratching our heads. The Super Bowl is easily the most watched television event of the year, and many Americans watch specifically for the commercials. Yet, Marvel has decided that they don’t need those eyeballs, which is just the latest in utterly bizarre decisions the House of Ideas has made when advertising Doomsday.
Doom Comes to Marvel
It all started with chairs. When Marvel announced the major cast members of Doomsday on March 26, 2025, we had already known that the company’s original plans had gone awry. While Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige always intended to end Phase Six with Avengers: Secret Wars, he initially planned for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to precede it. That movie, which was to be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, was to pit Marvel’s heroes against Kang the Conqueror, the new big bad who was introduced in the first season of Loki and in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
However, between news of horrible behavior by Kang actor Jonathan Majors going public and the generally tepid response to Marvel’s offerings in Phases Four and Five, the studio drastically changed course. Not only would it bring in Marvel’s most beloved villain from the comics, replacing Kang with Doctor Doom and The Kang Dynasty with Doomsday, but it would bring back all the old favorites to do it. Infinity War and Endgame helmers Joe and Anthony Russo would direct both Doomsday and Secret Wars, and Robert Downey Jr., who seemed to leave the MCU forever when Tony Stark died, would play Victor Von Doom.
It sure seemed like Marvel was going to play it safe, fall back on all the ‘member berries from when they were the biggest thing in pop culture just a few years ago, and give the people what they want.
Marvel Takes a Seat
But the studio’s marketing for Doomsday has been anything but safe. Again, look back at the way they announced the cast: a video lasting one minute and forty-seven seconds, featuring nothing but actors’ names on the back of chairs (plus an appearance by Downey Jr.), stretched out over several hours.
Just as strange have been the actual trailers that have been released for Doomsday. Three trailers, each attached to a Thursday showing of Avatar: Fire and Ash, none of which dealt explicitly with the plot of the movie. The first revealed that Chris Evans was back as Steve Rogers, and that he had a son. The second reminded everyone that Thor adopted a daughter in Love and Thunder. The third promised that Professor X and Magneto would die on screen… again. And the fourth showed the Thing from the Fantastic Four paling around with Black Panther and M’Baku.
Muddying the waters even further are all of the reports coming from the set, official or otherwise. The leaks from Doomsday have been particularly egregious, as all these insiders rush to YouTube and Reddit to share something they’ve heard about Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man fighting Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and plenty of AI-created photos get disseminated, leading to confusion among fans. Further, we’re hearing credible reports that the script for the movie hasn’t even been finished, and comments from actors involved with the project suggest that they don’t know the overall story, but you’ve got the Russos themselves being cryptic. It’s not just them posting a blurry “A” to Instagram; it’s also saying that the teasers are “clues” and urging fans to “pay attention.”
“Pay attention to what?,” you might ask. And you won’t get an answer.
Thus far, the ramp-up to Doomsday has been a lot of bluster with very little pay off. Marvel is acting like it did during the height of its popularity, when it could put out a middling project like Doctor Strange and people would still rush to the theaters to watch it. As the lukewarm response to even really good entries like Loki season two and Thunderbolts* has demonstrated, the general audience doesn’t have Marvel fever anymore, and they aren’t going to show up just because it has a red logo on it.
A Bad Idea from the House of Ideas
Marvel’s hubris with Doomsday is particularly disheartening because they actually do have a really good entry out right now. Wonder Man has surprised critics and fans alike, and not just because it keeps its superheroics to the side. Wonder Man reminds us that we really like to watch compelling characters hanging out in a fantastic world, even if they’re just going on movie auditions, even if they’re eating shawarma.
With a cast that includes faves like Thor and Steve Rogers and big names like Doctor Doom, Avengers: Doomsday certainly could put characters back at the center of the MCU. But everything about the lead-up to Doomsday feels like Marvel’s not even bothering. It’s acting like we’re going to show up for a movie just because it’s Marvel and just because RDJ and Chris Evans are in it.
Hopefully, this is all just mishandled marketing and Doomsday will actually be a worthwhile movie. Because if the movie is trash, and they’ve refused to market it well, then Doomsday will be more dangerous to the Marvel Universe than anything that Doctor Doom could imagine.
Avengers: Doomsday releases on December 18, 2026.
The post Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday Marketing Continues to Baffle appeared first on Den of Geek.
