Marvel Just Put Doctor Doom Above Everyone in the New ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Art
Marvel dropped fresh Avengers: Doomsday concept art over the weekend, and the composition tells you everything about where this movie is headed. Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr., towers over the entire cast. The Avengers, the New Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and a returning batch of X-Men are all arranged beneath him.
Marvel unveiled the art at the Bilibili World Expo in Shanghai on July 12, and it’s the clearest official look yet at RDJ’s villain turn.
Downey as Doom, front and center
This is the image fans have been waiting for. Downey, who spent a decade as Iron Man, is back in the MCU as Victor von Doom, and the art leans all the way into it. His metal mask, dark green cloak, and a blue magical glow dominate the whole composition.
Putting Doom physically above every hero on the poster isn’t subtle. It’s Marvel telling you who the movie belongs to, and it’s a bold swing to hand its biggest returning star a villain role instead of a hero.
The cast is enormous
The scale of this thing is the other headline. Avengers: Doomsday is stacking heroes from nearly every corner of the MCU into one film.
The confirmed lineup includes Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, and Florence Pugh as Yelena. The Fantastic Four are folded in, with Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the Thing, and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm. Add Sebastian Stan’s Bucky, Letitia Wright’s Black Panther, Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, Tenoch Huerta’s Namor, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Winston Duke’s M’Baku, Lewis Pullman’s Sentry, and more.
The X-Men legends are back
For a lot of longtime fans, the real gasp is the mutants. Patrick Stewart is returning as Professor X and Ian McKellen as Magneto, reprising the roles that defined the original X-Men films more than 20 years ago.
Kelsey Grammer is back as Beast, and Hannah John-Kamen returns as Ghost. Marvel folding the classic X-Men into the main Avengers saga is the kind of multiverse crossover that used to only exist in fan edits.
What comes next
The reveal is a warmup. A full public trailer is expected around Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel on July 25, and that’s when the internet will really lose it. Avengers: Doomsday lands in theaters December 18.
For now, one image is doing a lot of work: RDJ back in the MCU, an army of heroes below him, and a release date that’s suddenly feeling very real.
If you follow big fandom moments, the Harry Potter series backlash has been another one people can’t stop arguing about. For more casting news and trailer drops, follow our Pop Culture section.
Doom on top, the whole MCU underneath. Marvel just showed its hand, and the trailer is two weeks away.
