The Avengers: Doomsday trailer has only been seen by a lucky few at CinemaCon 2025, and the details that have emerged from those screenings are nothing short of jaw-dropping. New Rockstars’ Erik Voss, who watched the trailer twice at the event, has shared an exhaustive breakdown of every character, location, and team grouping he observed — and what he pieced together may just be the most coherent theory about the film’s overall plot structure that we have so far.
A Trailer Seen, Not Shared: The CinemaCon Exclusive
Marvel Studios has kept the Avengers: Doomsday trailer under wraps from the general public, but those who attended CinemaCon 2025 got an extraordinary first look. Among them was Erik Voss of New Rockstars, who was lucky enough to screen the trailer not once, but twice. Armed with meticulous notes from both viewings, Voss has pieced together a detailed account of the footage — breaking down every character on screen, every identifiable location, and the curious, mixed-up team configurations that have him theorizing about the film’s overall narrative structure.
The Factions of Avengers: Doomsday
What makes Doomsday particularly unique in the MCU’s long history of ensemble films is the sheer number of factions converging in a single story. According to what was seen in the CinemaCon trailer, the film will bring together the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers (classic lineup), the Thunderbolts (rebranded as the New Avengers), the Wakandans, and the Talokanil — all in the same movie. That is an unprecedented crossover of characters from across multiple corners of the MCU and even the broader Marvel multiverse.
Location 1: The Fantastic Four Ship and Avengers Tower Penthouse
The trailer opens with a shot of characters disembarking from the Fantastic Four’s ship. Coming off the vessel and walking through the Quinjet landing pad into the Avengers Tower penthouse — the same entrance shown in the Thunderbolts post-credits scene — are Reed Richards, Ben Grimm (The Thing), Johnny Storm (Human Torch), Susan Storm (Invisible Woman), and notably, Thor. The Fantastic Four are sporting newly redesigned suits, glimpsed in leaked costume test photos from January. Reed is described as wearing a white bomber jacket, while Johnny sports a pale blue bomber jacket — both looking spectacular.
What’s particularly notable is Thor’s presence here. It strongly implies that Thor was already traveling with the Fantastic Four on their ship before the Thunderbolts intercepted their signal in the post-credits scene of Thunderbolts*. HERBIE, the Fantastic Four’s beloved robot companion, would presumably also be on board.
The trailer then shows what appears to be the very next scene: a massive gathering inside the Avengers Tower penthouse. Every Thunderbolt is wearing exactly what they had on in the post-credits scene, indicating this council of heroes happens almost immediately after the Fantastic Four’s arrival. Present in this grand assembly are: Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Susan Storm, Thor (delivering the film’s dire central speech), Yelena Belova (Black Widow), John Walker (US Agent, still in his beret), Alexei Shostakov (Red Guardian, still wearing his new Avengers jumpsuit covered in product-placement logos), Bucky Barnes (in a new jacket with a red stencil star on the sleeve), Ava Starr (Ghost), Bob Reynolds (Sentry, sitting quietly behind the others near the windows, just as he was in the post-credits scene), and on the other side of the room facing them, Sam Wilson (Captain America), Scott Lang (Ant-Man), and Joaquin Torres (Falcon). The X-Men, Wakandans, and Talokanil are notably absent from this gathering.
Location 2: The X-Mansion — Where Factions Collide
This is where the trailer truly begins and where the bulk of the most striking action takes place. The X-Mansion serves as a key battleground and meeting point in Avengers: Doomsday, and the combination of characters present there is one of the most puzzling elements of the trailer.
X-Men present at the mansion include Professor X (seen looking out a window at the red, incursion-filled sky, and later holding hands with Magneto at the chessboard in the shot from earlier teasers), Magneto (also seen in similar shots from Teaser #3), Scott Summers / Cyclops (seen in the exterior blasting Sentinels and in a new interior shot warming up his optic blast in his visor), and Gambit played by Channing Tatum (looking exactly as he did in Deadpool & Wolverine, with arguably the coolest moves in the entire trailer). Also present and fighting with Gambit is Mystique, who is seen catching Yelena’s baton and shapeshifting into Yelena — she matches the leaked costume photos with short red hair and a blue and white top.
But it is the non-X-Men characters present at the mansion that are truly surprising. Reed Richards is on the lower level of the mansion with his arms stretched wide, appearing to hold back Sam Wilson while possibly Scott Lang or Joaquin Torres stands behind Reed. Yelena Belova is seen crouching beneath Reed’s arm, gun drawn, approaching Mystique while fighting her shapeshifted form. Sam Wilson / Captain America is seen both in the holding-back shot with Reed and in a close-up shot landing on the lower floor of the mansion. Shang-Chi also appears at the mansion, fighting Gambit on the upper interior level — a pairing no one predicted. Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian is also glimpsed in the shot where Gambit leaps down and slams his staff. And HERBIE, the Fantastic Four’s robot, is present as well. There is also either Joaquin Torres or Scott Lang visible in the scene (Voss believes it is more likely Scott Lang based on other context clues).
Location 3: The Exterior Battleground — Thor vs. Dr. Doom
Adjacent to the X-Mansion — though it may be something far more complex — is an exterior area covered in rubble, broken statues, and shattered chunks of what appear to be Sentinels. Based on aerial set photos from filming in the UK (via Unbox PhD), this area features steps leading up to the Westchester mansion, but on the other side is a curious curved structure. Voss speculates this could be the base of the Baxter Building, suggesting this exterior might be a multiversal chessboard of sorts — a physical manifestation of Doom’s vision for Battle World, created by merging chunks of the X-Mansion and Baxter Building, along with the gardens outside them.
This is the only location in the entire trailer where we see Dr. Doom himself. He lands here in dramatic fashion at the very beginning of the trailer. Cyclops is seen fighting Sentinels here in the exterior yard, which could be the same physical space. Most strikingly, this is where Thor engages Doom in combat, swinging Stormbreaker down on him — only for Doom to stop the blow with just two fingers. The implication is clear: this encounter is what terrifies Thor enough to inspire the dire speech he delivers later in the Avengers Tower penthouse. This harrowing defeat likely triggers everything that follows in the film’s plot.
Location 4: Talokan — The Dried Ocean Floor
One of the most visually arresting locations in the trailer is what appears to be the ocean floor of Talokan — but with the water pushed back like a parting of the Red Sea, exposing the ancient structures of the underwater kingdom to open air. Filmed on location in the deserts of Bahrain (which serve as the stand-in for the dried Talokan), this location revisits the kingdom we first saw in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Present in this extraordinary desert location are: Shuri (seen in earlier shots alongside M’Baku and the Dora Milaje, facing down Namor and his Talokanil warriors as he sits on his throne of megalodon jawbone, and later walking across the sand toward a handshake with Ben Grimm, and giving the Wakanda salute to Susan Storm), M’Baku (at Shuri’s side throughout), Namor (in the throne room shot and later flying at super speed across the desert landscape), Namora and Attuma (flanking Namor on his throne), Ben Grimm / The Thing (in the central handshake shot), Susan Storm / Invisible Woman (walking beside Ben and later using her force field powers to hold back surging waves — and sharing an emotional hug with her brother Johnny), Johnny Storm / Human Torch (standing near Sue during the handshake), Bucky Barnes (walking behind Ben Grimm), Ava Starr / Ghost (walking near Bucky), and Joaquin Torres / Falcon (confirmed to be here, walking behind Bucky — which is why Voss believes it is Scott Lang, not Joaquin, who appears in the X-Mansion scene). Notably, Anthony Mackey (Sam Wilson) and Simu Liu (Shang-Chi) also reportedly joined the Bahrain shoot, though Voss did not clearly spot either of them in these specific desert trailer shots.
Location 5: The Unknown Ship — Steve Rogers Returns
The final major shot of the trailer is also perhaps its biggest bombshell. Set aboard some unknown vessel with circular portals — possibly a ship — we see Thor beginning this scene carrying both Stormbreaker and Mjolnir. Then, in a moment fans have been waiting years for, Mjolnir leaves Thor’s hand and flies directly into the grasp of Steve Rogers — the original Captain America, played by Chris Evans, back in the MCU.
Steve’s appearance matches the leaked January costume photos: he is wearing modern clothes, has long hair, and sports a neatly trimmed beard. He looks like a man out of time who has been living quietly somewhere. And behind Steve Rogers in this shot is Johnny Storm / Human Torch. This may be the same ship featured in a behind-the-scenes set photo that showed Evan Mosbach (Ben Grimm), Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres), and Wyatt Russell (John Walker) together on what was clearly a ship set, with a possible fourth figure. Steve Rogers’ return to the MCU is unquestionably one of the most anticipated reveals in the history of the franchise, and this is how Marvel chose to introduce it.
Also separately shown is Scott Lang at what Voss describes as an unidentified home location, sharing a tender moment with his daughter Cassie Lang — with actress Katherine Newton confirmed to appear in the film.
The Theory: Three Colliding Worlds and Why the Heroes Are Split Up
So what does all of this mean? Voss has assembled his notes into what he believes is the most plausible overarching plot theory for the film. Here is the breakdown:
The three colliding worlds in Avengers: Doomsday are Earth-616 (the main MCU), Earth-838 (the Fantastic Four’s universe), and Earth-10005 (the X-Men’s universe). Rather than being separated by vast cosmic distances, Voss theorizes these three universes are converging in a literal incursion event — close enough that characters with the power of flight (like Thor) can navigate between them, and atmospheric rifts allow one universe’s buildings and structures to be visible from another. Think of it as a 3D Venn diagram in space, where three planets are sharing an increasingly overlapping atmosphere.
The X-Mansion footage, Voss believes, is actually shown from two different points in the film’s timeline. First, there is an early incursion event where Sentinels attack the mansion and Cyclops fights them in the exterior yard — possibly the same yard where Thor then battles Dr. Doom for the first time and suffers a humiliating defeat. This encounter, and the red skies of incursion visible outside the mansion windows, sends Professor X and Magneto into a state of alarm. It may also be the same time that something significant happens to New Jersey, a location Kevin Feige himself confirmed will feature prominently in the film.
Shaken by his defeat, Voss theorizes that Thor retreats to Earth-838 and the Baxter Building, where he meets and bonds with the Fantastic Four. The cast of The Fantastic Four: First Steps mentioned in an interview with Collider that certain iconic Avengers characters would be joining them on their Baxter Building couch in Doomsday — and Voss believes they were talking specifically about Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. Thor and the Fantastic Four then travel together in the FF’s ship to Earth-616’s Avengers Tower — which is what the Thunderbolts see arriving in their post-credits scene.
The Three Mission Groups: A Plan to Reverse the Incursions
After the grand council in the Avengers Tower penthouse, where the heroes learn of the incursion threat from Reed Richards (who explains that three worlds are colliding), the heroes split into at least three distinct groups, each assigned a different mission using what Voss calls Reed tech — a scientific approach to reversing and repelling the universes away from each other.
Group A — The X-Mansion Team: This group travels to Earth-10005, the X-Men’s universe. It includes Yelena Belova, Alexei / Red Guardian, Sam Wilson / Captain America, Shang-Chi, Reed Richards, HERBIE, and likely Scott Lang. Their destination is the X-Mansion, where they run into resistance from Mystique and Gambit. Voss believes Reed’s plan involves using Cerebro — the X-Men’s telepathic amplification device — to help execute whatever Reed tech is required to reverse the incursion from Earth-10005’s side. This second visit to the mansion is what we see as the major battle sequence, which is distinct from the earlier Sentinel attack. It is also here that Kelsey Grammer’s Beast and Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler are expected to appear, as it has been reported that Nightcrawler fights Reed Richards in this scene.
Group B — The Talokan Team: This group travels to Talokan, the underwater kingdom exposed by the dried ocean floor. It includes Ben Grimm / The Thing, Susan Storm / Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm / Human Torch, Bucky Barnes, Ava Starr / Ghost, and Joaquin Torres / Falcon, with John Walker possibly tagging along. Their mission is to meet Shuri, M’Baku, Namor, and the Talokanil, and likely to harness the mysterious solar energy that was glimpsed glowing from Talokan in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — using it in coordination with whatever Reed and the X-Mansion team are doing on the other universe.
Group C — Thor and Steve Rogers: The third and most secretive group appears to be just two people: Thor and the returned Steve Rogers. Based on Chris Hemsworth’s stunt double’s Instagram posts, there is a significant scene at the TVA (Time Variance Authority) in Avengers: Doomsday involving Thor. Tom Hiddleston is also confirmed to be in the film as Loki, though he has not appeared in any trailer footage yet. Voss believes Thor and Steve believe that Dr. Doom’s next target is the TVA, where Loki — now the God of Stories holding together the entire sacred timeline and multiverse — is stationed. If Doom can absorb or strip Loki of those multiverse-governing powers, there would be no stopping him. Voss also believes the trio may be taking Sentry (Bob Reynolds) with them as a supposed secret weapon — only for Doom to ultimately turn Sentry against them, using him as Doom’s own ultimate weapon.
What We Still Don’t Know: The Missing Pieces
Despite the granular detail Voss was able to capture from two screenings, there is a great deal that remains unknown. Several major confirmed cast members were not visible or accounted for in the trailer footage. Most notably, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has not appeared yet — though his role is anticipated to be pivotal. Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel is also not yet accounted for, though a recent interview moment with Andy Circus has sparked speculation that she is in the film, which would make it more likely that Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel and Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau are also present somewhere in the story.
Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) and Beast (Kelsey Grammer) have not appeared in any trailer shots Voss took notes on — though they are confirmed to have key roles, including the Nightcrawler vs. Reed Richards fight. And Shang-Chi’s full role remains unclear beyond the brief X-Mansion appearance, as does the full extent of Namor’s involvement and whether he will serve as ally or threat.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on May 1, 2026. With the Russo Brothers back at the helm and a cast list that makes Avengers: Endgame look modest by comparison, the film is shaping up to be the most ambitious Marvel Studios production ever attempted.
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