The first full trailer for Avengers: Doomsday has been released this week, and it has plenty to show us. Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom easily thwarts an attack from Thor, Gambit battles Shang-Chi, Yelena Belova is unmasked as Mystique at one point before Yelena fights “Yelena,” Steve Rogers is back (with his beard!), Loki does some pondering, and there’s more besides. But in all the excitement, one quiet, key moment has the Fantastic Four, Thor, Ant-Man, and Sam Wilson standing around in the new Avengers watchtower with the Thunderbolts, all looking very serious.
At the end of the reformed gang’s underrated MCU movie last year, a post-credits scene saw them discussing a feud they were having with Wilson, who was apparently suing them for copyright infringement for using the Avengers name. They then detected the arrival of the Fantastic Four’s spacecraft coming in hot.
In that very post-credits scene, they were wearing exactly the same outfits as they are in the Doomsday trailer, including Red Guardian (David Harbour) in his hilarious copyright-dodging “Avengerzzz, with a ‘Z’!” head-to-toe “baby seal butt” suit and Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman) in his rather casual dressing gown and sandals.
This meeting of the minds in Doomsday then pulls the current MCU timeline a little tighter, suggesting these characters come together hours or even minutes after the events of Thunderbolts’ post-credits scene. Either way, very little time has passed—which makes total sense, because the Russo brothers filmed it on the set of Doomsday a month before Thunderbolts was even released.
When (or in what universe) some of the other scenes in the trailer are taking place will likely remain a mystery for a while, but one of the biggest questions we have about this specific Thunderbolts moment is how and why the Fantastic Four happened to run into Thor on their way to the Avengers’ world. Hey, since the Guardians of the Galaxy simply happened upon him floating in space wreckage during Avengers: Endgame, it feels like a chance meeting with the God of Thunder could happen to anyone at any moment!
Despite Thor’s mysterious team-up with Marvel’s first family, he’s the only OG Avenger in that room and seems to immediately be taking on the role of their de facto leader. With Thor leading them into battle, surely no one can stop them. That is, except Doom…
Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18.
