Avengers: Doomsday is keeping us waiting for its first full trailer which was debuted exclusively at CinemaCon, where Kevin Feige also revealed that the upcoming Avengers: Endgame re-release will have new footage to act as "set-up" to Doomsday.
The exclusive trailer debut followed four teasers across Christmas which focused on different characters, including the return of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. We had thought The Mandalorian and Grogu release would lead to the trailer being released publicly, but that appears not to be the case.
The next Avengers movie is half of a double bill that will bring The Multiverse Saga to a close, but before we can even start thinking of Secret Wars, there's a lot that needs to be done with Avengers: Doomsday. Here's everything you need to know about Avengers: Doomsday.
Avengers: Doomsday release date – when can we expect Avengers 5?
Avengers: Doomsday will land in cinemas on 18 December 2026. That's a seven-month delay from the previous release date of 1 May 2026, which itself was a year delay from the original 2 May 2025 release.
The delay has also impacted Avengers: Secret Wars which will now land in cinemas on 17 December 2027 instead of 7 May 2027.
Like the Infinity War/Endgame double-bill, filming was planned to start on Avengers: Secret Wars pretty soon after Doomsday wrapped, but it's unclear if that's happened yet. "We're shooting them fairly back-to-back, it's a lot of work again, we may or may not survive, we'll see," Joe Russo confirmed in March 2025.
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Avengers: Doomsday trailer – watch the Avengers 5 trailers here!
As mentioned above, we've now had four teaser trailers for Avengers: Doomsday which centred on Steve Rogers, Thor, the X-Men and finally the Wakandans and (one of) the Fantastic Four.
We won't share them all again here, you can click on the various links in the paragraph above, but we will share the X-Men one again as it was the best of the four.
Following the release of the fourth (and so far final) teaser, the Russos complicated matters by saying they weren't actually trailers at all: "What you've been watching for the last four weeks… are not teasers. Or trailers. They are stories. They are clues… Pay attention."
If that wasn't confusing enough, Joe Russo then added: "Each one of those trailers is narrative information and it's all part of a larger story. So, I would argue that Doomsday has already started for you."
It's led to MCU fans wondering whether the teasers have edited out characters, which the MCU has a history with, or if a glitched time stamp at the end points to a specific moment during the time heist in Avengers: Endgame.
What we do know though is that a full trailer has been edited and is ready to be released online at some point soon (hopefully). The trailer debuted at CinemaCon on 16 April, but hasn't yet landed online. We thought it might be attached to The Mandalorian and Grogu in cinemas, yet that doesn't seem to be the case.
We hope we don't have to wait until Comic-Con in July as Marvel is confirmed to hold at panel at this year's event, but that might be what happens now.
Avengers: Doomsday cast – who is joining Robert Downey Jr in Avengers 5?
Let's start with the massive news. Robert Downey Jr has been confirmed to play iconic Marvel villain Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday.
We don't know exactly how it'll work yet, but it wouldn't be a surprise if this Doctor Doom comes from whatever world the upcoming Fantastic Four movie takes place in.
It remains to be seen if Victor Von Doom is a Tony Stark variant.
We had to wait until March 2025 for further official cast additions, but we now know thanks to a bunch of chairs that the following MCU stars are coming back for Avengers: Doomsday:
• Chris Hemsworth (Thor)
• Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman)
• Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America)
• Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes)
• Letitia Wright (Shuri/Black Panther)
• Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man)
• Wyatt Russell (John Walker/US Agent)
• Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Namor)
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing)
• Simu Liu (Shang-Chi)
• Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova)
• Kelsey Grammer (Hank McCoy/Beast)
• Lewis Pullman (Robert 'Bob' Reynolds/Sentry)
• Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres/Falcon)
• Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch)
• David Harbour (Red Guardian)
• Winston Duke (M'Baku)
• Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost)
• Tom Hiddleston (Loki)
• Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier/Professor X)
• Ian McKellen (Erik Magnus Lehnsherr/Magneto)
• Alan Cumming (Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler)
• Rebecca Romijn (Raven Darkhölme/Mystique)
• James Marden (Scott Summers/Cyclops)
• Channing Tatum (Remy LeBeau/Gambit)
• Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic)
The presence of the Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four casts aren't a surprise, given Feige confirmed they'd be in the Avengers movies at Comic-Con 2024, but the OG X-Men returns are the ones to get fans most excited.
We're still missing some major names that were widely expected to be in Avengers: Doomsday, such as Tom Holland's Spider-Man.
However, Downey Jr teased future cast announcements to come in March 2025, but nobody else has been announced yet. Unless you consider Chris Evans to be a 'new' announcement, given that his return was first reported in December 2024.
After those reports, Evans denied that he'd be back in the MCU. Of course, we now know that he was telling a bit of a lie. In April 2026, Evans teased that there is a "very real reason" why he's back in Avengers: Doomsday, but obviously didn't go into specifics.
Hayley Atwell has also been rumoured to return as Peggy Carter, but hasn't commented yet as of December 2025. Peggy Carter wasn't in the first teaser, yet it's a fair shout that she'll be back as it looks like Steve is in the same house he went back in time to in Avengers: Endgame to be with Peggy.
Benedict Cumberbatch is also confusing everybody, possibly on purpose, saying that Doctor Strange won't be in Avengers: Doomsday, although will be in "a lot" of Avengers: Secret Wars. Cumberbatch has since said that he is in Avengers: Doomsday, only days after his previous comments, so who knows.
Marvel fans think Downey Jr spoiled the return of Doctor Strange in an Easter-themed Instagram post in April 2026, along with the return of Spider-Man, but nothing official has been said yet.
Brie Larson teased fans in August 2024 that she knows "things" about her MCU comeback, but stopped short of confirming a return, while Ryan Reynolds has no idea if he'll be back as Deadpool and Tessa Thompson won't say either way.
Scarlett Johansson, meanwhile, has completely ruled out a return if you believe her. So has Mark Ruffalo, but we will be seeing him in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
But who will form the Avengers team in Avengers: Doomsday to take on Doctor Doom?
Sam Wilson is asked by Thaddeus Ross to restart the Avengers in Captain America: Brave New World. However, the movie ends with Ross imprisoned in The Raft, so it's unclear if whoever has taken over as US President will follow through on this.
A new twist has been thrown into the mix with Thunderbolts* which ends with the central team – Yelena, Red Guardian, Ghost, John Walker and Bucky – rebranded by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine as The New Avengers.
They're still in this position in the post-credit scene of Thunderbolts* which takes place 14 months after the events of the movie. However, Wilson has filed for copyright of the name, so perhaps Doomsday will feature more than one Avengers team.
At a Disney event in December 2025, it was seemingly confirmed that the other Avengers team would consist of Captain America, Thor, Shang-Chi, Falcon, Ant-Man and, surprisingly, Loki.
Perhaps there could even be three Avengers teams as it seems the MCU has been working to set up the Young Avengers.
Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop joined the MCU in the Disney+ show Hawkeye and since the TV shows are now part of the universe in a bigger way than before, it could mean they're all paving the way for the team to be introduced.
Steinfeld reprised her role at the end of The Marvels and Kamala Khan certainly looked to be setting up the Young Avengers, so they could well have a part to play in the next Avengers movie. Iman Vellani might have been accidentally confirmed for the new movie, so this could strengthen the Young Avengers theory.
Behind the scenes, Joe and Anthony Russo took over from original director Destin Daniel Cretton, who left the movie in November 2023. Stephen McFeely has written the script, taking over from Jeff Loveness, but Michael Waldron is also helping on Doomsday's script. The pair will also be writing Avengers: Secret Wars.
Avengers: Doomsday plot – what will Avengers 5 be about?
Even with the cast announcement and teasers, we're still no clearer what Doomsday will be about, but Joe Russo has teased in March 2025 that they found a "very radical" way into the story which will "challenge audiences".
He followed this up in May 2026 by saying: "What Marvel's done better than anybody in history is that serialised storytelling, at scale. And Doomsday is a complete reinvention, it's another swing.
“I don't think the audience is expecting it at all, what happens in the movie, and its tone and its subject matter. But I'm hoping it feels like another profound shift for them in that serialised story."
Ebon Moss-Bachrach has also teased that it's "tragic", so make of that what you will. Fans already fear that Thor will die after a tribute video that Chris Hemsworth reposted in May 2025. On a less emotional note, Tom Hiddleston hyped it up in May 2026 by calling it "magnificent" and "extraordinary".
All we really know is that it'll set up Secret Wars, and Captain America: Brave New World's credit scene certainly points to that storyline from the comics where different worlds' Earths are pitted against each other.
The post-credit scene of Thunderbolts* also saw The Fantastic Four's space craft enter the orbit of the 'main' MCU universe.
We didn't get any more information about this in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but we did get the first look at Doctor Doom, confirming he's likely come from their universe (Earth-828) and not the 'main' MCU universe (Earth-616).
Avengers: Doomsday is released in cinemas on 18 December 2026.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
Gabriella Geisinger is a freelance film critic and journalist, with a focus on J-drama & film, and the Japanese production industry. She was previously Locations Editor at Screen International and Deputy Movies Editor at Digital Spy. Her writing can also befound in Curzon, 1883, and more. A born and raised New Yorker, she loves coffee and the colour black, obviously.
