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By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Last year, something fairly embarrassing happened to Marvel. They had a big plan to release different teaser trailers for Avengers: Doomsday across a period of several weeks, each one premiering theatrically. The idea was to build hype for the upcoming blockbuster film and, ideally, get diehard fans to come to the theater each week to catch a new preview. Unfortunately, the trailers leaked early online, spoiling any real sense of surprise. Now, it’s happening again, but something much more significant has gotten leaked: actual footage from Doomsday showing Doctor Doom in action!
If you’re a Marvel fan looking for serious spoilers, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good spidernews is that I’m going to link you to the leaked footage and provide a breakdown of everything happening in it. The bad news is that you’ll likely need the breakdown because the footage is so pixilated it looks like a cutscene on the Atari 2600. As near as we can tell, though, it’s not AI, meaning that this is actually a scene (albeit one missing certain VFX) from the upcoming movie. If you’re ready to open your Christmas present early, keep reading to get your first real look at Avengers: Doomsday!
Marvel Leakers: Assemble!
You can view the leaked Avengers: Doomsday footage above. Sadly, there’s no sound, and the footage has more pixels than Tony Stark has Iron Man suits. Anyway, what happens in this trailer? It begins with Doctor Doom seemingly using either magic or technology to activate some Sentinels, the robot titans that frequently vex the X-Men. We then see Captain America and Thor getting ready to fight these mechanical mutant-hunters. Thor calls Stormbreaker, his now familiar weapon, to his hand. Meanwhile, in a crowdpleasing moment, Cap summons Mjolnir as his own weapon of choice.
Afterward, we see that these two heroes are not alone. The Avengers are there, with Sam Wilson leading them. There are also members of the Fantastic Four and the Thunderbolts, fellow heroes from the MCU. Fighting alongside them are members of the X-Men from the 20th Century Fox X-Men films. This includes Cyclops, who fires off an optic blast before the Sentinels begin their own terrifying counterstrike. Sadly, the footage ends right when things were getting very exciting.
In case you don’t know, social media is filled with AI videos that users pass off as secret film trailers or leaked footage. This is such a common phenomenon that whenever there is a leak from Marvel, the first question everyone has is whether it’s fake. So, is this Avengers: Doomsday footage AI or not? While nothing has been officially confirmed, this looks like the real deal. The fight lines up with what we already know about the movie; furthermore, most AI creators try to make their fake footage look as convincing as possible. Therefore, it doesn’t make much sense to release AI footage that has no sound and is hilariously pixilated.
My personal theory is that, between this Avengers: Doomsday leak and the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer leaks, Marvel is doing a bit of guerrilla marketing. The actual studio “leaking” footage is a great way to get fans to hype up the film, all while getting entertainment writers (myself included!) to give the MCU additional coverage. If that’s the case, it’s working: leaks like this help generate buzz and keep excitement for Doomsday very high. Here’s hoping the film actually delivers on the hype, or nothing (not even Captain America wielding Thor’s hammer) will be able to save Marvel from its own cinematic implosion.
