Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

The first full Avengers: Doomsday trailer is finally here. After months of this footage being shown at trade conventions we’re finally allowed to get a look too. Alasdair’s got the details.

We’re going to do this one a little differently, and start with the two speeches that form the trailer’s structure.

‘Something’s coming. Something we may not be able to deter. Before this day is done, we shall be faced with an unthinkable decision.’

This is clearly Doom, and we’ve got some fascinating stuff to pick apart. Downey Jr’s found a solid accent for Victor and I like that. You’re going to see a lot of cheap jokes made about his Doctor Doolittle accent in the next week but this is good work.

What gets me, and what honestly hooks me more than anything else here, is the fact that Victor is speaking as though they’re on the same side. The most interesting villains don’t think they’re villains. This is a speech delivered by a man convinced he’s not just a hero, he’s the hero the world needs.

Finally, that ‘choice’. If this holds true to the comics, what we’re going to see is Victor ‘save’ everyone by not quite saving anyone. Abandoning the universe to start somewhere new, where Secret Wars will take place. It won’t stick, almost nothing does in eternal continuity, but it’s a logical escalation from the end of Infinity War and a good thematic callback.

‘I’ve fought with many warriors in my time. They were far stronger than all of us put together. And they died. They died facing enemies and threats that scared me far less than this one. Everything that they sacrificed will be for nothing if we do not stand together.

‘Put aside your petty squabbles and presume nothing except this; if you return, you will return as brothers and sisters. But mark my words; we’re going to need a miracle.’

It’s interesting that Thor is the voice of the heroes this round. Thor has lost more than any of them. Asgard is gone, his family are gone, his daughter seems to be gone, even his hammer. He’s been at rock bottom so long he’s bought property there.

I am being extraordinarily generous here given the fat shaming nonsense perpetrated on him the last time we had a two-part Avengers movie BUT… maybe this is what it’s all been building towards. His years of trauma turned not into a cheap punchline but into the skills he and his friends need. To quote The West Wing, Thor’s been down here before and he knows the way out.

My second thought is much less kind and is tied directly to us seeing Thor fight Doom one on one and that very odd seeming sign-off Hemsworth posted during production. I think there’s a strong chance he dies and doesn’t come back here. I can see why they’d do that, and I don’t think it’s a lock, but after this trailer I think it’s noticeably more likely.

0.02 – Xavier’s School

The sign is on the floor and the place is in ruins. Here we go.

0.09 – Professor X and the End

That’s an incursion, a second Earth enroute to collide with this one as dimensions merge. We are, at last, here after literal years of hints. The multiverse is collapsing. The worlds are ending.

One note: this looks a little like Charles is watching someone arrive, or witnessing the effects of something we see elsewhere. There’s a flare of some sort and he recoils. Also, there’s a vertical streak across the image which might be the window pane shadow but might be something else. A launch trail perhaps…

0.21 – Doom

I like that we don’t see all of Victor at once. The task of making a villain world-endingly intimidating in one movie after years of breadcrumb dropping for someone else is not easy and stuff like this is a smart way to do it. Note the chainmail on his arms, and the armour on his joints. Also, the symbol on his chest which looks loosely analogous to an arc reactor. We have been promised, repeatedly, a reason why he looks like Tony Stark. He seems to dress like him too. Note too the odd pagoda-like building in the background.

0.30 – Avengerz Tower

I will be honest; there is no group of characters I’m more worried about than the Avengerz. Thunderbolts* was a genuine attempt to do something new and I loved it and I’m gutted it didn’t find its audience. I worry that they’re going to be some of the first characters thrown to the wolves. Or in this case, wolf.

0.34 – Team Up 1

Thor and the Fantastic Four everyone! Interestingly, this isn’t Avengerz Tower. Given the white and blue livery I’m guessing it’s the FF’s ship.

0.36 – Team Up 2

Sam Wilson is the other character I’m most worried about. One of the most fundamentally good men in the MCU he’s been done endlessly dirty by the last few years. What’s interesting is this shot is meant to look like it follows the one previously. I don’t think it does. I think this is in Avengerz Tower where Sam, Bucky and Scott are watching someone they never expected to return. Look at the hairline. Look at the hair at the end of the trailer. That’s Steve Rogers.

0.38 – Team Up 3

This is where things get a little interesting. Firstly, the graphic at the back suggests a three universal collision, which is presumably the MCU, the FF’s universe and the X-Men’s universe.

Then there’s who’s in the room. We see the FF, Thor, Scott and Sam once again but there’s also a good chunk of the Avengerz here. USAgent, Crimson Guardian, White Widow, Ghost and… who is that?

We’re supposed to believe it’s Bucky and it might be but there’s a couple of shots here of someone built like that being carefully now shown. Ockham’s Razor says it’s Buck. But it could be Doom too.

Finally, where are they? Because this doesn’t look like Avengers Tower. In fact it looks almost Wakandan,

0.43 – Namor

He’s back!

0.44 – Shuri

She’s back! And they are clearly facing each other down in what seems to be an Atlantean throne room. Given the incredibly emotional, brutal knockdown drag out duel these two had at the end of Wakanda Forever, the tension here is entirely understandable. Note too the Dora Milaje off Shuri’s right and M’Baku off her left.

0.47 – Face Off

Whatever they’re trying to do doesn’t work as Atlanteans surround the Wakandans, Shuri armours up and we get a good look at the incredible shark tooth throne Namor has. Note also the glowing green item on M’Baku’s shoulder. Might be nothing, might be something.

0.50 – Thor Lands

This is hard to make out but it looks like he’s landing in a graveyard of Sentinels. There’s what seems to be a torn apart robot arm to his right. I don’t know who the statue is though and the lighting matches with the first shot we see of Doom earlier.

0.52 – Doom

Thor strides towards his foe. The odd-looking figure in the background, another statue, is very interesting. It looks almost like another Sentinel, one of the futuristic glimpsed in Days of Future Past.

0.54 – Exploding Stairs

I can’t quite tell whether this is Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum or the X-Mansion library. Given where we’re about to get Team Up 4 I’m inclined to believe the latter.

0.55 – Slim!

There’s our boy! Cyclops, in ridiculously on brand blue and yellow ’90s-esque battle gear. That line from the original Bryan Singer-directed movie is officially refuted now!

0.57 – Team Up 4

It’s not a superhero movie if the heroes don’t fight for some reason. In what I’m almost certain is the X-Mansion no less! Channing Tatum’s incredibly fun Gambit returns to the big screen alongside Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi who is another of the heroes Marvel have let fall by the wayside. It’s a fun fight and one I hope there’s a good reason for.

0.59 – Cute

Tatum has got Gambit’s ‘I’m sorry, I know I RULE’ charm perfectly. Also is that an Ace of Hearts?! Flashy boy!

1.03 – Loki’s TVA ID

But who’s handling it?

1.04 – Changes

This is another interesting beat. Compare this shot with the Shuri teaser:

The exposed sea bed is entirely new and we didn’t see the other heroes with Ben in the teaser. We’ll get to them in a second because the other interesting thing about this one is the shots of the Atlanteans looking worried in the teaser. Has the ocean been removed somehow as a side-effect of the Incursion? Is that why Shuri goes to Namor, to try to reason with him?

1.08 – Team Up 5

So that’s Shuri’s diplomatic team, Ben, Sur, Bucky, Joaquin Torres/Falcon and Ghost.

1.10 – Team Up 6

Reed, Yelena and H.E.R.B.I.E arrive at the X-Mansion. I love the offhand way Reed’s holding the door open with his powers and Yelena ducking under his arm. Did you spot Cap at the back too?

1.11 – Mystique

One of the best makeovers the character has ever had. Rebecca Romijn is always great and this is a great costume and really fun prosthetics.

1.14 – Yelena vs Yelena

If Yelena Belova had a nickel for each time she’s had to fight a version of herself, she’d have two nickels.

1.16 – Charles and Erik

Sir Ian McKellen has been cheerfully up front about how little NDAs mean to him and it seems like Magneto is going to go out with one hell of a bang in this movie. I love this quiet moment between these two old friends and honestly, seeing these versions of the characters retire is going to be hard. I hope they get the ending they deserve.

1.20 – Scott and Cassie

Really not happy about Thor’s line about ‘if you return’ being played this close to the Avenger Most Likely To Be Killed To Show How Much Trouble We’re In kissing his daughter seemingly goodbye.

1.22 – Johnny and Sue

This doesn’t look good. Look at how beat up Johnny is. Also, that could be Yelena. The patterning of the energy behind Johnny also suggests this is the Incursion in its final stages and these two don’t make it.

1.23 – Sue at the basin

Sue Storm, in maybe the best of the new FF uniforms, at the hollowed-out section of ocean, nodding goodbye to Shuri who gives her a Wakanda Forever in return. Nice to see this part of the Shuri teaser get connected.

1.26 – Cap

It’s a little thing but I love the kinetic energy of the cut from Shuri to Cap catching his shield at the X-Mansion.

1.27 – Show Off

Gambit flips from the top of the Atrium which confirms where we are (see the X?) and into battle. Pause this and you see Cap, Mystique throwing a high kick suggesting this is the start of the fight with Yelena and Reed kneeling over as well as Shang-Chi.

1.29 – Cyclops on his knees

And here’s the X-Men trailer’s biggest moment. Scott Summers, on his knees in the ruins of the X-Mansion as Sentinels run rampant.

1.30 – Sue Powers Up

It’s an interesting physical shift in how Kirby portrays Sue’s powers. Also, she seems to be crying suggesting things have gone awry.

1.31 – Namor

Or she’s just holding off Namor, given we know they’re in the same location and he seems to be attacking here.

1.33 – Thor Powers Up

Goes in for a Thanos level strike and Doom simply holds up a hand. The rune on his gauntlet will I’m sure be deciphered shortly but I’m interested in the profile. Aside from the classic slightly open mouth/grill design the panelling of that mask really does look like an Iron Man helmet doesn’t it?

Also there’s an interesting callback to this whole sequence. It reads a lot like Thanos being stunned Steve can hold off the Gauntlet, only reversed. Thor is realising he’s out of his depth and, well, we’re back to that apparent and hurriedly denied signoff from Hemsworth…

1.44 – MewMew!

Thor’s original weapon, still shattered and reformed from the events of Ragnarok.

1.46 – ‘Hey pal.’

Bringing Steve back is dangerous. Bringing Steve back and apparently having him work for Doom is incredibly dangerous. I don’t know if they can pull it off. But that seems to be what’s happening. Also notice this seems to be on the FF’s ship, in space, and someone is standing behind Steve here.

Also, MewMew goes to him. Which suggest he either believe what he’s doing is worthy, or he IS worthy…

Also Chris Evans is one of the most instantly reassuring humans on Earth, isn’t he?

Okay. I’m still enormously worried about so many of their most interesting characters, and curious as to who isn’t here. But we, at last, know the shape of this thing. Let’s see how it goes.

Avengers: Doomsday is released 18th December.