Avengers: Doomsday New Teasers: Thor, Steve Rogers and the Captain America Joke Dividing Marvel Fans

Marvel has released two new teasers for Avengers: Doomsday over the World Series weekend, and one quick joke about Captain America has sparked a bigger conversation than the action scenes around it. The superhero ensemble film, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, is scheduled to open in theatres on December 18, 2026, sharing its opening day with Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three in what fans have dubbed Dunesday — and the new footage is the latest step in a marketing campaign that is now in its final stretch.

The first teaser aired during Game 1 of the World Series on Friday, October 23. The Major League Baseball crossover spot featured Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to Joseph Quinn’s Human Torch at Milwaukee’s American Family Field, blending real baseball stars — Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman, Jacob Misiorowski, Junior Caminero and Randy Arozarena — with the film’s heroes. It was a general-audience play, designed to put Doomsday in front of viewers who may not follow every Marvel announcement.

Marvel then released a second teaser on Saturday, roughly a day later, and this one was aimed squarely at the fans. It focuses on the bond between Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers, emphasising their shared worthiness to lift the enchanted hammer Mjolnir. Thor takes charge of the team with a stark warning — Doom will tear this world apart, team up and stand together — while the footage gathers the heroes in Avengers Tower. The teaser also confirms that Project Hail Mary star Sandra Hüller has joined the cast in an undisclosed role, according to reports, while David Harbour has denied spoiling the movie in a recent interview.

The moment that divided fans comes in the Avengers Tower scene, where Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man accidentally calls Steve Rogers Cap. Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, the current shield-bearer, shoots him a look, and Scott corrects himself — before Wyatt Russell’s US Agent chimes in that he was also Cap for a minute. One side of the fandom read the gag as a slight against Sam Wilson, who accepted the mantle in 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with fans writing that Sam deserves better and deserves respect. Supporters pushed back, arguing the line fits Scott Lang’s history: Ant-Man fought alongside Rogers in Captain America: Civil War and has idolised him ever since, so the slip reads as muscle memory rather than disrespect.

The numbers behind the campaign show why Marvel is pushing so hard. Doomsday has already passed $100 million in global presales, according to trackers, including records for the fastest film to reach $1 million in presales in both Brazil and the United Kingdom. Current AMC listings put the film at 2 hours and 45 minutes, against 2 hours and 30 minutes for Dune: Part Three — a combined 5 hours and 15 minutes for anyone planning the full Dunesday double feature. Doomsday holds no IMAX screens in its opening stretch, with Dune: Part Three locking up an exclusive three-week IMAX window, so Disney is leaning on its own Infinity Vision premium format instead.

Here is the Filmverse take: the Captain America joke matters because it exposes the fault line running through the entire Doomsday project. Marvel is asking audiences to hold two ideas at once: that Steve Rogers is back, and that Sam Wilson is Captain America now — and a throwaway gag can accidentally pick a side. The smart reading is that the joke is actually about Scott Lang, not about Sam: it is a character beat for a man who has always hero-worshipped Rogers, and the film needs that warmth if its multiverse collision is going to feel human rather than mechanical. But Marvel should listen to the backlash anyway, because if audiences feel Sam is being treated as a punchline in his own franchise’s biggest film, that resentment will follow Doomsday into its opening weekend — and on December 18, with Dune: Part Three taking every IMAX screen, Marvel cannot afford to give anyone a reason not to show up.

Watch the new Thor and Steve Rogers teaser here:

Watch the World Series crossover teaser here:

Read our coverage of this weekend’s other big box-office story, DC’s Clayface, here: https://filmverse.in/clayface-box-office-24-million-opening-dc-tom-rhys-harries/

All box-office and presale figures are trade estimates. Sources: ComingSoon, Hypebeast, FictionHorizon