If you thought the Avengers saved the world in 2019, the Russo Brothers have some bad news for you.
Marvel Studios has taken a radical approach to marketing Avengers: Doomsday, releasing four distinct teasers ahead of Avatar: Fire and Ash. Rather than showing Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom or a massive battle, these “stories”—as the Russos call them—focus on Steve Rogers, Thor, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four.
But as the directors teased on Instagram: “They are clues… pay attention.” And fans did. It turns out the timestamps at the end of each teaser correspond exactly to pivotal moments in Avengers: Endgame, confirming a long-feared theory: The Avengers are the reason the Multiverse is dying.
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The Steve Rogers Sin: A Timeline Split
The first teaser follows Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). The clock at the end matches the exact timestamp in Endgame where The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) warns Bruce Banner that removing an Infinity Stone creates a “dark” branched reality.
For years, fans wondered if Steve staying in the past with Peggy Carter was a “closed loop” or a violation of reality. The Doomsday teaser seemingly confirms the latter. By staying behind, Steve didn’t just get his happy ending; he triggered the first major “Incursion”—the collision of two universes that Doctor Doom will eventually use to build Battleworld.
Loki’s Shadow and Thor’s Tears
The second and third teasers point to two other “Endgame Errors”:
- The Thor Teaser: Its timestamp links to the moment Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steals the Tesseract in 2012. While this launched the Loki Disney+ series, Doomsday suggests this moment was the “first crack” in the cosmic glass. It also features a heartbreaking prayer from Thor to protect his daughter, Love, hinting at a reunion with a variant of his brother that may not end well.
- The X-Men Teaser: This is the most cryptic. The timestamp links to Rocket Raccoon asking Thor, “Are you crying?” during their trip to 2013. This ties directly into the Deadpool & Wolverine mystery—specifically the “Thor Crying” meme. It suggests that the X-Men’s arrival in the MCU isn’t a natural evolution, but a byproduct of the walls between realities thinning out.
‘Time Runs Out’: The Jonathan Hickman Connection
The Fantastic Four teaser links to the Avengers testing the Quantum Tunnel. This confirms that every time the heroes stepped through the Quantum Realm, they were essentially “punching holes” in reality.
Marvel insiders suggest Doomsday is heavily adapting the “Time Runs Out” storyline by Jonathan Hickman. In the comics, this was the countdown to the final Incursion where the Illuminati (including Reed Richards and Iron Man) had to decide which worlds to destroy to save their own.
With Endgame scheduled for a theatrical re-release this summer, Marvel is making it clear: to understand the “Doomsday” of 2026, you have to look back at the “victory” of 2019. The heroes didn’t just defeat Thanos; they accidentally signed the death warrant for the entire multiverse.
