In less than a month’s time, we’ve had three teasers for Avengers: Doomsday, which comes out at the end of this year. The first teaser promised that Steve Rogers (and his baby) will return in Avengers: Doomsday; the second showcased Thor being stressed about being a father. And now the third is about the X-Men (emphasis on men).
It feels curmudgeonly, a bit, to be grumpy about seeing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen together as Professor X and Magneto again. But there’s a quality to these teasers—heavy-handed, pushing on the feelings buttons—that suggests all these characters are just being dragged out again to get killed off. There is no sense of the movie itself, just a CGI-looking trip to a battered Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters; a Stewart voiceover announcing “Death comes for us all,” and a perfect, sly grin passing between old friends.
And also Cyclops (James Marsden) does a big red eye-beam.
Other X-Men will be in Doomsday, including Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), Gambit (sigh, Channing Tatum), and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn). Returning Avengers, along with Thor and Cap, include Anthony Mackie (also Captain America), Danny Ramirez (Falcon), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Winston Duke (M’Baku), and Simu Liu—and also the other Avengers, which is to say the ones previously known as the Thunderbolts: Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Wyatt Russell (John Walker), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), and Lewis Pullman (Bob).
And the Fantastic Four will be here, too: Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm.
That’s too many people. I don’t even want to bring up the whole Robert Downey Jr./Doctor Doom thing.
Avengers: Doomsday is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo from a script by Stephen McFeely (the Russos’ frequent writer) and Michael Waldron (the guy who made a lot of frustrating choices for Loki). The movie will be in theaters December 18.
