New Avengers: Doomsday Teaser Brings The Fantastic Four Into The Mix

I feel like I can’t even keep track of all the Avengers: Doomsday teasers anymore. Wasn’t one of these supposed to focus on Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom? We’re now at the fourth out of the supposed four theater-exclusive trailers declaring that “so-and-so will return in Avengers: Doomsday,” and there’s no sign of the evil doctor yet. This fourth teaser, which is leaking online and also being taken down by Marvel almost immediately after, stars Shuri, the Black Panther, as she prepares the people of Wakanda for what’s to come, and they also meet a hero from another Earth: The Thing.

Though the trailer is getting wiped off social media shortly after it’s been posted, we were able to see it before it got nuked. It opens with Shuri lamenting how she lost her family after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and we also see Namor and members of the underwater Talokan kingdom looking broodily in the distance at…something. But the real highlight is when Shuri and M’Baku greet none other than the Thing himself, Ben Grimm. 

The Thing and the rest of the Fantastic Four were shown arriving on the MCU’s version of Earth after the events of Thunderbolts*, and in Fantastic Four: First Steps’ post-credits scene, we saw Doctor Doom taking an interest in Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman’s god baby, Franklin. We’re not sure yet how that results in the group hopping multiverses, but it is cool to see even the first glimpse of the First Family teaming up with the rest of the MCU.

The first three teasers featured Steve Rogers, the ex-Captain America who “retired” at the end of Avengers: Endgame and is now being dragged back into the scrap for probably deeply cynical, nostalgia-baiting reasons; Thor, who prays to his father that he will be able to return to his daughter Love; and the X-Men, who are also getting pulled into all this. Again, no sign of Doctor Doom yet. Maybe there will be more teasers than initially believed? Or maybe we still have a while to wait for our first glimpse of RDJ as the ruler of Latveria.

Avengers: Doomsday is coming to theaters on December 18.