The decision to drop multiple teasers for Avengers: Doomsday a year before the movie arrives should have been a slam dunk. It’s the first Avengers movie in seven years. As highly anticipated a blockbuster as we’ve had in recent memory. Everyone wants to see and learn more. But the awkward release and subsequent response to the trailers left us scratching our heads, and now new quotes are not helping.
A few months back, Avengers: Doomsday directors the Russo Brothers posted to their Instagram that “What you’ve been watching for the last 4 weeks… are not teasers. Or trailers. They are stories. They are clues… Pay attention. #DoomsdayHasBegun.” Which was wildly cryptic and slightly maddening. Now, speaking to Empire (via IGN), Joe Russo expanded on that a bit.
“Each one of these trailers is narrative information, and it’s all part of [a] larger story,” Russo told the magazine. “So I would argue that Doomsday has already started for you.”
So if we’re reading this correctly, the Russos are confirming the earlier implication that these teasers are pieces of information an audience member should see before the movie. We should know that Steve Rogers is alive, well, and a father. We should know that Thor is fighting for his daughter. We should know Professor X and Magneto are still old friends, and Cyclops is mad. And we should know Ben Grimm just met the Black Panther in Wakanda. But are those scenes or bits of information not in the movie?
“Look, the movie is very complex,” Russo continued. “We thought one of the best ways to celebrate what the movie is was to give characters their own space and highlight some moments.”
Not helping, Joe. Not helping at all.
I feel like Marvel fans are going to be talking about these teasers forever. Even after a full trailer drops later this year. And maybe even, if the implications are accurate, when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18. Because, after all, “Doomsday has already started” for us all.
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