We finally got a new Avengers: Doomsday trailer, but beyond Robert Downey Jr.’s voice for Doctor Doom and the fact that Steve Rogers has a beard again, it’s a bit light on details. Much of this trailer contains footage rehashed from the teasers Marvel Studios released months ago, like Professor X and Magneto together by that window, the Wakandans meeting members of the Fantastic Four, and Cyclops’ big optic blast into the sky. The trailer does contain our first glimpse at Sam Wilson’s Avengers lineup, which seriously makes me wonder if certain characters have been edited out of the trailer.
That or Sam Wilson just kinda sucks at being Captain America.
In Captain America: Brave New World, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) finally accepts the mantle of Captain America and decides that he’s going to recruit his own team of Avengers. Unfortunately, as we find out in Thunderbolts*, the US government has given the “Avengers” name to the team we saw formed in that movie, consisting of Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), US Agent (Wyatt Russell), Sentry (Lewis Pullman), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Bucky (Sebastian Stan). In the post-credits scene for Thunderbolts*, the new team is discussing the fact that Sam Wilson is forming his own team of Avengers and possibly looking to copyright the Avengers name, resulting in two separate teams named “Avengers.”
In the new trailer, we finally have our first official look at Sam’s team… and it leaves much to be desired. There’s a scene where Thor is giving a speech to three distinctly separate teams. There’s The Fantastic Four, the “New Avengers” (aka the Thunderbolts), and Sam’s Avengers, which seems to be just him and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). Elsewhere in the trailer, we do see Joaquin Torres/Falcon (Danny Ramirez), but that seems to be it, unless a character has been edited out of the trailer, just like Marvel Studios previously edited Spider-Man out of the Captain America: Civil War trailer, and the alternate versions of Spider-Man were edited out of the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer.
The biggest evidence of this possibility is the rather conspicuous open space on Sam Wilson’s side of the room, particularly to his left (and the more general idea that just three dudes is a rather crappy lineup).
So, who could be standing there?
It’d be pointless to edit Falcon out of this frame, as he’s elsewhere in the trailer, and it’s pretty much a given that he’d be a part of this team given his long friendship with Sam. Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) is a possibility, as we see him elsewhere in the trailer fighting with Gambit, but it would still be some news if he was an official part of the Avengers. I guess Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) are possible too, depending upon where they end up at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. My personal hope is that Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) is the one edited out, because she’s been sidelined quite a bit in previous Avengers films. It would also be something of a surprise, as Lilly stepped away from acting in 2024 and is not confirmed for this film. That said, she seemed to imply her return last May via Instagram. When a fan asked her in a comment if we’d see her in any future Avengers movies, she replied with a winking emoji.
Or, maybe that empty space really is just some empty space. Perhaps, just like Sam Wilson’s Captain America has failed to impress audiences with mediocre outings like Brave New World and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the other heroes still alive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are similarly underwhelmed.
Avengers: Doomsday releases in theaters on Dec. 18.
