One year from now, Avengers: Doomsday, one of the most highly-anticipated 2026 movie releases, will arrive in theaters. This will be the first Avengers movie since Endgame brought the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga to a close, and, among many other things, will finally bring Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom to the forefront. Even though we’re so far off from this upcoming Marvel movie, there’s apparently already a wild plan in motion for releasing the Doomsday trailer this month, although frankly, I’m not entirely sold on it.
There had already been rumblings about the Avengers: Doomsday trailer being attached to Avatar: Fire and Ash, which opens next Friday as one of the last big 2025 movie releases. However, in the latest edition of THR’s Heat Vision newsletter, it’s mentioned that there will be four different trailers attached to the third Avatar movie that will each play for one week. Meaning, you’ll see Doomsday Trailer #1 if you go to see Fire and Ash during its first week in theaters, and then you’ll be treated to Trailer #2 during its second week on the big screen, and so forth.
Here’s the thing: I’m not against having a trailer or special look for an upcoming movie being exclusively attached to another movie for a period of time. For example, a nearly-six-minute prologue for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is currently playing in front of 70 mm screenings of One Battle After Another and Sinners, and you’ll also be able to watch it during IMAX screenings of Avatar: Fire and Ash. This provides fun extra incentive to lure people to see movies in a theater, especially if said trailer or special look is never released online.
But four Avengers: Doomsday trailers being spread out over the course of a month? That feels like overkill. Does Disney think a lot of people will pay to see Avatar: Fire and Ash four times just so they can see slightly tweaked versions of the same trailer? As much as I enjoy the theatrical experience, tickets aren’t exactly cheap, and I don’t like the idea of the Mouse House trying to squeeze money out of the people by filling them with FOMO.
I’m also curious why such a wild trailer release plan would be implemented for a blockbuster like Avatar: Fire and Ash. I get that the overall property doesn’t have the same kind of dedicated fanbase that the MCU, and Marvel as a whole do, and there’s no shortage of debate over the critical quality of the first two movies. Nevertheless, Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water have both made well over $2 billion and respectively rank as the highest-grossing and third-highest-grossing movies of all time, with Avengers: Endgame nestled between them. Is Disney really concerned that Fire and Ash won’t perform similarly at the box office?
I’d be lying if I said that this news about the Avengers: Doomsday trailer doesn’t make me more likely to see Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters. This is currently my most-anticipated superhero movie, so naturally I’m eager to get some peeks at what awaits us on December 18, 2026. But I am not going to pay four times for Fire and Ash just so I can spot the minor differences between each trailer, and I really hope that this sort of trailer release doesn’t repeat itself for 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars.
