Marvel Studios has always produced high-grossing movies, some landing in the highest-grossing movies of all time. The company makes millions of dollars every movie, however recently the interest in Marvel movies has decreased. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) still has a large fanbase, it has shrunk in the past few years due to the low rating movies and shows.
Recently, the company has put lots of money and time into making Disney+ original series, like “WandaVision” and “Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” The shows do not necessarily make money by themselves, the subscriptions to the platform do, so there is no real way to tell how good the shows are doing unless you ask fans. But the fans just want new movies.
The last Marvel movies to come out were “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Thunderbolts*” in 2025. The Fantastic Four (F4) reboot made around $520 million in worldwide box office revenue and “Thunderbolts*” made $382 million, according to The Number. While $382 million is a lot of money for a movie to make, it falls short in the list of previous MCU projects, especially compared to “Avengers: Endgame.” Endgame is the highest-grossing Marvel movie ever released and the second highest in history. The movie made around $2.79 billion, which sets the bar extremely high for one of the most anticipated 2026 releases, “Avengers: Doomsday.”
The anticipation started when the majority of the returning cast was announced on March 26, 2025 via the Marvel Instagram account. Characters like Thor, Ant-Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy and more are set to return. But the list also included some distant groups like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.
On Dec. 23, 2025, the first of four Doomsday teasers were released by Marvel. The first teaser put the internet in a spiral when it announced that Steve Rodgers will be returning to the MCU. At the end of Endgame, Rodgers goes back in time to have a life with his love, Peggy, who had died a few movies back. It had seemed like Rodgers’ story line was over, but this teaser says something else. While only one minute and 20 seconds long, you see that Rodgers, in the past timeline, has a child. This child adds to the list of characters that could possibly take over the MCU, but nothing has been announced yet.
The very next Tuesday, Dec. 30, Thor got a teaser. Given the same screentime as the previous teaser, this one shows Thor praying about his daughter — Love. Love is introduced in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” where she is adopted by Thor. Thor has been in about seven Marvel movies, a very well-known and consistent character. But really Thor’s teaser was disappointing after the jaw-dropping news that Rodgers would be in another film, especially considering Chris Hemsworth, the actor for “Thor,” was announced to be in the cast months prior. Nevertheless, fans are glad to see a beloved character entering a new chapter of his life with a daughter.
The X-Men were never part of the standard MCU timeline before now. The Jan. 6 teaser showed X-Men characters Professor X, Magneto and Cyclops. The X-Men movies are not as popular, so several fans probably will not know these characters. The movie series is split into two sections, the original and the prequel movies, which are connected by the movie “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” Professor X also had a cameo in the last Doctor Strange movie, and the character Beast appeared briefly in “The Marvels.”
The very last teaser to finish it off was a clip of Shuri, now the Black Panther, King M’Baku of Wakanda and surprisingly, Ben Grimm, or, The Thing from the F4. It was well known that the newest F4 movie would tie into Doomsday, but it was always a question of how. The F4 gang is from a different earth than the rest of the MCU, seeming like an entirely different cinematic universe, like the X-Men. But as we have seen from “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” and “Spider-man into the Spiderverse,” where the characters travel the “multiverse,” Marvel will do anything to bring fans a good movie.
On Jan. 20 Marvel posted one last teaser to thank fans for the billions of views the four teaser videos got on their Instagram, ending with a final countdown for the movie.
Fans speculate that a trailer will be released during the Superbowl commercial breaks, as big movies usually take advantage of the long commercial breaks. But it could be a longer wait considering the fourth Spider-Man movie is being released this summer, and its trailer has yet to be released.
Overall the main points known about the movie are most of the returning characters; the main villain is Dr. Doom and this movie will be a set up for “Avengers: Secret Wars.” Everything else will be revealed in the trailer or the movie.
The movie will be released Dec. 20, 2026, in theaters. So grab your popcorn and a friend, and go see “Avengers: Doomsday” this winter season.
