Over the past 48 hours, I’ve been watching Marvel fanboys completely lose their minds over a leaked teaser for “Avengers: Doomsday,” one that strongly suggests Steve Rogers’ Captain America is once again one of the film’s leads. I get the frustration. I really do. After everything Marvel’s spent years building toward, the notion that Marvel is going back to nostalgia must feel frustrating.
I’m especially sympathetic to fans who stuck around through the excruciating torch-passing era. We’ve watched Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) replacing Evans, across movies and TV, while characters like Florence Pugh’s Yelena have quietly built up momentum. Yet, all indications point towards ‘Doomsday’ leads being Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and Chris Hemsworth. It feels like 2019 all over again.
What I believe happened is that Marvel boss Kevin Feige just did the math. Post-Endgame, and especially post-pandemic, I’ve noticed a studio that can no longer reliably make hit movies anymore. ‘Quantumania’ underperformed, the Marvel sure-bet cracked, and even this year’s slate has been shaky at best once you factor in the budgets.
“Captain America: Brave New World” wrapped at $415M worldwide on a reported $180M budget. “Thunderbolts” did worse, around $380M on a similar price tag. Even “Fantastic Four,” the supposed tentpole, capped out at $521M globally on a $200M+ budget. A decade ago, those numbers would’ve been disastrous — remember, even “Captain Marvel” grossed over $1 billion. This was also the first year since 2012 that no Marvel film crossed $300M domestically, which is kind of stunning when you think about it.
Steve Rogers, on the other hand, needs no explanation. Chris Evans’ return guarantees fan service. And that’s the part hardcore fans don’t want to hear: Disney doesn’t care who should be the face of the franchise. It cares about who fills seats.
That reality is colliding head-on with the Doomsday trailer rollout. Marvel’s planning four teasers rather than traditional trailers, with Steve Rogers, Thor, and Doctor Doom headlining three of them. The fourth one remains a mystery. The Steve one — allegedly first — ends with “Steve Rogers will return in Avengers: Doomsday.”
For many, Steve got the perfect send-off six years ago in ‘Endgame.’ One fan wrote, “It is VERY EASY to choose a lead for Avengers: Doomsday. Yet they chose to make it a character who got the PERFECT ending 6 years ago.”
Marvel is pulling out all the stops to prevent their $400M+ gamble from commercial disaster. Downey, Evans, the Fox-era X-Men — it’s all coming back in a full-blown nostalgia play. It reeks of desperation.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.