People obsessed with the Marvel Cinematic Universe don’t have much else to do right now beyond speculate. The Avengers: Doomsday teasers are mostly just vibes, misinformation about the movie is so rampant you probably shouldn’t believe anything that doesn’t come from official channels, and most of what you’re getting from company-approved messaging reeks of self-important desperation. So after the Russo Brothers told fans that the four trailers they premiered in theaters this past month were “not teasers” but “clues” that fans should “pay attention” to, folks started scrambling to decipher some hidden meanings. One Redditor in particular has a theory that may not pan out, but at least it’s interesting.
Fear_Itself posted on the MCUTheories subreddit (thanks, IGN) that they “cracked the code” of the teasers. According to their theory, the “clues” the Russos are referring to are not in the actual Doomsday film footage the trailers contain, but in the countdown that appears at the end of each trailer. Just before the clock starts counting down to Doomsday’s December 18 release date, it flashes what the Reddit user theorizes is a timestamp. On a hunch, they checked where these timestamps landed in Avengers: Endgame, and surprisingly, three out of four could actually hint at something.
Three of the four timestamps land on a scene in which characters in Endgame are either discussing the effects time travel could have on the multiverse, or seeing those effects play out. A chunk of the film has the Avengers traveling through time to recover the Infinity Stones, and Fear_Itself wonders if these timestamps could be a clue indicating that Doomsday’s events are a direct result of the heroes meddling with the timeline in Endgame.
Some folks are skeptical, however, as the timestamp in the trailer featuring the X-Men seems to lead to a completely unrelated comedic scene in which Thor and Rocket Raccoon are in Asgard and Thor is having a panic attack. So the other three examples might just be crazy coincidences.
Whatever “clues” are hiding in these teasers, the MCU speculation mill never rests, especially after being egged on by the directors. With 11 months to go before Doomsday releases, fans are bound to sniff out the right answers eventually, or at least develop fun theories to talk about until it’s showtime.