Avengers: Doomsday | Now in Production

On March 26th, Marvel put out an unusual “Now In Production” video for an upcoming 2026 film in their Avengers franchise. In the expanding multiverse of Marvel films and television series, Avengers: Doomsday is a massive ensemble cast affair. The Avengers series of films began in 2012 with half a dozen heroes. Today, 35 MCU films and nearly as many Marvel tv series later, it becomes a major endeavour to put together an ensemble cast film representing those brand offshoots.

Let’s see how the music supports this video’s cast reveal - and it is quite literally that, with a camera tracking slowly behind a row of director’s chairs with names of cast members printed on them. Not a word is spoken: none needs to be. Though the thematic melody is not heard in full until the final title card at the end of the video, this entire trailer is cut to the music of Alan Silvestri’s iconic Avengers theme, growing to a climax. To begin, an orchestral string section is playing fast repeated passages, building suspense.

Up first is the chair of an original Avenger, Chris Hemsworth, and fittingly the music opens with the sound of an anvil strike, as if we are hearing Thor’s hammer. Next we begin to see the names of new additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including members of The Fantastic Four (starting with Vanessa Kirby).

When we see the name of the new Captain America (former Falcon) Anthony Mackie, at 0:07, a sound effect evoking the rush of metal wings in the air is appropriately added. As we see the name of Letitia Wright, the MCU’s current Black Panther (Shuri), at 0:14 there is a flourish of drums, evoking the talking drums heard in Ludwig Göransson’s Black Panther score. Speaking of Black Panther, when we pass the chair of Tenoch Huerta Mejia (Namor in Wakanda Forever) at 0:26, a short vocal call enters, reminiscent of the siren song used by Namor’s people to hypnotize their enemies.

More layers of midrange orchestral strings are added to intensify the score at 0:30 as we pass by Simu Liu’s chair (Shang Chi). Then the high brass and woodwinds really start to make some noise at 0:38 when Kelsey Grammer’s name appears (Grammer played Beast in X-Men). This signifies the long-awaited wholesale arrival of the X-Men cast in the MCU.

At 1:11, as we begin to approach the end of this epic cast lineup, a brass section fitted with mutes enters with minor chords, evoking a sinister tone. This builds to 1:18 at the reveal of Robert Downey Jr., who is actually there, sitting in his chair. It is important to note here that he’s not playing Iron Man in this film, he’s instead playing the villain, Doctor Doom. On screen at 1:23, Downey signals for silence and the music stops. He stands, inspects the row of chairs, shakes his head and walks away as we cut (at 1:31) to the title card with Alan Silvestri’s iconic Avengers theme now presented in all its glory.

This cast reveal video lets audiences know that the next Avengers film (the first since Avengers: Endgame in 2019) will bring together original Avengers with stars from the Black Panther films, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, the X-Men franchise and more. This nostalgic retro aspect calls to mind the second half of the “To the End” trailer for Avengers: Endgame, which methodically (re-)introduces each of the franchise properties up to that point (2019). Bringing back Silvestri’s classic theme here was an obvious choice even as it was six years ago, but extra details added to the music highlight sonic identities of the characters–a nice touch.

Still much work and a long wait ahead; Avengers: Doomsday is in theatre May 1, 2026.

— Jack Hui Litster