Another Avengers: Doomsday crew gift has surfaced on social media, and Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom is once again front and centre. This artwork, while not hugely detailed, matches what we saw several months ago when we got our first look at the villain.
This is very much in line with the comics, though the sigils on his chest are a new addition. While "Team Doom" likely just refers to the group of creatives that worked on Avengers: Doomsday, it's worth pointing out that there have been multiple rumours about Victor leading a team of Variants.
So far, we've only caught a glimpse of Doom in The Fantastic Four: First Steps' mid-credits scene. Interestingly, he appeared to be wearing both a different cloak and mask for that meeting with young Franklin Richards.
The artwork is clearly Jack Kirby-inspired, but this is a piece of movie art, and there's hopefully more to come in the months ahead.
Here's where things get really interesting, though. Not too long ago, social media was flooded with supposed Avengers: Doomsday cast photos. They were ultimately dismissed as AI fakes, but as we said at the time, there was always a chance that a few pieces were real.
As you can see below, the promo art is awfully similar to the shots of Doctor Doom that were floating around. AI can only do so much, and while it may have just been fed the initial leak mentioned above, we are starting to wonder whether there were some legitimate photos, after all.
Why? Well, it's all down to the belt buckle, which was different in that first leak. However, this crew gift has a square one matching the cast photos, suggesting they were the real deal, after all...
"Robert tried to talk us into doing [the Avengers movies], and we said 'no,'" Joe Russo explained last year while promoting The Electric State. "Weirdly, because we said we wouldn’t come back. We just didn’t have a story. We didn’t have a way in. We were resistant for a while."
He added, "One day, [writer] Stephen McFeely, one of our chief collaborators, said, 'I have an idea.' We went, 'That’s the story!' That story has to be told; it’s a really powerful story!"
Avengers: Doomsday officially stars Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Winston Duke, Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, and Robert Downey Jr. Wyatt Russell, Simu Liu, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Mabel Cadena, Florence Pugh, Danny Ramirez, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, and India Rose Hemsworth all make their Avengers franchise debuts.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn join them, as do X-Men franchise stars Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, with Deadpool & Wolverine star Channing Tatum. The trades have pointed to Ryan Reynolds and Hayley Atwell also appearing in Avengers: Doomsday.
The Russo Brothers direct Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars from a screenplay by Stephen McFeely, with whom they previously collaborated on the Avengers and Captain America franchises. Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness's Michael Waldron has also been enlisted to help.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.