Earlier today, the third Avengers: Doomsday teaser trailer leaked online. Shifting the spotlight to the X-Men, it's hinted at a surprising status quo for the team that changes much of what we expected from this upcoming blockbuster.
With all signs pointing to an Incursion being what brings together the worlds of the Avengers and X-Men, it seemed likely that Earth's Mightiest Heroes would arrive on the team's world and battle a classic lineup of mutants before inevitably realising they're on the same side.
With that, they'd inevitably realise the error of their ways and unite to battle a much bigger threat in Doctor Doom.
Instead, the X-Men's world appears more in line with the ravaged reality seen in the Days of Future Past comic. We can't definitively declare that to be the case based on less than a minute of footage. However, the X-Mansion is in ruins, and Cyclops is shown surrounded by Sentinels and seemingly making one last Hail Mary by removing his visor and unleashing the full power of his optic blasts.
With it apparent that several key X-Men cast members won't return for Avengers: Doomsday (either due to money or there not being room for them in this story), it seems the idea might be to reveal that they died in this Sentinel attack, leaving only a small—yet still mighty—team of mutants to team with the Avengers and Fantastic Four.
There's surely more to what's happening here than this just being a world where the Sentinels won; Doctor Doom controlling them seems plausible, particularly if he wants to take the X-Men off the board on his journey through the Multiverse. We can't imagine these scenes are from later in the movie, so Professor X and Magneto uniting to lead a ragtag team of mutants who can make one final stand as heroes is our best bet.
Fans have questioned why they're getting an X-Men team made up of Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, Mystique, Gambit, Nightcrawler, and Beast, and this theory goes a long way in explaining why Jean Grey, Storm, Iceman, Rogue, and more aren't there to try and help turn the tide.
Of course, one of the most exciting parts of this sneak peek is the fact that Cyclops is wearing a fully comic-accurate costume. Yes, he's ditched the yellow trunks, but it's otherwise a perfect recreation of the suit made famous by Jim Lee.
Throw in rumours of Doom-controlled Sentinels, the X-Men's Earth being separate from the one Deadpool and Wolverine reside on, and Monica Rambeau's no doubt important role in what brings the Avengers to this reality, and the plot has definitely thickened with this latest sneak peek.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.