Marvel Studios has officially released the fourth teaser trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, and this one brings together two of the MCU’s most powerful factions: the Wakandans and the Fantastic Four. The trailer, which leaked online last week before receiving its official release, focuses on grief, duty, and an unlikely alliance in the face of Doctor Doom’s looming threat.
Shuri Carries the Weight of Loss
The teaser opens with Shuri, now firmly established as Black Panther following the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, delivering a somber reflection on her losses. “I’ve lost everyone that mattered to me,” she says, a reference to the deaths of both her brother T’Challa and her mother Queen Ramonda.
As the camera cuts to Namor, the ruler of Talokan who was both enemy and uneasy ally in the previous film, Shuri continues: “A king has his duties to prepare our people for the afterlife. I have mine.”
This opening establishes the emotional stakes while suggesting that Shuri has accepted the burden of leadership and the responsibilities that come with it—even as she continues to process profound grief. The parallel drawn between her role and that of kings like Namor and M’Baku hints at a shared understanding among leaders facing an existential threat.
An Unexpected Meeting: The Thing and M’Baku
The trailer’s tone shifts dramatically with a moment of levity that’s become a hallmark of Marvel’s marketing. We see a beardless Ben Grimm—The Thing—in full Fantastic Four costume meeting King M’Baku of Wakanda.
M’Baku introduces himself with regal formality: “King M’Baku, of Wakanda.”
The Thing’s response is pure New York street attitude: “Ben, Yancy Street, between Broome and Grand.”
It’s a perfect character moment that contrasts the grandeur of Wakanda’s monarchy with Ben Grimm’s working-class Brooklyn roots, delivered with the kind of fish-out-of-water humor that has always made The Thing one of Marvel’s most relatable characters despite his rocky appearance.
The trailer concludes with the text: “The Wakandans and The Fantastic Four will return in Avengers: Doomsday.”
Questions the Trailer Raises
This brief teaser creates more questions than it answers, which is likely intentional as Marvel builds anticipation for the December 2026 release.
Where does this meeting take place? The setting isn’t clearly established in the footage, leaving fans to wonder whether The Thing has traveled to Wakanda, whether the Wakandans have ventured elsewhere, or if they’re meeting on neutral ground.
Is Ben Grimm alone? While only The Thing appears in this trailer, the closing text mentions both the Wakandans and the Fantastic Four (plural), suggesting the entire team will be involved. But why would Ben be the advance scout or solo representative?
How did The Thing arrive in the main MCU universe? The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place in an alternate 1960s timeline. How Ben Grimm and presumably his teammates cross into the primary MCU reality is a mystery that Doomsday will need to address.
Why are they teaming up? The obvious answer is Doctor Doom, but the specifics of this alliance remain unclear. What brings Wakanda’s advanced technology and the Fantastic Four’s scientific expertise together?
Connecting to Previous MCU Projects
The presence of the Fantastic Four in Avengers: Doomsday shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to fans who’ve been paying attention.
Last year’s Thunderbolts movie teased the arrival of the Fantastic Four in the main MCU timeline when the New Avengers spotted an interdimensional spaceship bearing the Fantastic Four logo heading toward Earth. This moment established that crossing between universes would be possible and that the team would somehow make their way to the primary MCU reality.
Additionally, The Fantastic Four: First Steps ended with Doctor Doom apparently kidnapping Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm. Given that Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom is the primary antagonist of Avengers: Doomsday, this personal stake for the Richards family provides clear motivation for their involvement in the larger conflict.
The Pattern of Teaser Releases
This fourth teaser continues the established pattern for Avengers: Doomsday’s marketing campaign. Each trailer has followed the same trajectory: leak online, release officially in theaters before Avatar: Fire and Ash for one week, then receive an official online release.
The campaign kicked off with the Steve Rogers/Captain America teaser, which showed Chris Evans’ character holding a baby—presumably his child with Peggy Carter—in what appears to be the 1950s. This revealed that Captain America would be returning to the MCU despite his apparently definitive ending in Avengers: Endgame.
The second teaser focused on Thor, with Chris Hemsworth’s Asgardian sporting the shorter-haired look from Thor: Ragnarok and caring for his adopted daughter Love. The footage showed Thor praying to his deceased father Odin (Anthony Hopkins), calling for the “strength of the All-Fathers” so he may “fight once more… defeat one more enemy and return home to her.”
The third teaser, featuring the X-Men, had also leaked before its official release last week.
Now with the Wakandans and Fantastic Four teaser officially out, fans are left wondering if there will be a fifth trailer or if Marvel has concluded this initial wave of character-focused marketing.
A Shared Theme of Duty and Sacrifice
Each of these teasers has emphasized similar themes: heroes burdened by duty, motivated by love for family or people, and facing what appears to be a threat significant enough to require personal sacrifice.
Captain America has a family to protect. Thor has an adopted daughter to return to. Shuri has lost everyone but carries on her duty to Wakanda. Each trailer establishes deeply personal stakes for heroes who will presumably need to risk everything to stop Doctor Doom.
The ominous tone set by Shuri, combined with the apparent alliance between Wakandans and the Fantastic Four, suggests this isn’t just another superhero team-up. These characters are genuinely worried about what’s coming, and that worry is being carefully communicated to build audience anticipation.
The Fantastic Four Factor
The inclusion of the Fantastic Four in Avengers: Doomsday represents a significant moment for the MCU. After years of the team being absent from Marvel’s cinematic universe due to rights issues, and after a rocky history of previous film adaptations, Marvel Studios is finally bringing Marvel’s First Family into the fold in a major way.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps will introduce audiences to this iteration of the team in July 2025, set in an alternate 1960s timeline with a retro-futuristic aesthetic. By the time Avengers: Doomsday arrives in December 2026, audiences will have spent time with these characters and understand their dynamics, making their integration into the larger MCU ensemble more seamless.
The fact that Doctor Doom serves as the antagonist of Doomsday also makes perfect sense from a comics perspective. Doom is the Fantastic Four’s greatest enemy, their dark mirror, and bringing him into conflict with not just the Four but the entire Avengers raises the stakes to an appropriately epic level.
Wakanda’s Continued Importance
The prominence of Wakandan characters in this teaser reaffirms the nation’s crucial role in the MCU. Following the massive success of Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Wakanda has been established as one of the franchise’s most important locations and power centers.
Seeing Shuri as Black Panther, M’Baku as King, and both Namor and Namora alongside them suggests that the alliance forged in Wakanda Forever—despite its rocky foundation—has solidified in the face of this new threat. The presence of Talokan’s leaders fighting alongside Wakanda speaks to the severity of whatever Doctor Doom has planned.
The Wait Continues
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled for release on December 18, 2026, which means fans have roughly two years to dissect these teasers, theorize about plot details, and anticipate how all these disparate threads will come together.
With Captain America, Thor, the X-Men, the Wakandans, and the Fantastic Four all confirmed to appear, the film is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious ensemble projects Marvel has attempted since Avengers: Endgame. Adding in other confirmed cast members from across the MCU, and it’s clear that Doomsday is positioning itself as a true event film.
Whether additional teasers will emerge in the coming months remains to be seen. But for now, this fourth trailer has given fans plenty to discuss—from The Thing’s perfect character introduction to Shuri’s emotional journey to the mysteries of how these universes and timelines will collide.
One thing is certain: when the Wakandans and the Fantastic Four join forces, something big is coming. And Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom is at the center of it all.
