The Secret Endgame Connections You Missed In The Avengers: Doomsday Trailers

With "Avengers: Doomsday" set to premiere on December 18, there are still many months to go before we find out all the secrets the movie is hiding. It may be even longer before we decipher all the subtle clues and Easter eggs "Doomsday" will no doubt be filled with. As such, we currently live in a situation where the Marvel Cinematic Universe's fandom is stranded in Fan Theory City, looking for clues and crafting their own theories based on what they know of the movie so far. 

One particularly interesting theory comes courtesy of Redditor u/Fear_Itself, who has woven a very interesting web around what they believe are hidden time code stamps in the "Doomsday" trailers. According to them, these codes correspond to certain scenes in the Russo brothers' previous "Avengers" film, "Avengers: Endgame" (2019). Said scenes, in turn, are intended to offer clues about the central events and concepts of "Doomsday."   

Much of the upcoming film remains unknown, including its complete roster of heroes — after all, the cast of "Doomsday" has everyone saying that a few key figures seem to be very noticeably missing. Could this fan theory provide some answers? Let's take a closer look at it and see if it can help us decipher some of the secrets the "Avengers: Doomsday" trailers are hiding up their sleeves. 

Before we take a deeper dive into the rabbit hole, let's take a quick look at the four "Avengers: Doomsday" trailers in question. The first one is all about Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), implied to be the "Avengers: Endgame" version who chose to live out his life in the past with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). A fresh father, this Steve seems to enjoy a fairly happy domestic existence. However, the trailer makes clear that he will end up caught in the "Doomsday" scuffle, in one way or another. The second trailer is all about a concerned and deathly serious Thor (Chris Hemsworth), watching over his sleeping adopted daughter, Love (India Rose Hemsworth), and praying for strength. 

Trailer number three brings back the classic FOX roster of the X-Men in the form of a nice moment between Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen). Ruins of the X-Mansion and numerous Sentinels suggest that things aren't going too well for the mutants, and the all-out fury of team leader Cyclops (James Marsden) seems to support this theory. Finally, trailer number four sees Black Panther Shuri (Letitia Wright) and King M'Baku (Winston Duke) meet up with Fantastic Four member Ben "The Thing" Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Namor (Tenoch Huerta) looking uncharacteristically concerned. 

As Looper has noted before, the "Avengers: Doomsday" trailer rollout was a failure for various reasons. However, the trailers themselves do contain several fascinating moments. If the fan theory that they're playing a longer game with the time stamp tricks turns out to be true, they might reveal their true worth in the long run. 

So, let's unpack the countdown clock messages in the trailers to see what "Avengers: Endgame" moments they tie into. The clock in the Steve Rogers trailer blinks the code "1e:24ber:02020" just before the countdown itself begins. Following this into the "Endgame" time stamp, 1:24:20, takes the viewer to the scene where the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and Bruce "Hulk" Banner (Mark Ruffalo) meet during the time heist.

Here, Bruce's attempt to take the Eye of Agamotto (aka the Time Stone) from the deceptively frail-looking Ancient One soon turns into an impassioned verbal back-and-forth when the Ancient One quite literally punches Bruce into an out-of-body experience. As Dr. Strange's former mentor tells Bruce, removing an Infinity Stone from its rightful timeline can be disastrous and will cause branching alternate realities. 

As for how this relates to the retired Captain America, well ... in the end of "Endgame," Steve famously removes himself from the equation after returning the Infinity Stones to their rightful spots in time. According to the theory, Steve's actions, either during his mission or after he chooses to live things out peacefully this time around, have gone deeply awry. "This confirms that Steve's mission to return the stones (and his subsequent decision to stay in the past) is central to the conflict," Redditor u/Fear_Itself writes about the scene in support of his theory. "It suggests his actions may have inadvertently triggered an incursion."

The "Thor Will Return" trailer repeats the countdown clock trick with the code string "1e:17ber:02020." At the 1:17:20 time stamp, "Avengers: Endgame" shows Loki (Tom Hiddleston) escaping arrest with the Tesseract in the aftermath of the Battle of New York from "Avengers" (2012).

This is a pivotal scene for several reasons. Not only does this particular Loki variant go on to star in the two-season Disney+ show "Loki," but he ends it by becoming the God of Stories, who looms over every single timeline out there. 

"Loki" is arguably the MCU project that puts the most focus on various timelines and the way they differ from each other. After the primary Loki dies at the hands of Thanos (Josh Brolin) in "Avengers: Infinity War," it also makes sense that the franchise would treat the "Loki" version of the character as the current "main" variant. Due to this, it actually makes a surprising amount of sense that a secret code in the Thor trailer would lead into the exact "Endgame" moment where this "Loki" variant branches from the main timeline and becomes his own entity. 

The X-Men trailer is the first stop where the Reddit fan theory gets a little murky. The "1e:11ber:02020" code and the corresponding 1:11:20 time stamp send the viewer to a scene where Rocket (Bradley Cooper) witnesses Thor crying in Asgard, as the latter is having a panic attack. Per u/Fear_Itself's theorizing, this could point to the X-Men's erasure from the timeline or Asgard losing the Reality Stone – or perhaps simply the emotional tone or stakes of "Doomsday." 

To be honest, this seems quite a bit more far-fetched than the theories around the first two trailers. Fortunately, the thing about fan theories is that the fandom can always further expand on them. Per fellow redditor u/elbatcarter, there's another possibility that seems to fit the bill much better. According to them, the "Endgame" Thor scene could be a reference to another notable "crying Thor" moment from recent years: the scene in the multiverse-themed "Deadpool & Wolverine" (2024) where a sad Thor is seen watching over a dying Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) on a Time Variance Authority screen. As such, the trailer's time stamp code could potentially be a hint that Deadpool will have a role to play in "Avengers: Doomsday." 

The last of the four released trailers is the Wakanda and Fantastic Four-focused one, which boasts the code "1e:04ber:02020" – or the "Avengers: Endgame" time stamp 1:04:20. This takes us to the Avengers planning and testing the Quantum Realm-powered Time Heist. 

While somewhat less specific than some of the other "Endgame" scene teases, this does make a certain amount of sense. All the previous trailers' scene references are about the multiverse branching in some way, shape, or form: the Ancient One explaining the nature of timeline branches, Loki escaping with the Tesseract, and Deadpool seeing a version of events that he's unfamiliar with. According to the fan theory, this fourth scene could confirm that the Avengers' meddling with powers that shouldn't be touched during the Time Heist is the root cause of whatever seems to be behind the various timelines meeting in "Avengers: Doomsday."   

If you're wondering why anyone would take so much time to go through the trailers and craft elaborate fan theories, you can blame the men behind "Avengers: Doomsday." One of the reasons this theory has cropped up is the simple fact that "Doomsday" helmsmen Joe and Anthony Russo have already confirmed in no uncertain terms that the four trailers have a deeper meaning. 

"What you've been watching for the last four weeks... are not teasers. Or trailers," they wrote on their joint Instagram after the Wakanda trailer dropped. "They are stories. They are clues... Pay attention."

This, of course, is effectively a promise that the trailers — or stories, or clues — are more than they seem. Since the changing numbers just before the countdown clock are a recurring feature and arguably the most eye-popping thing in the trailers that can't be readily explained, they're a natural target for aspiring fan theorists. As such, while some may have wondered why Marvel is doing what it does with the "Avengers: Doomsday" trailers, others have started combing through them for hidden clues ... and the u/Fear_Itself theory is certainly one of the more interesting ones to emerge so far. 

So, what do the countdown clock codes and the timeline-altering antics they may be related to actually mean? There's a possibility that they could be connected to a very specific concept from "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (2022) known as incursions. As Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) learns in this movie, incursions are the ultimate way for multiversal travel to go awry: two universes collide in a way that is destined to destroy one or both. 

Certain details in "Avengers: Secret Wars" — the upcoming 2027 sequel to "Avengers: Doomsday" — point toward incursions being an instrumental part of the overall storyline. There are two major "Secret Wars" comic book events, but the established existence of incursions in the MCU suggests that the movie will adapt the 2015-2016 iteration. There, incursions force Earths from different universes to fight for their own existence.  

Doctor Strange and Charlize Theron's cameo character Clea are noticeably absent from the list of announced "Avengers: Doomsday" characters. However, they're last seen entering Clea's native Dark Dimension to fix a very particular incursion, so it would make sense for them to factor into the "Doomsday" storyline, too. It remains to be seen whether they'll actually appear in the movie, or if Marvel is saving them for "Secret Wars" — perhaps to play the kind of "ace in the hole" role Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and his Quantum Realm knowledge do in "Avengers: Endgame." 

As mentioned, the "Thor Will Return" trailer's time stamp suggests that the version of the trickster god who stars in the Disney+ show "Loki" will factor into the plot of "Avengers: Doomsday." Even if this doesn't turn out to be true, "Doomsday" seems to be leaning very heavily on alternate universes and timelines. 

As such, "Loki" is definitely recommended viewing ahead of the film's arrival, if only because the Loki variant at its center now sits in the middle of every timeline out there. There's also the fact that the show highlights the very concept of different timelines featuring radically different versions of the same character, as well as the timeline-policing Time Variance Authority and two variants of the now-abandoned MCU big bad Kang (Jonathan Majors).

"Loki" is an exploration of identity and purpose, and at its very end, Loki Odinson finds his own glorious purpose by fixing the timelines and deciding to guard them for all eternity as Marvel's very own God of Stories. Since Tom Hiddleston is among the announced "Doomsday" cast members and the movie focuses on alternate universes, we can certainly expect the God of Stories, Loki, to make an appearance.

Let's circle back to the earlier mention of Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool. While he doesn't seem to be particularly connected to the grander events in the MCU, his trajectory has been taking him closer and closer to the mainstream, movie by movie.

Deadpool has been loosely associated with the X-Men in all of his three movies so far, and "Deadpool 2" (2018) gives him a time travel device that can seemingly access alternate timelines. "Deadpool & Wolverine" takes things even further. It introduces multiple variants of both titular characters and features several key concepts from "Loki" — namely, the Time Variance Authority and the timeline garbage disposal dimension known as the Void.  

"Deadpool & Wolverine" finally brings both characters in the MCU — or right next door to it, anyway. Since it's one of the most notorious timeline-hopping MCU-adjacent movies, that moment where Thor is crying over a dying Deadpool may very well turn out to be an example of Marvel playing the long game before bringing Deadpool's multiversal antics into the MCU proper. Since the serious version of Thor would easily make for the kind of straight-man figure Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) serves as in the "Deadpool" movies and the Taika Waititi-era comedic Thor would fit right in with Deadpool's overall vibe, the God of Thunder would be a natural scene partner for the Merc with the Mouth. So, who knows? Maybe we'll actually see the two share the screen sooner rather than later. 

One thing that comes to mind when looking at the grand scheme of things is the distinct absence of one of the most notorious timeline breakers in the MCU. Tom Holland's Spider-Man is conspicuously absent from the cast announcements, and the one truly timeline-themed MCU film the fan theories don't even mention is "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (2021). So, what gives?  

A distinct lack of Spidey theorizing makes sense, since the character's next big moment in the limelight will come months earlier than "Avengers: Doomsday." The next chapter in Peter Parker's life, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," is set to premiere on July 31, 2026. The movie will likely address the webslinger's role in the grand scheme of things, which will no doubt be reasonably substantial. 

Looper has already told you about the rumored "Spider-Man vs. X-Men" opening scene of "Avengers: Doomsday," which might bring at least the Tobey Maguire version of the friendly neighborhood superhero into the mix. As such, we might not only see Spider-Man duking it out in "Doomsday" — we may very well see more than one of them. 

There's still one particularly important character missing from all of this. Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.), the villain who gives "Avengers: Doomsday" its name, is nowhere to be seen in the trailers — in fact, the most we've seen of him so far is a glimpse in a "Fantastic Four: First Steps" post-credits scene.  

Marvel famously replaced Jonathan Majors' Kang with Doctor Doom as the Multiverse Saga's ultimate villain, which means that Doom has inherited a whole bunch of timeline stuff and alternate-universe plots to juggle. According to the fan theory, all these timestamp moments in the trailers would double as hints about the villain's true motivations in "Doomsday." 

Since all four moments point to "Avengers: Endgame" scenes that lead to the timeline breaking and suggest that the Avengers' Time Heist mission is the root cause of it all, Doom would likely be out to either repair the incursion situation or — perhaps more likely — abuse it to take control of the timeline. Regardless of what happens and how much of this theory turns out to be correct, expect the MCU to shake to its very core when "Avengers: Doomsday" premieres on December 18, 2026.