A new look at Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday teased some visual changes for characters like Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom and James Marsden's Cyclops. Doomsday has used a much different marketing strategy than almost any other MCU movie, which started as early as a year before the movie's eventual release. On top of that, even with a massive ensemble, certain characters have gotten the bulk of the spotlight in the limited footage that has been released before the movie's debut.
Marvel released a new Diwali promotional trailer for Avengers: Doomsday ahead of its December 18 release in theaters. This included notable changes to the visuals of two of the movie's biggest characters, James Marsden's Cyclops and Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom, in trailers released in the summer after Disney's presentation at CinemaCon 2026.
Notably, one shot of Marsden in the Avengers: Doomsday trailer shows his Cyclops rising to his feet in battle and looking worse for wear, with blood running down both sides of his face as he dons his comic-accurate blue-and-yellow costume. However, in the new trailer, the red part of his visor is glowing, indicating he is about to unleash one of his optic eye blasts on someone in front of him. In the original trailer, that part of the visor did not glow.
This brings another look at Cyclops' classic powers from Marvel Comics, which allow him to project red concussive energy beams from his eyes. These beams knock enemies and objects down with brute force rather than heat, and Cyclops uses his visor to keep them contained when he is not in battle.
This visor was first brought to life in 2000's X-Men, when Marsden played Scott Summers/Cyclops for the first time. While he donned a black leather suit rather than his iconic blue-and-yellow, comic-accurate costume, the visor he wore is similar to the one he uses in the MCU, with an identical red glow at the front.
This look is also utilized in both X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men '97, in which Cyclops wears a bright yellow visor with a red line that allows him to shoot his eye beams.
Meanwhile, Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom also has some changes to the visuals for his character in the new trailer. Here, as the footage shows Doom wearing his iconic metal mask, the color of Downey's eyes is changed to a bright green hue.
In real life, Downey has dark brown eyes, which he did not change for his portrayal of Iron Man in the MCU from 2008 to 2019. However, given that the green color is associated heavily with Doctor Doom, it comes as no surprise that his eye color is changed for his return to Marvel Studios.
While Doom will have bright green eyes in the MCU, that color changes throughout the powerful villain's tenure in Marvel Comics, although he is always seen donning the metal mask with the triangle-esque nose.
This also marks a change from Doom's first live-action appearance in 2005's Fantastic Four, in which he was portrayed by the late Julian McMahon. That movie and its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, both used McMahon's natural blue eyes under his mask.
2015's Fan4stic took a very different approach to Toby Kebbell's take on Victor Von Doom, focusing more on CGI rather than using a real face for the villain. Along with green glowing lines all over his face, Doom's eyes had a bright green hue, and they even glowed.
On top of Doom's eyes being changed, his MCU costume also had some adjustments made to it in this new footage. In the shot where he is stopping Thor's swing with Stormbreaker, a pattern can now be seen on the hood Doom wears over his mask.
This marks a big change from the original version of the trailer, in which the hood was solid green and had no patterns.
The Doomsday marketing campaign has used much different tactics when it comes to promoting Cyclops and Doctor Doom. Specifically, Cyclops took a starring role at the end of the third short teaser released alongside Avatar: Fire and Ash, as Marsden removed Cyclops' mask and let off a giant optic blast while yelling on his knees in front of the Sentinels. Meanwhile, Doom did not appear in any of the four original trailers, but he has been the central figure in most of the more recent footage released (including the CinemaCon trailer).
The more recent trailers have included multiple new shots of both characters, including Cyclops' battle with the X-Men and Avengers in the X-Men's mansion. While both are expected to play big roles in the movie, the newer trailers have shifted more focus to Doom than to Cyclops, as he is the central character of the entire movie. Downey's Doom is expected to continue that trend of being a heavy focus in the rest of the marketing tour, but it is unclear how much more footage will highlight Marsden's X-Men leader.
While these changes were made subtly to the Doomsday footage that had been released in previous trailers, it is not the only footage that fans expect will look different in the final cut of the movie.
Marvel Studios has a long history of changing footage in trailers before its movies are released, dating back to the first Iron Man movie's release in 2008. Whether it be changing the footage to a different take, adjusting the dialogue or visuals in a scene, or completely removing a scene altogether, Marvel employs every tactic necessary to keep the plots of its movies secret.
Some of the most notable examples of this include the Wakanda scene with the Hulk in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War and 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home hiding Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in multiple shots. Avengers: Endgame did something similar for multiple takes, including showing Natasha Romanoff with her short blonde hair when she reunited with Ant-Man instead of her with the red hair growing back.
With only seven weeks until Doomsday is released, new trailers and TV spots are sure to offer fresh looks at what to expect in the movie, with certain visuals changed from past trailers. Even so, it remains to be seen how much of that footage will actually make it into the final cut of the movie the same way it has been shown already.
